FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (PANA) -
The death toll among UN peacekeepers in Sierra Leone has risen to 12 with
indications that six corpses freshly discovered are members of the force.
Uncertainty had surrounded the identities
of the corpses - although clad in UN peacekeepers' uniforms -because rebels
of the Revolutionary United Front are said to usually wear outfits of their
UN captives.
But the UN's spokesman in Freetown, David
Wimhurst, told PANA preliminary investigations indicate the corpses "fit
the location and time frame when the same number of men were declared missing."
He said following a May 6 RUF attack on
U.N. soldiers in Regbere, about 80 kilometers outside Freetown, six UN
soldiers were reported missing. They included four Zambians and two Nigerians,
who were confirmed missing by their units. Wimhurst said forensic
experts are needed to further confirm the identities of the corpses.
Already, six UN peacekeepers, including
three Nigerians and three Kenyans, are confirmed dead in separate incidents.
Two died in an armored personnel carrier accident.
Only three of these bodies have been recovered,
Wimhurst said. Reggae was the scene of an ambush late last month (May)
in which two Western journalists of Reuters and the Associated Press were
killed along with four soldiers of the Sierra Leone army. Two other
journalists were wounded in the ambush.
Meanwhile, the UN mission Thursday destroyed
some 4,000 rounds of ammunition, 30 hand grenades and nine rocket-propelled
grenades collected from all factions under the disarmament, demobilization
and reintegration program, Wimhurst said. The peacekeeping force
has dismantled some 19,000 guns collected in the process, he added.