President Kufuor Set Fire To Rifles, As....

....Civil War Ends in Sierra Leone

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) - Sierra Leone's government declared an official end Friday to 10 years of war, setting alight thousands of weapons collected from former combatants in a bonfire outside the capital.

Wielding torches, Sierra Leone's President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and Ghana's President John Kufuor, set fire to 2,991 rifles and automatic weapons gathered in a huge pile.

``The flames of war, not so long ago, were mercilessly consuming thousands of innocent lives and countless properties in virtually every part of our country,'' Kabbah said at the ceremony just outside of the capital, Freetown.

Sierra Leone has been torn apart by war since 1991, when rebels of the Revolutionary United Front launched an insurgency to oust the government and take over the nation's lucrative diamond fields.

``Today we are happy that those flames of war are being extinguished. I declare the war is over and the curfew lifted,'' Kabbah said to the cheer of thousands in this West African nation.

Interim rebel leader Issa Sesay welcomed the move, saying it signified the start of a peaceful future.

``Let this be an indication of the declared intentions of all the former fighters that violence and destruction have indeed ended.''

Tens of thousands of civilians were killed in the war, while thousands of others were raped or maimed by rebels who chopped off arms and legs with impunity.

But after a failed advance on the capital in May 2000, the rebels agreed to a peace deal - signed in November 2000 - under intense pressure from U.N., British and Guinean troops.

The United Nations (news - web sites) bolstered the accord with a nationwide disarmament program that ended earlier this month. U.N. officials say 46,453 rebels and pro-government militia fighters have turned over their weapons since May.

On Wednesday, the government signed an agreement with the United Nations to establish a special tribunal to prosecute those responsible for atrocities committed during the nation's 10-year civil war.

Foday Sankoh, the founder of the rebel Revolutionary United Front, was imprisoned in May 2000 and is expected to be among the first people tried.