He wants the British out of Sierra Leone. He has already protested American training of the Guinean Army. Just what he is relying on in calling the shots, plagued with a ruined economy and growing disenchantment, is anyone's guess. Although the Sierra Leone Government insists the role of British troops is based on a bilateral arrangement between two sovereign states, Taylor intends to use the RUF as his trump card in kicking the British out and to further consolidate his hold on rebel movements needed in his stealing and other designs. At the moment, with arms supply pouring into various Liberian seaports, and with South African Neo-Nazis flocking to Monrovia along with Ukrainians mercenaries training the RUF and beefing up his own fighters, the British present the most potent threat.
Guinea is already in flames ignited in Monrovia.
But the RUF is emboldened in demanding British troops' departure by, among many other factors, its success in expelling the South African military group Executive Outcomes after the 1996 Abidjan peace talks. Backed by the Liberians and trained by the South African Neo-Nazis in return for diamonds, the RUF rode into Freetown in genocide and mayhem. Thousands died as Kabbah was flown to Conakry. But with Conakry itself now a target of combined Liberian and RUF assaults, Kabbah may have nowhere to run the next time. Giving ears to the RUF in making more demands exposes his barbarity.