Strasbourg, 11/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - The EP adopted a resolution presented by several groups and by the Italian radicals in which it calls on the militant group "West Side Boys", in Sierra Leon, for them to immediately free and without conditions the British soldiers kidnapped last 25 August. The EP, which calls on the government of Sierra Leon not to give in to pressure from these militias which calls for, in exchange for the freeing of British soldiers, the freeing of their leader, chief brigadier Bombblast, invites the EU to take measures to fight against the trafficking of diamond that feeds the war and underlines that British presence in Sierra Leon has prevented the launch of a "new murderous attack by the rebels" against the capital Freetown. Commissioner Poul Nielson recalled that the Security Council resolution of last July on the illegal trade in diamonds was in the meantime transposed into Community law. Furthermore, he noted that EU humanitarian aid through ECHO in Sierra Leon reached EUR 226 million since 1996, and that the FED provided EUR 8.2 million for the demobilisation and the reintegration of former fighters. Finally, he signalled that the Commission is preparing in the coming weeks, to approve for Sierra Leona rehabilitation programme of EUR 30 million (in the meantime, the British soldiers were freed yesterday).