Rebels Reportedly Seize 50 U.N. Workers

Rebels seized 50 U.N. workers as the West African intervention force that defended the government during eight years of bloody civil war completed its pullout from Sierra Leone, U.N. officials said. Revolutionary United Front rebels captured the U.N. military observers and peacekeepers--mainly Indians, Kenyans and Nigerians--in three cities, U.N. officials said. U.N. force commander Maj. Gen. Vijay Kumar Jetley said the rebels promised to free the peacekeepers today. In New York, the U.N. Security Council called the rebels’ actions criminal.