CHARLES MARGAI GROUP IN USA CONDEMNS BO INCIDENTS

                                                                                 21^st November, 2005

The Charles Margai Group USA                                            

We have been following with stupefaction the events that have unfolded in Bo over the week-end especially on Saturday 19^th November, 2005.

We condemn, in the strongest terms, the thought of and the eventual arrest of Mr. Charles Margai, of the People’s Movement for Democratic Change, on the orders of Vice President Solomon Berewa. This action is barbaric and debases democracy especially at a time that the whole nation is preparing itself for democratic elections expected to be free from intimidation and fair according to international acceptance. Such acts of intimidation are only reminiscent of days gone by, that the people would never want to be reminded of. 

President Kabbah and his Vice President Berewa should be cognizant of the fact that before any elections a nation always shows the way it will vote. In Sierra Leone, the people have been consistently telling the President that they do not want Vice President Berewa to be their leader and to force his VP on the people would lead to unwarranted disaster, something the nation has just come out of.

The hate that has been demonstrated towards Mr. Charles Margai has always blinded President Kabbah and VP Berewa to the degree that they have refused to respect the will of the people as others respected the will of the people to elect President Kabbah. The people in Bo and indeed the whole of the country are now sending the message to the President Kabbah and his VP that they, the people, cannot be coerced into voting for Berewa and that any attempt at that would lead to serious consequences.

Berewa is just VP and he is demonstrating such megalomaniac tendencies, when he eventually becomes President if ever that curse should come on Sierra Leone, then Sierra Leoneans would be in serious problems.

No amount of intimidation will bend or twist the will of the people. So we are asking President Kabbah and his VP Berewa to obey the tenets of democracy and allow the people to express themselves freely. VP Berewa cannot force the people to like or vote for him. So VP Berewa let democracy prevail and it will prevail.