A centre for the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of combatants being built in Yengema, eastern Sierra Leone, is expected to hold 1,120 rival irregular fighters, UNAMSIL reported on Thursday. The centre, which UNAMSIL Force Commander Daniel Opande visited on Wednesday, will take in fighters of the Revolutionary United Front and the pro-government Civil Defence Forces (CDF).

A new report on UN peacekeeping issued on Thursday recommends improved consultations between the Security Council and troop-contributing countries among the ways to strengthen field operations, UN Mission in Sierra Leone said. The report, the first by the Security Council Working Group on Peacekeeping Operations, also supports establishing regional peacekeeping training centres to increase international cooperation for operations. In addition, the group suggests troop-contributing countries cooperate in training, logistics and equipment.

Rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone have for the first time allowed the deployment of UN peacekeepers in the contested eastern diamond- producing region of Kono, about 340 kilometres from the capital Freetown. Confirming the breakthrough to IPS this week, the spokesperson for the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), Margaret Novicki, said that two companies of about 250 Bangladeshi troops have moved into Kono ahead of the full deployment of peacekeepers there.

Rival forces in Sierra Leone's long-running war agreed on Tuesday to stop fighting and allow the UN mission in the country, UNAMSIL, to guarantee the free movement of people and goods nationwide.

Amnesty International today expressed concern about reports that civilians in Sierra Leone are being killed and injured in unlawful attacks as fighting continues along the border with Guinea.

The Department of Education in the Ministry of Youth, Education and Sports is currently under the magnifying lens of the Anti-Corruption Commission as a group of investigators stormed the offices early this week.

Pakistan is to send over 4,000 soldiers to join the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), UN deputy spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said on Thursday in New York. "The details of their deployment, including discussions on equipment, logistics and transportation requirements, are still being worked out," he reported.

New testimonies by refugees returning from Guinea to Sierra Leone, through the "safe passage through rebel-held territory", prove the systematic rape of Sierra Leonean women by RUF terrorists/rebels. The rebels "said they were not going to kill us, but that they would use us until they would be satisfied," one woman who was gang raped reported.

Rebel attacks on refugees returning home to Sierra Leone cast doubt on a new United Nations plan for "safe passage" through rebel-held territory, Human Rights Watch has said.

Thousands of refugees fleeing fighting in the west African state of Guinea have reported random murders, rapes, torture and other widespread rights abuses by Guinean civilians and the military.

United Nations peacekeeping troops last week took control of the strategic Sierra Leonean town of Lunsar, marking a major step in the UN's effort to occupy territory held by the anti-government Revolutionary United Front.