05th July 2022
*Press Release to the International Community*
Concerned Sierra Leoneans UK are alarmed by the continued deteriorating human rights situation in Sierra Leone since 4th April 2018 when President Bio took office to date. The continued bullying, harassment, intimidation, arbitrary arrests and unlawful detentions of journalists, members of civil society, human rights activists, local musicians, and political rivals, have multiplied in four years of the Bio led administration.
In fact, Sierra Leone now has twice as many political prisoners as in the immediate post-colonial era in Africa, during which the recognition and protection of fundamental human rights was in its infancy. For instance, what is most worrying and equally baffling is the fact that, all these rights that have been consistently violated by the state machinery are protected under international human rights laws, which laws are enshrined in our 1991 National Constitution.
Theoretically thus, Sierra Leonean Human Rights are protected by a double layered grundnorm. Practically, however, this theory is just that – an infected and thus a meaningless legal safeguard – as the Bio regime continues to contemptuously ignore these safeguards in order to muzzle dissenting voices and narrowing the democratic space.
In exasperation, therefore, we write to express our heightened concerns as the unfolding situation in Sierra Leone, if left unchecked, could lead to a reoccurrence of the regrettable genocidal tribal conflict in Rwanda that culminated in the destruction of more than a million lives in the 1990s; the roadmap that led to the Rwandan conflict is rapidly taking roots in present day in Sierra Leone.
Upon assuming office in early 2018 after a tightly contested general elections which he narrowly won, President Julius Maada Bio has since adopted a ‘divide and rule’ policy based on tribal lines, political affiliations and nepotism. The most politically toxic and with the potential to ignite a bloody conflict among the aforementioned ills are, tribalism and political affinity. President Bio has expressly stated and effected tribalism and political divide mode of rule in the country. Prominent among those who are currently in illegal incarceration due to their political leanings and for speaking out are Mr. Mohamed Kamarainba Mansaray, a political opponent and leader of his party (ADP party) was detained in 2020, still in detention to date; and a host of political detainees that cannot be listed here for want of space and time constraints.
President Bio’s frivolous spending and fiscal indiscipline has brought untold suffering to millions of Sierra Leoneans. This has consequently, forced desperate Sierra Leoneans (mostly women) into the streets in protest against the government’s indifference to their livelihoods, but, as usual, they were met with the brute force of the security forces; some protesters were beaten and bundled into police trucks and driven away to Benghazi where the torture chambers are situated. Prominent political figures were also arrested and detained. Among them are, Mrs Femi Claudius Cole, a leading political figure, who was recently detained for speaking out against the illegal census, was again detained last night for “intending to lead a protest” about the current living conditions of millions of her compatriots – she is still in custody. Dr Dennis Bright, the Chairman of another opposing political party with four seats in parliament, was detained last night for daring to visit and inquired the whereabouts of other detainees at the CID. Mr. Alhaji Bah (commonly known as, LAJ), a popular and very outspoken musician was recently abducted by state security personnel and tortured at the infamous Benghazi detention centre -He is still in custody. All these detainees are neither tribally linked with the dominant tribe of the ruling class, nor politically affiliated with their party (the SLPP).
Therefore, if the current status quo is left unchecked and President Bio is not reprimanded and or discouraged from his continued contemptuous disregard for the rule of law, his flagrant violation of our human, civil and political rights with impunity and, tribal discrimination, then, the recurrence of the ‘1990s Rwanda’ in Sierra Leone should not be casually discounted.
We urge and plead with our international backers and moral guarantors to impress upon the Bio led administration to uphold and respect the human rights of it’s citizens, respect the rule of law as articulated in our national constitution; desist forthwith from intimidating political opponents so as to create a conducive atmosphere in which the participatory democracy nurtured by his immediate predecessors continues to thrive.
Whilst the foregoing’s are of great concern, keen attention must also be paid to the result of the bogus, ill-advised and incomplete “2021 midterm census” which was outrightly rejected by our financial backers and political mentors, including the EU and the World Bank, who deemed the whole exercise as untimely, the requisite preparations were amiss and, most importantly, it is financially and politically inefficacious; considerable number of citizens also complained of not being counted. Reliable information has it that the government is determined to utilise the census in the electioneering process in order to rig the forthcoming general elections. The same is also true of the new or amended Public Election Act that is currently under review in parliament. The election rules contained therein are nothing but a ‘voter suppression’ mechanism that, if passed through parliament, would disenfranchise many voters – How democratic is that?
In conclusion, Concern Sierra Leoneans-UK are calling for the release of all political prisoners and those detained on trumped up charges. We demand the total removal of the doomed census result from our electioneering processes and the abandonment of the new or amended Public Election currently under parliamentary scrutiny.
Best regards,
Concerned Sierra Leoneans
1) President Julius Maada Bio
2) Sierra Leone Parliament
3) ECOWAS Parliament
4) UK Parliament
5) UK High Commissioner, Sierra Leone
6) US Ambassador, Sierra Leone
7) EU Ambassador, Sierra Leone
African Union
9) United Nation
10) Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)
11) International Criminal Court (ICC)
12) UK Parliament
13) Vicky Ford, MP (Minister for Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean)
1Mamu Al Conteh
