| JOHN ERNEST LEIGH ‘S SEPARATE REBUTTAL OF MESSRS . MOHAMED SHERIFF AND KARAMOH KABBAH
IBRAHIM SHERIFF’S UNTRUE ALLEGATIONS AND FALSE LOGIC By Hon. John Ernest Leigh Friday June 9, 2006 The piece under the names IBRAHIM SESAY and IBRAHIM SHERIFF and titled: Ibrahim Sesay Chides John Leigh and President Kabbah and posted in Cocorioko a couple of days ago, is full of allegations lacking any factual or logical foundation. The only correct statement Mr. Sheriff made about me is his claim that at the time of the RUF/AFRC junta, I was SL ambassador in Washington. As I read his poorly written piece, I see ?REMEDIAL’ written all over Mr. Sheriff’s face. I hope I am wrong. First, I never claimed at any time, any where and by any means that “the Federal government of the United States had dispatched four U.S. Marine ships to flush the RUF/AFRC rebels out of Freetown.” Your claim is pure lie-lie, invented by an individual who appears to me from his writing as someone that is not sophisticated even though he has lived in the West for years. Mr. Sheriff ought to try and get his facts and timelines right before unjustly attacking others. SS KEOSERG WAS FOR AMERICANS Second, the S.S. Keoserg arrived in Freetown on or about early June 1997 – and not after the 1999 January invasion. This American vessel arrived in Freetown in response to RUF/AFRC persistent and wanton atrocities and hooliganism and, apparently, only after the British, Nigerian, Ghanaian and US Ambassadors/High Commissioners (all friends of Sierra Leonean democracy) had concluded that the AFRC coup was not the usual military coup but a criminalized junta violently molesting ordinary civilians and hell bent to keep power for criminal purposes no matter what. Sierra Leoneans as well as our resident international visitors including Americans were all victims. I had no prior information that any American vessel was heading to Sierra Leone except when I heard media reports at the time when the S.S. Keoserg was already in Sierra Leone waters to evacuate Americans. WE DEMONSTRATED AT STATE DEPARTMENT After I received this news, the embassy quickly linked up with a Sierra Leonean-led movement to restore democracy in SL, Amnesty International and others to stage a demonstration across the street in front of the US State Department, condemning the violence (looting, raping, beatings, killings, maiming, arson, thieving, illegal burying of killed victims, brutal arrests and illegal detentions, etc.), and the attitude (pa-O-pa we will take and keep power by force) of the RUF/AFRC junta. We used the occasion to ask for American help to rescue our people from this RUF/AFRC’s horrible bondage. There were half a dozen speakers, including myself, that participated in the demo in front of State. After the demo, I followed up on a prior arrangement to officially present our request for liberation to the State Department. My request for immediate help was refused. Following that meeting with US authorities, I held a press conference – this time directly at the State Department entrance that was again carried by the same media. I repeated both my request to include vulnerable Sierra Leoneans in the Keoserg evacuations and the eviction of the coupligans. I then returned to the office. The whole affair was a huge success. DEMO COVERED BY INTERNATIONAL MEDIA CNN, VOA, BBC, South African Radio and Radio France, etc. carried the demo at State live around the world. Mr. Sheriff should ask VOA for the tape he relied on for his bogus accusation. He will definitely get a copy for a small fee. Also, a PMDC high official who tried to recruit me years ago but to no avail, Mr. Bami Thompson, once informed me proudly that he has all my TV/radio tapes. Ask him to help you with your research. You will be disappointed with the result if you are looking for dirt. DEMO BENEFITED SIERRA LEONEANS Contrary to your claim, my TV/radio appearances brought dignity and respect to Sierra Leone and put the fear of the Lord in Ghadaffi, Campoare and Charles Taylor. This helped drive the rebels and coupligans to Lome. A few good came out of that meeting at State. I concluded from all available indications arising out of that meeting that the US will support genuine democracy in SL and that if the exile government retains popular support at home, it will continue to retain diplomatic recognition of our elected government. The demo also set in motion coalition building in the US to help free our people from the RUF/AFRC bondage. Lastly, CNN carried the news and photos of the demo and press conference worldwide. DEMO MOTIVATED SANI ABACHA TO HELP EVICT COUPLIGANS A few minutes upon returning to the embassy that day, I received an international telephone call from Abuja, Nigeria. On the other end of the line was Alhaji (Dr.) Hassan Adamu, then Nigerian Ambassador to the US who was home on consultations and with whom a genuine friendship had quickly developed because of my prior association with Nigeria as well as my easy style in dealing with people. Ambassador Adamu said he had a message for me from General Sani Abacha, the then Nigerian Military Head of State. The Nigerian Ambassador said that the entire Nigerian Cabinet had interrupted their meeting to view the CNN report about our demo and my press conference at the State Department and that they all saw me speaking fire. We laughed. EARLY EDUCATED SIERRA LEONEANS IMPRESSED NIGERIANS Dr. Adamu then said something most poignant about SL and Nigeria, namely, that Gen. Abacha wants me to know that all decent Sierra Leoneans should be rest assured that Nigeria will not sit idle by and see decent folks butchered by violent thugs; that Nigeria owes Sierra Leone a deep debt of gratitude for helping to open up their country to British influence and for educating several earlier generations of Nigerians at Fourah Bay College. {Like I have preached in this Forum: Good education of our entire population is the key to our salvation. We need well educated leaders who respect their teachers if we are to pull off such a thing. Leadership grounded on flunkies, remedials, drops outs, etc. are a big danger to a struggling society that must strive for success.} SANKOH SOON HELD INCOMMUNICADO. SHERIFF IS IN ERROR At this point I thanked him very much and informed him that the rebel leaders, Mr. Foday Sankoh, who had been arrested months ago for arms trafficking in Lagos international airport and detained in Abuja, had just had a message broadcasted over SLBS-TV/Radio backing the coup and authorizing his RUF lieutenants to join Johnny Paul’s brutal junta. I said this Sankoh’s message had terrified the population. Not only that, but that Mr. Sankoh was in constant telephone contact with his co-rebels and Johnny Paul’s people. Ambassador Adamu expressed great credulity at this bombshell news. I then asked the ambassador to have his government confiscate Sankoh’s communications gear and hold him incommunicado until the coup is reversed. He promised me there and then that Sierra Leoneans will not hear a word from Sankoh again until further notice. And true to this pledge, not a word was ever heard from Sankoh until the preliminaries to Lome had been agreed to and when he was freed to take part in peace negotiations in Lome. Therefore, Mr. Sheriff, during my entire tenure in Washington I did nothing to worsen the plight of Sierra Leoneans any where, any time. If any thing, my work helped to cleanse our country of the coupligans and terminate your sufferings. Your ungratefulness is common within a certain flunky political grouping. KABBAH’S EVACUATIONS WERE APPROPRIATE You complained that President Kabbah fled to safety in Guinea and left people like you after the January 1999 overrun of Freetown by a combined force of RUF/AFRC. What did you think he should have done then? Stayed behind like you? First, several of your allegations are wrong. President Kabbah did not flee to Guinea in January 1998 or 1999. He escaped to Lungi in January 1999 to free you and bring peace. He escaped to Guinea in late May 1997. The RUF invaded Freetown in January 1999, not 1998. The RUF was invited by Johnny Paul shortly after his May 25, 1997 violent coup to join his brutes to govern and bring “peace” to our country. The AFRC idea of peace is to rape and kill people and put fellow RUF rapists and killers to help keep their victims in bondage. For your information, escaping to a safe haven, if at all possible, is the most sensible decision a besieged leader must take. By escaping, our besieged president placed himself in a superior position to work to free you eventually from the RUF/AFRC bondage and put permanent peace in place. Today we enjoy genuine peace nationwide. This peace was earned under the leadership of the SLPP President of Sierra Leone and if he had stayed behind under notions of false heroism, you might still be in punishing bondage. As for leaving you and others behind, you cannot compare your anonymous status with that of your country’s president. You are NOT in the same league. And power-hungry brutes are guaranteed to deal with him far differently than they would deal with a non-sophisticated, partially educated someone like yourself. President Kabbah was a prominent target for killing by the coupligans. You were not even known to them. In fact, none of them knew you from Lucifer or Angel Gabriel. If the President had foolishly stayed behind as you immaturely seems to argue like a dunce remedial graduate, he would have most certainly be tortured and killed by RUF/AFRC brutes. Under those circumstances, restoring legitimate democracy to Sierra Leone would have been exceedingly far more complicated than actually happened, if at all. Simply put, had Mr. Kabbah not escaped, you and the rest of our people would have suffered much more, much longer. UNDERSTAND? SHERIFF YOU ARE PART OF THE CROOKED PROBLEM You said you attended a meeting in New York where Berewa spoke in 2003 and Ambassadors present. I cannot speak for him as I wasn’t there. But you claimed you were then the SLPP Young Generation Leader. If so, you must have belonged to the rubbish Nallo faction that conducted a fake Makeni-style convention in Philadelphia years earlier to secure influence within the party in Sierra Leone. When I sought to explain at the 2002 SLPP Convention in Bo that Mr. Nallo was not the genuine leader of SLPP North America, some people yelled at me in bad faith and said other nasty things. But I never retreated. {One of the few people who rescued me that day, is the fellow who first persuaded me {after Makeni to take an objective look at the Berewa program.} Nallo went on to become a proud SLPP Member of Parliament. What good has he done since for his people in Sumbuya? What good has he done for the SLPP? What good has he done for Sierra Leone? Do you think VP Berewa wants his endorsement? No. Do you think PMDC wants his endorsement? I doubt. Do you think the people of Sumbuya ever want to see him as their parliamentarian? I doubt it. Those do-nothing MPs are the ones that damaged the good name of SLPP that I had help to forge during President Kabbah’s first term. So, Mr. Sheriff please do not complain about selfish, manipulative, deceitful, do-nothing representatives of the people. You are one of them. Now that my message of reform has resonated through several party echelons, party members are questioning the likes of Nallo and yourself. ONE-MAN’S DICTATORSHIP People like you have no clue as to how to hardness development funding from our abundant natural resources for genuine national development because people like you collaborate with and help the Nallos of SLPP. After serving the Kalo Kalo Philadelphia group as Young Generation Leader, you have no right to now complain about poor leadership in your country because people like you aided and abetted their climb to power over the heads of your own very suffering people who are in a mood to throw out all those rascals SLPP MPs. Henceforth, SLPP candidates for Parliament will be selected by the grassroots. I hear your Leader has promised to give his party’s partly falamakata banga symbol to over 1,000 supporters already, many in North America. Clearly, your falamakata party is a case of one dictator making all the decisions himself alone. CONCLUSION Former SLPP members like yourself who have disappointed your own very people are the very ones fleeing to PMDC to pursue flunky tribal agendas. I am thoroughly familiar with the primitive tribal mentality of your type. PMDC is most certainly the child of PNP (Pikin Nah Pikin). I may reply to your follow up rebuttal provided it makes sense. If, however, it is another factually inaccurate piece that relies on flunky, dunce and remedial argumentation, please take this as my final goodbye to your remedial politics. *JL*
COCORIOKO WISHES TO APOLOGISE TO MR. MOHAMED SHERIFF FOR OUR INADVERTENT MISTAKE WITH HIS SURNAME ON THE INTRODUCTION OF HIS ARTICLE AGAINST MR. JOHN LEIGH. FATIGUE CAN DO A LOT OF THINGS AND THIS WAS A TYPICAL EXAMPLE.
REBUTTAL TO MR. KARAMOH KABA’S HALLUCINATIONS Re BEREWA By John E. Leigh I have said that if people feel I am too hard on certain political flunkies and remedials, it is because of the things they actually say or do to me, and not because I do not respect their right to establish their own political party, or rely on non-influential noisemakers like sansan boys and others; or elect whomsoever they want as their party’s officers. Take the blunder now committed by one Karamoh Kabba in this newspaper and the Simple Simeon conclusions he reached that makes no sense at all. KABBA IS CONFUSED Mr. Kabba says that I have no moral authority to say certain thing supportive of Mr. Berewa’s candidacy because, as he falsely claimed, I once criticized Berewa to Kabba in the spring of 2001 at the embassy regarding a diamond deal I claimed was criminally corrupt. This claim is not true and the reasoning he relied is foolish. He must be hallucinating! First, Mr. Berewa did not become Vice President until after the May 2002 presidential election. Therefore, my learned friend does no know what he is talking about in the spring of 2001. Then Dr. Joe Demby, not Berewa, was our vice president. Further, whatever views I held about the policies of the Administration I have published openly for all to see beginning in 2004. Never once did I say something in private on a matter I viewed of public importance that I did not say or write about in public when I had the opportunity. And I did not publicly criticize the government until after I had left office. My real intention at all times is to promote good governance. I hold no malice to anyone whatsoever. Nor was I ever interested in splitting my party as some oppositionists badly wanted and possibly relied on for no sensible reason. Party unity, especially at election time, is sacrosanct to someone like me who believes that bad as things are, our party is moving towards genuine democracy and away from tribalism. Why should I help split my party and allow the opposition pre-war poverty spreaders to waltz into power again? OIL, NOT DIAMONDS, WAS THE ISSUE IN 2001 Second, the hot issue during the spring of 2001 was Oil, not Diamonds. In April 2001, I had written a critique of an agreement entered into the month before by our government with an American company to test for oil and manage our coastal shores. This agreement was negotiated without the Washington DC Embassy’s knowledge and came to our notice only from an internet news report. I wrote my critique – and carefully reviewed it with my senior staff – to genuinely advise our government as to how the deal would be perceived by leaders of those governments and legislatures that the embassy had succeeded in persuading to stand firmly behind our then overthrown elected government, not only to try to catch Johnny Paul and his brutal crew but also to help us with diplomatic, humanitarian and economic development aid. The letter was addressed to Mr. President and copied to the two officials involved in the negotiations. A fourth copy was addressed to the then Foreign Minister. The letter was delivered to the addressees by hand on or about April 22. I was told later by the messenger that the president read my memo right away and was most displeased and very angry – for what I do not know. My memo was published on or about June 6 in the local press to much public criticisms of our government and I was stopped at Lungi Airport from boarding my flight that day. Clearly, oil, not diamonds, was what was important in the spring of 2001. I WAS NOT KNOWLEGDEABLE ABOUT THE DIAMOND DEAL Third, I remember once on or about 2004 of been asked by Editor Mr. Sahr Yamba Musa of The Concord Times to comment on the Koidu Holdings Kimberlite agreement. Since I did not know enough about the deal, I respectfully declined and told him so. Later on during my very brief campaign for SLPP Leader when I was more knowledgeable about this issue, I took a position contrary to that of the government but not personally against Mr. Berewa. Fourth, I believe that my quiet recall as ambassador was on account of that oil memo and not the fictitious diamond conversation Kabba has invented about a man who was not yet Vice President in the spring of 2001. Mr. Kabba seems to me as a most reckless liar inventing trash, probably because he is upset with the result of my research about a Form Four Flunky Drop Out who wants to be president in a land where education has to be the essential instrument for liberating the masses of san-san boys from profound poverty. NO RESPECT FOR SCHOOL TEACHERS We clearly need national leaders respectful of our suffering teachers. We need national leaders that would inspire pupils to take their schooling seriously. We need a well educated population that is respected worldwide. And we need a president intellectually equipped to address our seemingly intractable economic and social problems. This particularly high school flunky presidential candidate cannot be expected to be up to such demanding tasks. I sincerely believe that a high school drop out who becomes president would send the wrong message to the world, to our teachers and our pupils that we can disrespect teachers fiti fata, flunk out, drop out with no school certificate and then use family’s political clout to gain the upper hand. Such an individual is unlikely to be intellectually equipped to fight successfully for us in this highly competitive world. DISAGREEMENTS SHOULD NOT MEAN EVERLASTING ENMITY Mr. Kabba’s illogical conclusion that because I criticized the administration, I have no moral authority to endorse my party’s candidate for president is not surprising. Mr. Kabba is out of his league if he thinks he can sit in judgment of who does or does not have moral authority to participate in one’s party affairs. Let the party’s membership and the public decide, not the likes of party hacks as Mr. Kabba. Where did he get his authority to make pronouncement on moral issues? Offensive arrogance has now permeated through the PMDC ranks. I have already explained my reasons for supporting the SLPP and Mr. Berewa and I need not repeat them here. Suffice it to say that: (i) Intelligent people will not find it a problem to accept the fact that merely because one criticizes another does not automatically mean the critic cannot ever endorse the criticized. Only childish types would conclude that once a critic always an everlasting opponent. Since my criticisms are always based on facts and logic; are wholly lacking in malice; and because my views have resonated within party echelons; it was not difficult at all for me, after carefully touring the whole country several times after Makeni, to endorse Mr. Berewa, especially when party heartlanders would rather swallow the bitter pill of Makeni than allow the opposition to waltz into power via a party split. Did not Senator John McCain criticize President Bush? Did not Gov. Howard Dean criticize Senator John Kerry? Did anyone of those party opponents rush to form his own new party or interrupt their former high schools’ graduation ceremonies with loud, threatening thugs dressed for the occasion in bright falamakata party colors and engaged in boisterous yells? Did he ever graduate from his alma mater? Such arrogant immaturity! (ii) Merely because one advocates views critical of his party’s government does not mean that he or she must resign from his usual party and join another, especially one where immaturity, flunkies and remedials flourish. And (iii) Merely because a disappointed group of disgruntled opportunists and political harlots believe that an effective government critic logically belongs to their group does not mean that the said critic has any interest in associating with, let alone belonging to, any such group; Nor may he be interested in abandoning those who helped him in his first serious bid for his party’s leadership, howbeit unsuccessfully. A FORM FOUR FLUNKY WITH NO SOLID EDUCATION CAN’T LEAD ME Kabba and his crew must accept the simple truth that they misplaced too much hope on my joining them and/or supporting then, even in light of the available contrary evidence. For far too long – a few days after Makeni – I had long announced that I am not leaving my party. Also, I never rushed to support Berewa. Only after I became comfortable in working with him and only after repeated consultations with voters did I endorse him. I have also told numerous PMDC recruiters over several months that I am not interested in becoming a member of their party. But they keep on bombarding me with unwanted invitations. Do you think I have any interest in wasting my time with a Form Four High School flunky who spent two years in Form Four but who did not complete high school; an arrogant man who has no school certificate, no “O” Level certificate, no “A” Level Certificate, no English Bar, no college – just lowly Irish Bar and yet wants to lead? Now that I have released my statement endorsing my choice for president, PMDCers are in a quandary and in terrible disarray because of my decision to endorse Mr. Berewa and remain in SLPP. Again, my preference is to seek reforms from within my party rather than behave like our usual political harlots, jumping from one party to the other simply for pecuniary benefits but with no long term commitments. I confirm that out of the three presidential rivals, Mr. Berewa is my first choice. Guess who is my last choice? Again, I have no interest in associating with Mr. Karamoh Kabba’s PMDC flunky, lie-lie, drop out remedial group. Thank you very much. -JL
CHARLES MARGAI WANTS TO REPEAT HISTORY Thursday May 18, 2006 First_Name: Brima His father divided the SLPP party because he want to stay in power by whatever means even when the party dont want him to be the party leader. As the saying goes, thou father thou son, he bear the same fruit with his father, power hungry. Charles Margai will never be president in Sierra Leone because of his over ambtious behavior for power. I am relly sorry to say this but Charles has lost credibilty to many Sierra Leoneans abroad. SLPP is not a FamilY Property. You need to go through the party rank and develop the party base in order to be nominated party leader not on the basises of family name “MARGAI”. Therefore my advise to Charles is to come back and start building his base in the Party like any other memeber and not because you are margai. Let me assure you that this time around you are going to fail hopelessly and the Margai name will be dump in garbage forever. We dont need power hungry family in Sierra Leone today. JUXTAPOSING JJ SAFFA’S AND KOFI ANNAN’S STATEMENTS : WHAT A JOKE Tuesday May 9, 2006 First_Name: Acim “A total of $860 million (exceeding $350 million financing gap) was pledged by over 25 bilateral and multilateral donors and partners. This was another registration of independent and external vote of confidence in our recovery drive, particularly when there were disasters and civil conflicts in other countries. It is expected that Sierra Leone will soon benefit from debt cancellation after successfully implementing the PRSP for at least one year and would have reached completion point and become eligible for additional cancellation. In the area of corruption, some of the efforts include establishment of an independent Audit Service, strengthening of Anti-Corruption Commission, and enactments of financial and procurement laws”. (SLPP Secretary General’s Report to some beleaguered compatriots on the Performance of Sierra Leone Government; May 2006) Remarks However, one does not have to be a Rocket Scientist to understand that a independent and external audit/appraisal is more dependable and acceptable than any tilted wispy claptrap. Our people from Fadugu to Sulima; from Daru to Tombo should be informed appropriately. Acim Baio
You Are Invited to A Banquet with A Difference! A Night of Class and Distinction
NOSLINA (The National Organization of Sierra Leoneans in North America)
Invites you to it’s
ANNUAL AWARDS DINNER AND DANCE
On Friday May 26th, 2006 9 PM- 2 AM
At the Elegant and Well-Appointed
Best Western Capital Beltway Hotel 5910 Princess Gardens Parkway, Lanham, Maryland 20706
Highlights include Presentation of Major National Awards, Spectacular food, Tantalizing Music, and Meeting Sierra Leoneans from across the United States.
The Single BIGGEST Sierra Leone Event of the Year MCs : Dr Tuzyline Jita Allan and Sam Ford of ABC 7 News DJ: Pass Ah Die
Buy Your Tickets Early: Tickets $35:00 Single; $60.00 Couples, Patrons $100:00 Tickets Available From NOSLINA Board Members throughout the United States For More information on tickets call: Sheku Kallon 301 367 4867; Mariama Turay 301 439 2425; Aiah Fanday 301 529 1353 and Kwame Fitzjohn 202-270-5352
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NOSLINA Washington DC
NOSLINA Call for Award Nominations
The National Organization of Sierra Leoneans in North America (NOSLINA) seeks nominations of individuals and groups to receive the organization’s premier annual awards for significant contributions towards the advancement of Sierra Leoneans in North America and beyond. Awards will be made in the following categories:
The NOSLINA DIAMOND AWARD FOR DISTIGUISHED SERVICE (2 awards in this category). This is the organization’s highest award and is made in recognition of exceptional work that has significantly contributed to the peace, development, and stability of Sierra Leone while advancing the well being of Sierra Leoneans both at home and in North America. Results of those efforts should have been evident within the past 5 years and should include documented support of accomplishments. Nominations of individuals and groups are welcome.
The NOSLINA AWARD FOR ENTREPRENAURAL LEADERSHIP (2 awards in this category). This special award recognizes Sierra Leoneans who are active in business in the United States. NOSLINA proposes to recognize innovation and creativity in a business enterprise that has shown measurable and demonstrable success in supporting the resource needs of Sierra Leoneans and their communities. Results of success should reflect a correlation between business growth and involvement in the Sierra Leone community in North America. Only individuals may receive awards in this category.
The NOSLINA COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP AWARD (4 awards in this category). This award recognizes groups/organizations that have actively engaged their members in building and sustaining a viable network to advance their Sierra Leone heritage and by so doing strengthening the Sierra Leone Community through cultural activities, alumni relations, professional networks, and community building. Recipients should have substantial success in promoting interconnectedness among their members and in outreach to Sierra Leoneans and their friends in North America. Only organizations are eligible for awards in this category although successful organizations will be asked to designate an officer to receive the award at the presentation ceremony.
The NOSLINA AWARD FOR DISTINGUISHED HUMANITARIAN SERVICE (4 awards in this category). This award is given in recognition of outstanding contribution to poverty reduction, national reconstruction and rehabilitation, and supply of educational and health resources in ways that have improved access and service to groups of needy, impoverished Sierra Leoneans at home.
Awards will be presented to the successful nominees in all four award categories at the Annual Awards Banquet to be held Friday May 26, 2006 at the Best Western Hotel, Lanham, Maryland. Award recipients will also be featured in a subsequent edition of the NOSLINA Newsletter. Nominations should be sent electronically to: Dr. Don Taylor, Chair, NOSLINA Awards Committee at [email protected] no later than April 14, 2006. Nomination letters should not exceed one full page but should specify the award category, name of nominee, a description of the nominee’s accomplishments, and contact information for the nominee. Self Nominations are acceptable.
The NOSLINA Board of Directors believes that our interconnectedness is strengthened when we recognize our accomplishments and celebrate our heritage. Together we can work to realize this vision. Your nominations are valuable to us! Your strong support and participation is strongly encouraged. Thank You
THE PMDC’S HISTORIC DAY IN FREETOWN Tuesday April 11, 2006 COCORIOKO’S pictorial display of the PMDC’s jubiliation in Freetown today after the party got its final registration. The man riding the convertible van in most of the pictures is Charles Margai, the leader of the party . READ MORE ABOUT THE PMDC REGISTRATION TOMORROW.
A Seven Points Rejoinder to Mr. Jacob Jusu Saffa’s Laudations of the S.L.P.P. Government.Wednesday March 22, 200615. Whereas every person in Sierra Leone is entitled to the fundamental human rights and freedoms of the individual, that is to say, has the right, whatever his race, tribe, place of origin, political opinion, colour, creed or sex, but subject to respect for the rights and freedoms of others and for the public interest, to each and all of the following? The bar is an excerpt of the National Constitution of Sierra Leone Act No. 6 of 1991, Chapter III?The Recognition and Protection of Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms of the Individual. For the purpose of this rejoinder, specifically, “Freedom of conscience, of expression and of assembly and association,” would be of concern. As a member of a transnational organization [African Union (AU)], the government of Sierra Leone is a signatory to Article 20.1 of the Banjul Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights of June 27, 1981, which states: “All peoples shall have the right to existence. They shall have the unquestionable and inalienable right to self- determination. They shall freely determine their political status and shall pursue their economic and social development according to the policy they have freely chosen.” As a member of an international organization, we will also introduce Article 20.1.2 of the 1948 General Assembly of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.” When the Secretary General of the ruling S.L.P.P., Mr. Jacob Jusu Saffa questioned the freedom of association of another citizen is an intent to violate the above charters or he simply does not understand the national, transnational and international Fundamental Human Rights charters. A good-sense approach would be to hurry up to the seven pointless laudations of the S.L.P.P. government he raised. However, we have opted, for the sake of good citizenry, to serve as surrogates. Mr. Saffa must read the above declarations?they are fundamentals of politics. What we cannot help him with is his intent to violate another citizen’s right of association. But we can also update Mr. Saffa on other matters pertaining to politics in Sierra Leone before we proceed to the issues he raised: Sierra Leone was a single party system state from 1978 to 1995. Many politicians, during that period, belonged to the All Peoples Party (A.P.C.). Only few politicians, who have pride and did not share the single party ideal, quit politics altogether. The decade-long rebel war began in 1991 when rebels attacked the eastern border towns of Sierra Leone with Liberia. Up to 1996, we have been at war or under military dictatorship. Many politicians left the A.P.C. mainly because it was blamed for creating the conditions for war through bad governance. Honorable Tamu Bangura died along with the Peoples Democratic Party (P.D.P.) Mr. Saffa alleged Mr. Dauda Tombo Bangura once belonged. Well, for the records, Mr. Saffa had a dream of forming his own political party, and many meetings were held at Stop Press. When that failed, he joined Mr. Bangura who was then a member of the Grand Alliance Party (GAP), and there is an indication, according Peep tabloid, that he has not tendered his resignation with GAP. Nonetheless, the two were only expressing their freedom of association. Upon what a strong S.L.P.P. presidential aspirant, former Ambassador John Earnest Leigh called “Conbention”, referring to the alleged political machination that placed Vice President Berewa at the top of the S.L.P.P. ticket for president in 2007; Mr. Dauda Tombo Bangura joined Charles Margai to answer the marginalized citizens of Sierra Leone’s call for a “Positive Change.” It takes a man with courage to resist the temptation of joining an established undemocratic process, especially in Africa where it often has the upper hand in politics, and start a grassroots movement. Mr. Saffa or Mr. Bangura, which one of the two has the moral right and authority of the accusation of flip-flopping? After what happened in Makeni, only the blind loyalists of the S.L.P.P. stayed. Although the personal attack on another citizen’s Fundamental Human Rights does not worth the attention we have given it, however, we have contributed greatly to a better Sierra Leone by serving as surrogates, lest we could have dismissed the baseless accusation as childish and go straight on to address the issues. The SLPP has brought peace to this country and is consolidating the gains: Categorically, this is a fallacy Mr. Saffa. A recount of events that led to peace in Sierra Leone would prove that you are wrong. This cannot be accomplished without starting with the August 1994 National Consultative Conference at Bintumani, where the elections for February 1996 were scheduled. Sierra Leoneans, including President Kabbah, were helpless when Captain Strasser raised security reasons to stall the elections schedule had it not been for Brigadier-General Julius Maada Bio who replaced him as NPRC Chairman in a coup, and made a pronouncement to keep to the elections schedule. Bio too reconvened a second Bintumani Conference to try to postpone the elections schedule, which was met by an overwhelming opposition to go ahead.
In March 17, 1996, President Kabbah was declared the winner of the elections after rerun elections. In March 25 and 26, Bio and the rebel leader, Foday Sankoh, met in Yamoussoukro, Cote d’Ivoire that led to a short-lived cease-fire. President Kabbah and Sankoh start peace talks on April 1996 in Yamoussoukro after Bio transferred power to the S.L.P.P. on March 29, 1996. The Yamoussoukro peace failed because President Kabbah would not redraw the service of the notorious South African based Executive Outcomes mercenary fighters.
All subsequent peace talks President Kabbah went into with the rebels failed, not withstanding the $1.8 million a month payment for a 100-man contingent and two helicopters to Executive Outcomes. The nation inflation rose to 35 per cent. Meanwhile, the soldiers were not being paid, their rice ration was not forthcoming and they became disgruntled. Is one of several President Kabbah’s leadership bungles that provided the need for the largest peacekeeping UN-contingent in the world?17,600 strong force. Is this state of condition?disgruntleness in the army that Major Johnny Paul would take advantage of to chase President Kabbah out to the Republic of Guinea. He left the people in the hands and mercy of the brutal Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (A.F.R.C.) junta. President Kabbah would admit over the BBC Focus on Africa magazine that he knew of the coup three weeks ahead. This is what the former British High Commissioner, Peter Penfold, confirmed recently in Freetown in the Special Court trial of Chief Hinga Norman. This same chronic forgetfulness is making it possible for the S.L.P.P. leadership to sit by and watch its people languish in Yenga and Kalangba in the hands of Guinean soldiers, while Mr. Saffa speaks of the S.L.P.P. is “consolidating the gains.” According to Awareness Time newspaper of March 7, 2006: “A large contingent of heavily armed operatives of the Guinean Armed Forces (GAF), over the weekend attacked a town, Kalangba, situated in the Kambia district, laying claim to it and holding the inhabitants of the township to ransom.” They seized the operation of the mines that provide revenue for our struggling economy and ran off the workers. In spite of such threatening reports, Mr. Saffa behaves like Squealer in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”, who always has logical, but not honest and truthful explanation for every bad thing that happens on the farm, following the concerted effort by the animals to expel Mr. Jones and later Snowball?the revolution is over; it now in its tenth year, and Mr. Saffa has become the self-appointed spokesman for the S.L.P.P. But we will warn Mr. Saffa that when the people speak in 2007, the same Lemuel Gulliver, the big man in Lilliput, becomes miniature man in Brobdingnag.
One would ask the following question; why is Mr. Saffa not worried about the destruction of houses without compensation that is underway in Freetown in the name of road construction? According to an anonymous source in Freetown, houses under construction are being demolished by Vice President Berewa’s order. The recent acquisitions of these lands indicate that someone in the S.L.P.P. government sold them to the citizens?some corrupt S.L.P.P. leader in the Ministry of Works, Housing and Technical Maintenance. But the S.L.P.P. government claims that the houses were build on government land designated for road construction as if the people took upon themselves to build houses hither thither in the city. What is more, the S.L.P.P. leadership, always, manifests this same false determination for development in Sierra Leone right around elections. No wonder the Presidential Spokesman, Mr. Kanji Daramy, several months ago, stated that one of President Kabbah’s promises to the people to be accomplished by 2007 is a bridge across Targreen. When Vice President Berewa becomes the champion of road construction in Sierra Leone? Another warning for the S.L.P.P. government is that this breed of Sierra Leoneans are no more gullible?they know these things?they hear late Bob Marley reechoes late Abraham Lincoln; “You can fool some people sometimes, but you can’t fool all the people all the time,” on their small stereos everyday. No one is going to fool them this time, for they are listening closely to the fierce wind of “Positive Change” that is blowing.
Good governance including local government reforms: The S.L.P.P. leadership can boast of excessive corruption, not good governance. They have been brainstorming over what to do with government for ten years without substantial results. The S.L.P.P. leadership, in many cases, in the absence of good leadership, is resorting to high-handed rule. There have been many reports on bad governance from Sierra Leone. From the death and imprisonment of journalists, manipulation of elections to foot-dragging of the registration of political parties. These kinds of actions are only possible in an undemocratic society, in which bad governance is the norm. Recently, the joint expression of concern by foreign governments and international organizations over the stalling of the registration of political parties by the S.L.P.P. leadership was prompted by such observation of bad governance.
Local government reforms and decentralization has been a paper reform since its launching by President Kabbah in 2003. The S.L.P.P. leadership cannot point to any substantive development or progress because of local government reforms and decentralization. Only when it works in favor of the S.L.P.P. in gaining votes?recently, Vice President Berewa traveled to the provinces and dished out money without any development plan for the way the money would be used in the benefits the masses, pointing to decentralization for a reason to do so. Decentralization of local government does not call for a reckless disbursement of central government funds to local authorities without an agenda to benefit the public. But by doing so, Vice President Berewa would be killing two birds with one stone regardless of how the money would be used?to buy the favors of the paramount chiefs in 2007 elections and lining their pockets.
Local government reforms and decentralization is nary a reform: President Kabbah traveled in the provinces in 2003, telling the local authorities how to keep an eye on people traveling in their territories as it is done in Libya and former USSR under Lenin. When it came to the most important issue, the land tenure system that is stunting growth in the provinces, in the country and alienating another sector of the community in their own country? the Creoles, President Kabbah promised to look into it. “This matter has been spoken about a lot. It is my view that the prevailing system of land tenure in the provinces be discussed openly to enable Government to arrive at a definitive policy position as to whether the system should remain as it is or whether some modification needs to be made in it,” he said in his 2003 tour of the provinces. Where is the reform then, when nothing came out of it since?
Let us look at the present land tenure system. Notice the phrase “any non-native”?it is discriminatory. These fertile lands can become source of plenty of food and employment for the people rather than laying fallow to subsistence farming that cannot fully exploit the potential of the land: “In the Provinces, land is in family ownership, and by definition in the ownership of the community which is headed by a Paramount Chief. Thus, land cannot be alienated to any non-native unless with the consent of the Paramount Chief and his Councilors. They are the trustees of such lands. The term “Non-native” is defined to mean any person who does not belong to a provincial tribe. Therefore, the restriction on the alienation of provincial land does not apply to persons belonging to tribes in the provinces. In order to remove the obvious exclusion of persons of Western Area origin, you may say that it is necessary to expand the definition of non-natives to include all Sierra Leoneans while retaining the general restriction on the outright disposal or alienation of provincial land in any case. This may be a way of giving further meaning to our “one country, and people” policy.”
It is an oxymoron when President Kabbah said: “A prospective investor wishing to invest in agriculture, may, for instance enter into a joint venture arrangement with a land- owning family whereby the share of the investment on the part of the land owners would be the land itself with a notional value put on it which they would make available while the prospective investor’s share would be the machines and other inputs also properly valued. The profits realized from the enterprise can be distributed in accordance with the values placed on the respective contributions to the capital of the joint venture.” It means that diamonds drop into the pockets of the investors, not from the land. (please explain further – a bit confusing) (can we rephrase thus..) It means that diamonds drop into the pockets of the investors as if from the sea; with no consideration of where they come from. One tends to ask What is the value placed on the land from which diamonds are being excavated? Instead, the Koidu Holdings is foot-dragging the building of the houses of the peasants that live in the Tankoro Chiefdom Kimberlite area. They run for their lives when the siren goes off to blast the granite to extract diamonds. The S.L.P.P. leadership, at the least, cannot get the Koidu Holdings to embark on safe mining policies while they are yet to build the houses of the residents in a different location.
I know these things because I hail from Saquee Town in the hearts of the Kimberlite craters, not ones made by meteorite, but by constant explosion, sending out meteorites to kill the people: I have witnessed my mother’s house being damaged by kimberlite rocks two times; I have seen my cousin for the last time, her brain spilled over her shoulders by the kimberlite rock [during the NDMC]; I have heard of a police woman of the Tankoro police station being killed by the kimberlite rock; I have heard of families living their lunch and dinner on fire, running for their lives, hard earned food going bad before they returned after the blasting [same conditions under the Koidu Holdings]. Above all, my poor mother told me that the Koidu Holdings would replace her seven-room house with a three-room shanty. It means that she would have more than four people per room with her nine children and many grandchildren. Nevertheless, when the S.L.P.P. Mr. Saffa talks of good governance, the peasant does not matter to him. It is natural that one prominent S.L.P.P. called the same suffering people; “Low grade noisemakers – san san boys, honda drivers, ex-combatants, carwash boys, etc.”
Security sector reforms: The UNDP Security Sector Reform program among other things includes disarmament, demobilization and reintegration. These are the main aspects of the program, and it is not an S.L.P.P. program?the government does not have a choice in the absence of a program of its own, but accept the United Nations’ conditionality for development in exchange for aide. It is understood that the reintegration is a failure. This needs no scientific proof. All it takes is a visit to the capital city, Freetown, to learn how miserably this aspect of the security sector reforms has failed. Ex-military and rebel combatants are the most disgruntled sector of the society today. The child soldier has become an empty phrase in Sierra Leone. Make no mistake there is a serious threat of a leadership vacuum in Sierra Leone if the state of the mind of the youth sector is not addressed and very quickly. Once the international players left the scene, all the progress stopped. A large number of the military was retired. There is no problem in retiring people at retirement age, but what justifies the sudden retirement of a large number of our fighting force. This was very myopic on the part of the S.L.P.P. leadership. We were lucky that the average Sierra Leonean has resort to peaceful solution, lest a likely condition to threaten the hard earned peace. No sooner the British head of the police force left, it returned to it old self?Charles Margai was arrested and jailed before any investigation to link him to the unrest that led to the threat of violence against the Vice President Berewa at the CKC Thanksgiving ceremony in Bo, the second largest city in Sierra Leone. President Kabbah knew of the arrest of Omrie Golley before the Inspector General of the Police did?he announced the arrest as if he were the police officer who conducted the investigation of the alleged crime?this is a clear manifestation that an order to arrest Omrie Golley came from above for reasons yet unknown as the case is still in court. Berewa has become the demolition man in Freetown?he is going about ordering the demolition of houses without compensation plan. The unemployed condition of the youth population is at its worst. Thousands of child soldiers are still roaming the streets of Freetown uncured. When Chris Robertson, the head of Save the Children Fund stated that “These atrocious actions have placed the youth population at risk, if not attended to, that may lead to a leadership vacuum in Sierra Leone,” cannot be taken for granted. The people of Yenga and Kalagba are being treated by Guinean soldiers as if they have no protection from their government.
Stabilize the economy and has a robust agenda for private sector development: There is no agenda for private sector development. How could there be an agenda for private sector development when the land is on chains in the hands of subsistent farmers who do not have the technological expertise or the capital to exploit fully the land in the benefit of the masses? Is Mr. Saffa’s private sector limited to giving up public utilities bestowing apparatus to western investors? Sierra Leone‘s private sector is the most undeveloped in the world. Majority of the jobs are government jobs, nothing has changed. In fact the teachers, 17,000 are being paid by the UN?development program that has placed a cap on how much teachers there should be in the classrooms. Below is the synopsis of the economy that Mr. Saffa has claimed has been stabilized: “The 2004 budget is weak on proposing structural reform and the IMF has recommended greater fiscal discipline. The government projects that domestic revenue will total Le333.2bn (US$127m) in 2004 and total expenditure LE839.7bn, resulting in a fiscal deficit of 24.4% of GDP excluding grants. The Economist Intelligence Unit believes that these figures are optimistic, and that both revenue and spending will be lower. Revenue will rise in 2004 compared to 2003, as tax revenue increases in line with the establishment of more businesses and the management difficulties in the new National Revenue Authority are ironed out. However, Sierra Leone’s porous borders, and the associated loss of revenue through smuggling (particularly of diamonds), will continue to limit revenue growth. There will be continued pressure to increase spending, given the huge rehabilitation and rebuilding work being undertaken following the war, but delays in disbursals from donors will create a funding shortfall. We forecast that the overall fiscal deficit (on a cash basis including grants) will remain at around 9% of GDP during 2005-06, which will be met through domestic borrowing.” (The Economic Intelligence Unit Country Report December 2004) No government officer in his right mind would call the economic situation above stabilized economy.
Food security: Except that Mr. Saffa is proud of the imported food to feed, about five million people living in a country abound by some of the most fertile and follow lands of the world. There has been nary a plan in the past ten years for Sierra Leone to achieve self-sustenance in food production. Until we can feed ourselves, the UNDP food security program does not mean a thing. It is not something, of which a government can be boastful. We have waited for ten years on the S.L.P.P. with nary a plan on how to cultivate those vast meadows lying barren across the nation, those fertile hilly lands in wants of rice seedlings, and those planes that are ready for anything that wants to grow on them. Nevertheless, the S.L.P.P. government chose to keep most of the members of the healthy sector of the population in Freetown, where they fight for some of the looted money to trickle down in their pockets. But if one pushes such idea to hard, the S.L.P.P. government would not create incentives for the people to go back home in the provinces peacefully at their will, they would load them in trucks like animals and bring them to nothing as they did before. It has become apparent that the S.L.P.P. is clueless when it comes to leadership. In a recent debate in Maryland, a highly ranked S.L.P.P. official referred to food security as a measure to protect food from being poisoned. These people often end up in the Sierra Leone government as ministers upon raising much Diaspora funds to support party politics.
Education: Mr. Saffa’s words are the best response for his fallacy: “the SLPP has improved school enrollment, which, he says has quadrupled since 1996 with pressure created for additional teachers and classrooms. ?This is what government is currently addressing.'” First, schools were in non-existence status, especially in the provinces, before 1996. It means that school enrollment would naturally increase after the war. And a good government would have foreseen the need for more classrooms and teachers because many of the facilities had become casualties of war. A good government would have foreseen the upsurge of school enrollment and properly prepare for the needs of the students. Here, Mr. Saffa is telling us that the S.L.P.P., like always, was unprepared for or was clueless of the increase in school enrollment following an absolute non-existence of schools in the recent past. School enrollment in the last ten years would certainly quadruple because children have been fighting for their lives, which is more important than going to school. They have all decided to enroll back in schools, many who have been schooling in displacement camps have returned only to find out that their government is not prepared for the upsurge in school enrollment in the aftermath of war. This statement by Mr. Saffa is quite revealing?no wonder we hear of constant inadequacy in school supplies and teachers’ demonstration for non-payment of salaries.
Health: Sierra Leone has the worst health facilities in the world. Recently, I read in an article that Sierra Leone is the only country in the world where pregnant women are transported in wheelbarrows to the nearest medical centers for child delivery. There is no future for the children of Sierra Leone under these deplorable conditions with no fundamental human rights to free emergency medical care for anyone especially the poor and needy. Even with the massive donor funds, the health sector is still lacking. The corruption in Sierra Leone can only be explained in terms of what one writer calls a money Bermuda triangle, where money disappears as soon as it arrives.
Until the fierce wind of “Positive Change” that is now faltering the speeches of the likes of Mr. Saffa blows the S.L.P.P. away, progress in neighboring Liberia with the leadership of Sirleaf Johnson would take place in leaps and bounds over Sierra Leone’s. In his agenda booklet for the S.L.P.P. Secretary General Position in the Makeni convention, Mr. Saffa wrote; “Strengthening the democratic values of the party: The SLPP is well known for its democratic values. It was the first political party to lose a multi-party election in 1967. Elections are held at all levels. I will therefore uphold and strengthen these values. Specifically, I will develop clear guidelines for the conduct of elections at all levels and regularly inform members of democratic values.” Nonetheless, it is a proven fact that those who cannot rise above a turbulent wind like the eagle tempt to fight with it. We have however taken upon ourselves to remind Mr. Saffa of his own words in the process of fighting with the wind of “Positive Change.” Because, it is scaring the way he is becoming worried about the political position of those who have the strength to flow with the fierce wind of “Positive Change.”
Because of these empty laudations and forgetfulness that is so common amongst the S.L.P.P. leaders, I begin to muse whether the then Sierra Leone Head of Mission to the United Nations, Mr. Ibrahim M. Kamara was only blowing out hot air when he made the following statement in a Sierra Leone Diaspora meeting in Virginia State University, USA, in 2001: “January 6, 1999, and all the other tragic incidents of the rebel war have taught us a lesson. They will forever strengthen our resolve to rebuild our nation, and moreover to uphold the pledge that forthwith, we shall refrain from the use of threat of use of armed force to bring about any change in our beloved country.”
WHAT A DISGRACE S. I. Kamara
Tuesday February 28, 2006
I have always been saying that Kabba and Berewa are so desperate that they blunder at every move against Charles Margai.
It is a well known fact that the judiciary in Sierra Leone is in the pockets of these two giants of Sierra Leonean politics today. How can a magistrate be so eager to lock up Charles Margai to satisfy Kabba and Berewa that he forgets the basic tenets of the law? Doesn’t magistrate Shyllon know that before you issue a bench warrant for any body that person must first be instructed by the court to show up at a date and time stipulated? This is a big disgrace to those who taught him at Law School.
Justice should be independent of Executive power or influence because injustice can lead a nation to chaos. Justice Bankole Raschid was used to declare that Charles Margai was not a member of the S.P.P.P. The Supreme Court, which is the last resort for justice in Sierra Leone, was also used to block Hinga Norman’s attempt to stop the S.L.P.P. convention in Makeni, the court was again used by these very people to ?to tornorbor’ the case in favour of Fatmata Hassan.
I just wonder if these people in the judiciary have not yet realized that they are demeaning and bringing into serious disrepute this noble profession of law. Didn’t Shyllon have enough time to check his files before unleashing the rumour that Charles Margai was to be arrested? This is a disgrace not only to himself but also to the judiciary with a luminary like Adel Renner Thomas
Kebab and Berea are so scared of Charles Margai becoming president that they do not sleep well at night. The thought of or visualizing or imagining, or even seeing Charles Margai as president make them jump in bed at night saying ?Lord have mercy, e nor go be, e nor for be, we die don’. But who told to badly govern us, who told them to encourage and condone corruption to such a degree that it is now a social cancer, who told them to lie to the people, who told them to neglect the youth – our children, who told them to leave the cities filthy? Was that all APC?
This is a sign to all Sierra Leoneans that just as it was during the APC of yester years so it is and will be with the S.L.P.P. especially if God should punish Sierra Leone by giving us Berewa as president. He is as intolerant as his mentor and boss Kabba. He is highhanded and merciless with those within the S.L.P.P. who attempt to look the opposite direction – Kelfala of Road Transport Authority will tell you.
Sierra Leoneans should be aware that what is happening or has happened in Uganda is what Kabba and Berewa want to replicate in Sierra Leone but goat head and sheep head look very much alike but they are still different. But these people do not care a dam what ever happens to Sierra Leone. For them especially Berewa, everybody can go to hell and burn but he must become president. These people do not even think about the immediate past of Sierra Leone. They do not fear God and as such they have no respect or no regard for the people of Sierra Leone. Berewa has totally forgotten how he was dressed as a reverend father to escape the AFRC boys. Now he is ready to unleash that same terror the AFRC unleashed on us.
Sierra Leoneans should never allow a person like Berewa to be president in Sierra Leone. Let Sierra Leoneans don’t think that Berewa is ?khanya’ only to realize when they come closer that the scent/odour is not the same. The only way to stop Berewa and Kabba is to massively come out and massively vote them out of power. Every Sierra Leonean knows that what Kabba and Berewa did in Makeni they would want to repeat on the national scale, but this time it should not work because the nation of Sierra Leone is not S.L.P.P.
What a disappointment and a disgrace that individuals and a party in whom Sierra Leoneans entrusted their future, should treat them recklessly and shamelessly and then have that effrontery to stand before us to vote them back in power. Are Sierra Leoneans crazy people? Let every Sierra Leonean stand up and show these people we are not crazy. Lonta IMPORTANT SECURITY INFORMATION FOR THE 2006 COMMONWEALTH GAMES : SENT TO COCORIOKO BY THE CRIME STOPPERS COORDINATOR DETECTIVE VAL. SMITH
Reference: Crime Stoppers and the 2006 Commonwealth Games – Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 15th through 26th March 2006.
(MEDIA RELEASE ATTACHED)
Dear Editor/Manager,
Crime Stoppers Victoria is to be a reception agency for information on criminal activity for the 2006 Commonwealth Games to be held in Melbourne Victoria, Australia 15th through 26th March 2006.
This is a normal part of our operations; however we seek the support of Media world-wide to assist us with any information relating to criminal activity within Australia, and specifically Melbourne, around that time.
Our interests are not confined to Commonwealth countries, however it is accepted that most visitors will be from the seventy one competing Commonwealth countries.
The Commonwealth Games will attract approximately 6000 athletes and support staff, as well as thousands of officials and an expected one million spectators.
The worldwide media are requested to ask their communities to supply any information in relation to crime associated with the Commonwealth Games or criminals travelling to Australia up to 31st March 2006.
Information about Crime Stoppers in Victoria Australia, including facilities to lodge community direct on line reports can be found on our website at www.vic.crimestoppers.com.au
The 2006 Commonwealth Games website is www.melbourne2006.com.au.
From a Crime Stoppers perspective this project is operating under the CSI International Relations Committee, (Chair. Mr. Michael Gordon-Gibson) and has the endorsements of Mr. Steve Walrath, President of Crime Stoppers International and Mr. Peter Price, (Chairman) and the Board of Crime Stoppers Australia.
We are aware that this is a unique opportunity for Crime Stoppers International member programs to support an international event. The benefit here may not necessarily be the capture of vital information on criminals, but the exercise to prove that a global network can connect.
A media release is attached for your assistance in promoting the Crime Stoppers initiative in your area. You may wish to include quotes from your own law enforcement officials.
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TAYLOR ‘S FATE NOW WITH U.S. Monday January 30, 2006 Liberia’s President, Mrs. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf , has not been double-speaking about the fate of former rebel leader Charles Taylor , many Liberians in the diaspora clarified yesterday . The Liberians were responding to media reports , especially by COCORIOKO, insinuating that Sirleaf was dragging her feet in the matter of handing over Taylor to the Special Court in Freetown. They even sent this paper a photo of the cell awaiting Taylor in Freetown, published originally by the VOA. Each of the Liberians who spoke with COCORIOKO said that they have the understanding that the U.S. had told Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf to concentrate on her task of rebuilding Liberia. They drew reference to the statement made in Monrovia by U.S Secretary of State , Dr. Condoleeza Rice during the inauguration of the new President. Dr. Rice said that the issue of Taylor was finished and Sirleaf should concentrate on building democracy in Liberia. She promised that the U.S. will work with West African leaders and the Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo , to ensure that Taylor faces justice. The Liberians interpreted this statement to mean that the U.S. was divesting responsibility for Taylor’s prosecution from Mrs. Sirleaf’s hands , since she had a monumental task on her head already, which is to rebuild war-shattered Liberia. Mr. Gabriel Quoih of Jersey City , NJ said : “More of less, the U.S was telling President Johnson-Sirleaf : ‘You have a big task on your hands. You don’t allow Taylor’s business to distract you now. You leave everything with us. We will handle the matter’. ” Since this issue of transferring Taylor to the Special Court became complicated with Obasanjo vowing not to ever do it, except to a constitutionally-elected government of Liberia, many people had formed the opinion that only the U.S. is now able to make Taylor face trial. They suggested that Obasanjo had several ulterior motives for shielding Taylor from prosecution and believed that the U.S. alone has the clout to force Obsanjo to change his tune. However, all signs point to the possibility that Taylor will eventually be roped in to the Special Court. Pressure is building on Mrs. Johnson-Sirleaf to do the right thing and it is reported that even the U.S. is after her to ensure the possibility of Taylor’s prosecution, albeit subtly. Recently, Liberian journalists were invited to Freetown and taken on a tour of the Special Court cells. This, some Liberians, predict is another sign that Taylor will one day have his day at the Special Court. SIERRA LEONE IS NOT AN ISLAMIC STATE By Alpha Saidu Bangura Monday January 23, 2006
From the bottom of my heart I thank the president, Alhaji Ahmed Tejan Kabba and the Inspector-general of police, Mr. Brima Acha-Kamara for not listening to a few fanatic Muslims who wanted to stop the Eastern Paddle Society from parading the streets of Freetown on EID-UL-AHDA day.As a devout Muslim, myself, I would like my Muslim brothers and sisters to understand that Sierra Leone belongs to every Sierra Leonean(Muslims,Christians and Non-believers).Therefore all Sierra Leoneans must be treated equally and fairly.
The Eastern Paddle parade held on EID-UL-AHDA DAY is a cultural activity for every Sierra Leonean.This parade have been held on EID-UL-AHDA day for over fifty(50) years now. It is the constitutional responsibility of government to promote and sustain our culture. It will be very unfair to stop it only because Muslims do not like it to be held on that day. I hope and pray that my fellow Muslims will keep in their minds that Sierra Leone is not an Islamic country and it is not govern by sharia law.From time in memorial we Sierra Leoneans (Muslims, Christians and non-believers) have been getting along amicably.That is what makes us a very unique nation. At this point we should not allow one group to impose its religious believes on others.
One of the fundamental principles of democracy is peoples freedom to associate themselves with any group of their choice as long as they do it in a lawful and orderly manner. I am sure if our Christian brothers and sister want to stop all public activities on Christmas and Easter, knowing my fellow Muslims well as I do, they(Muslims) will be displeased.All of us(Muslims,Christians and non-believers) celebrate Christian holidays together. Please, let us continue get along peacefully and with respect for each other.
I will conclude by appealing to president Kabba, to tell our brother and sisters in Islam that the role of the president of Sierra Leone is different from the role of the chief Imam of Sierra Leone.The president up holds and defends the constitution of Sierra Leone.The constitution(which is the supreme law) protects the rights and privileges of all Sierra Leoneans.The role of the chief Imam is to defend and spread the words of the QURAN to Muslims.We should never allow Islam to be institutionalized in Sierra Leone.Once again I thank president and his police chief for standing up for the rights of all our people.
High Court frees Foday Sankoh’s girl friend and cookBy Chernor Ojuku SesayWednesday January 11, 2006Presiding High court Judge Patrick Hamilton yesterday acquitted and discharged Victoria Balaba and a cook Jestina Davies. Victoria Balaba is believed to be the late Foday Sankoh’s girl friend while Jestina was his cook. Judge Hamilton in his ruling said that the two accused women were not involved in the alleged shooting and killing of demonstrators. He further said that no witnesses came forward to testify against the two accused women since the matter started. The defence lawyer, Osho William thanked the judge for his fearless ruling. It should be recalled that on May 8 2000, a demonstration against the late Foday Sankoh resulted in the death of many people. 57 RUF personnel were arrested in the process and held responsible for the shooting and murder amongst other charges. The trial continue
OF WITCH HUNTS AND LAW ENFORCEMENTSaturday December 10, 2005First_Name: Dr. Baimba Last_Name: Kamara, (LAW) Email_Address: javascript:parent.ComposeTo(“[email protected]”,%20″”); Address: 7803 Candle green Ln. City: Houston State: Texas Zip_Code: 77071 Comments: “Na dem sef to dem sef, so leave them alone, they will sort themselves out- Vice President Berewa and Mr. Charles Margai” In another words, you are seriously saying that ” an eye, for an eye” is good. So, we all should sit on the side lines and let them blind the whole of Sierra Leone. I am with the great Critical thinker. His anology in this Vice President Berewa and Mr. Charles Margai’s issue is the best yet. The fact is, we do not know which is which. All the facts are not out yet. But, if Mr. Charles Margai even remotely incited the breach of the peace and thus endangering the Vice President, then his arrest would be lawful, because no one should be above the law. In fact, ngo Charles Margai should no it better. As it is clearly stated in the Bible, ” to do on to others, as you would like others to do on to you”. RESPECT, RESPECT, AND RESPECT. How ever, if it comes out that the SLPP government is on a political witch hunt, then the SLPP government is cutting corners with our democracy. I was one of those who had accused the APC during the Siaka Stevens era, as a party who was in the habit of eliminating the opposition. This is terrible for our democracy. Readers, let us forget about all the isms ie. tribalism, sectionalism,nationalism etc. the generic fact is, WE ARE ALL SIERRA LEONEANS. We can not, and must not, allow any dictator to rule that country. Even though, we may all have infinite definition of democracy, yet the simple definition ever is-“DEMOCRACY IS THE FREEDOM FROM FEAR”. But if we can not walk, talk, sing or even dance freely in our own country, because of fear of the iron hands of our leaders, then our democracy is a joke. Yes, there is nothing like absolute freedom, but a freedom to mingle with our supporters as long as is within the frame work of the law, should never be usurped by any leader. Again, Mr. Unbelievable, ” an eye, for an eye” will make the whole world blind. THE TRUTH WILL ALWAYS PREVAIL S. I. KAMARA
Wednesday November 2005
As I started thinking about the title for this article, the one that came to mind immediately was: “S.L.P.P. A Religion of the Southeast, But What Religion?” But then this guy called Theophilus Gbenda wetted my appetite so strongly that I could not resist changing the article to the above.
Those of us who write articles be they commentaries, opinions etc. have to be mindful of one fact, posterity. When events unfold and the years pass, such articles would definitely be revisited and assessed in the light of the truth. We can all write whatever we like but please let it reflect the truth so that at the end of the day our integrity would call for respect.
We should also have in mind that we have only one country called Sierra Leone that underwent ten years of the most brutal of civil wars in the history of the African continent. And that we should refrain from igniting the very feelings that led to Ndorgbowusui in Pujehun and the Rebel War.
I have been following Theophilus Gbenda’s pieces on Charles Margai for months now and what really amazes me is the fact that Theophilus is treating Charles Margai as the only politician in the country. Charles is not president and is not an MP. He does not make laws nor conduct foreign affairs or policies that affect our daily bread. But why concentrate on this single individual?
Charles was a member of the S.L.P.P. and did all within his power and ability to effect positive changes within the party but was consistently rebuffed. He then decided to try his luck outside of the S.L.P.P. and that has provoked the wrath of southeasterners like Theophilus Genda thus giving the long-held impression that the S.L.P.P. is a religion for the south easterners who are predominantly Mendes. Charles should not leave even when he is no longer wanted, but should stay so that Berea would become president. If the S.L.P.P. is a religion what salvation has it brought to the people in the southeast? Since 1996 it has been lies upon lies, youth unemployment, city filth, bad governance, interference in the judiciary, bad foreign policy, and disregard of both the S.L.P.P. and the National Constitution with the active participation and deliberate advice of Berewa.
Theophilus Gbenda please tell readers: are the rank and file of the S.L.P.P. better off today than before Kabba and Berewa came on the scene or is it still the APC or the rebel war? I believe you attended the University of Sierra Leone. Are conditions in the university really conducive for the type of education you would like for your fellow Sierra Leoneans? Did Charles Margai have any role in carving the educational policy in Sierra Leone or any other policy?
As a journalist, you have to report the news as it is and leave the spinning of that news to the politicians. Unlike the developed world where newspapers are operated on ideological basis, in Sierra Leone they are a means of survival and this has made journalists very vulnerable and susceptible to brown envelopes. The way Theophiluis Gbenda is handling the affair of Charles is leaving no doubt in readers’ minds, especially mine, that he is receiving brown envelopes from Berewa.
The truth on the ground is that the people of Sierra Leone want a change and as at now they believe Charles Margai is to bring about that change and Theophilus by his writings, is all out to prevent that happening. Let me take Theophilus on a tour round Africa and the world. In 1996, the newspapers wrote everything that should be written about Tejan Kabba about his unfitness to be president but the people wanted him and no amount of negative writing or scare tactics by the soldiers could stop them. Kabba became president. As I am writing this piece, his fellow journalist of no mean repute Paul Kamara of For Di People is languishing in prison for merely reproducing a report he did not write, a report that every Sierra Leonean is privy to. Why didn’t Theophilus Gbenda challenge Kabba for usurping his power as there is no where in the 1991 Constitution that gives the president that write to take a case against any citizen while he is in power just as Section 48(4) states: While any person holds or performs the functions of the office of the President, no civil or criminal proceedings shall be instituted or continued against in respect of anything done or omitted to be done by him either in his office or private capacity.’ This section protects Kabba from prosecution while in office but does not leave any citizen vulnerable to his excesses. What about Yansaneh? Why doesn’t Theophilus Gbenda comment on the way Kabba and Berewa have allowed the case to be mishandled? Is Theophilus Gbenda keeping quiet so that he could secure a job overseas like Sorie Fofana formerly of Vision newspapers, who secured a job, he was not qualified for, in our High Commission in London?
Theophilus Gbenda cannot go against the will of the people. In Ghana, Jerry Rawlings attempted to choose a leader for the Ghanaian people. They kicked hell against him and elected John Kuffour, who is doing extremely well. In Madagascar, the people wanted Ramanantsoa but the president then, Didier Ratsiraka, went against the people and he lost as the people revolted. In Ivory Coast or Cote d’Ivoire, the people wanted Alassane Ouatarra, but Laurent Gbagbo refused and the country has gone up in flames. In Georgia, Edward Shevardnadze refused to accept the will of the people and they stormed parliament and installed whom they wanted. In Ukraine, we have all, including the very Theophilus Gbenda, seen how the orange revolution came about and all those who went against it were left in the cold.
I take Theophilus Gbenda to be an intellectual and that means it is incumbent on him to be discussing issues like imposing a leader on the people of Sierra Leone as Siaka Stevens did with Momoh. Theo was that journalist who went to the PMDC office at Hannah Benka Coker Street and was manhandled by the young guys there. I read the piece he wrote. When Charles heard about it he sent the very guys to apologize not only to him Theophilus but to the newspaper, Awareness Times. Charles followed it up in his press conference. He identified Theo apologized and embraced him in full view of the rest of the journalists. How does Theo describe such a move, lawless or respecter of the individual, Theophilus Gbenda? If Charles had been lawless as you wrote, he would not have bothered about you or what you felt. You could have written what you liked and that would not have changed anything. But Charles is not lawless. Theophilus Gbenda knows that and that is the truth. The truth about Kabba is that Justice Beoku Betts wrote that Ahmed Tejan Kabba should not be trusted with the truth so he locked him up for twenty four hours and that he should never be allowed to hold a position of authority for good. Now the people of Sierra Leone have finally known that Kabba has been a liar who cannot really be trusted with the truth. But den faint late
The outgoing government should be held accountable for not keeping to their word or to the expectation of the people. There are a lot of things that have gone wrong since Kabba and Berewa came on the scene. It is really incomprehensible for me that an intellectual can be so moved by anti-Charles feeling that he is letting this cabal off the hook. How does he think history will judge him? Is it right for Berewa to victimize Kelfala of Roads Transport Authority because Berewa found out that Kelfala voted for J B Dauda? Why don’t you comment on that? Is that what the S.L.P.P. stands for?
Catholicism was the religion of Europe in centuries passed and a lot of intellectuals like Aristotle, Copernicus etc suffered for their intellectualism. But it came to a time when Martin Luther decided enough was enough and he challenged the church that brought about the famous split when Protestantism came about. King Henry VIII had enough of the then Pope’s interference in what he wanted to do especially marrying and divorcing as many times as he liked – the Anglican Church came into existence. The S.L.P.P. has done nothing for the people it is said to be a religion. It has lost its essence, its purpose and its direction. This is what the people are now saying no to the S.L.P.P. and instead of demonizing, and vilifying Charles Margai, and misinforming the people, tell the S.L.P.P. to go back to the drawing board. As at now, the APC no longer exists and the APC is the most lethal enemy of the S.L.P.P. What an irony!
What has happened in Bo is a message to the S.L.P.P. that it has not done anything for the people of the southeast where the S.L.P.P. is a religion. Why should Berewa and Bobson Sesay go to Makeni to hire young men for ten thousand leones per person per day to go to Bo to form a welcoming party? This is tantamount to stereotyping the people of the North that whenever you want thugs for hire you go to the North. Why didn’t they go to the southeast? Plain and simple no young man will do it. The young men in the North are not thugs, OK? If Berewa is that popular and the choice of the people why was it that when he entered Bo in the early afternoon of Friday, there were not up to two hundred people to cheer him? Was it Charles Margai’s fault that when he entered the very Bo late that day hundreds of thousands of people flocked the streets to welcome him? The truth is Charles is more popular than Berewa and you cannot destroy that popularity
Charles wanted to go to Njala University campus but had to call it off because Berewa was going there. If Berewa respected his alma mater that much and did not want to play politics, why did he not go to his school on time to distribute the prizes but decided when almost everything was ending. When OBBA is holding the same activity nobody goes there to play politics as everybody is there on time for the major activities. Berewa goes overseas and he is always late for functions, that is unbefitting of a Vice President
Looking at Berewa, only somebody like Theophilus Gbenda would raise his hand up that this is a healthy man. Nicotine has eaten so much of the man that it is foolhardy of the S.L.P.P. to have ?elected’ him as their leader. This is what Theophilus Gbenda should write about. Berewa is not a healthy man and this is the inescapable truth. You can spin as you like but the truth will always prevail. I indulge Theo to find out who beat Rodney Michael mercilessly for betraying the Berewa reception group? Why did Berewa demand back from Chief Bongay the Le36-Le38 million leones he Berewa gave him to organize the failed reception? Why did Berewa chastise the chiefs for the bad reception? Is that good leadership? Berewa is unpopular and is not the choice of the people, period.
Just as the truth of the corruption and the role of Kabba in bribing the delegates at the Makeni Convention is out, so the truth of Bo will also come out and you Theophilus Gbenda will bow your head in shame. MARGAI ISSUE : AND THANKS FOR PROFESSIONAL REPORTING First_Name: Abdul SURVEY ON DUAL CITIZENSHIP BY SIERRA LEONE NETWORK Tuesday November 8, 2005 The Sierra Network has been conducting a survey on the thorny issue of Dual Citizenship for Sierra Leone. This is a very important topic that has aroused tremendous interest in Sierra Leoneans, especially those living in the diaspora, who hold citizenships from hosting or other countries. Please read carefully and take the survey yourself. Also see the results of the survey so far. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=467051467281 – Email or Weblinks to take survey http://www.surveymonkey.com/Report.asp?U=146728173237 – Link for survey result Best Regards Oluniyi Robbin-Coker <<…>> <<…>> MOHAMED YAHYA SILLAH LEADER AND NATIONAL CHAIRMAN
His Excellency Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah President of the Republic of Sierra Leone State House Freetown, Sierra Leone
November 4, 2005
Dear Mr. President:
Almost a year ago, I issued a statement concerning the case between you as National Leader of the Republic of Sierra Leone and Paul Kamara, Journalist and Human rights activist in Sierra Leone. The statement I issued was an appeal to you to use your good offices to have Paul Kamara released from prison where he has languished for over a year now for ?libeling’ you.
Mr. President, I know you personally to being a leader with the capacity of executing righteous judgment. I do understand, however, that as a national leader, sometimes it becomes necessary to surround yourself with “advisers” who may claim to be your eyes and ears. In the case with Paul Kamara, Mr. President, I strongly believe that who ever advised you to take Kamara to court, created for you one of the most politically compromising positions of your leadership.
Here is my reason: As a sitting president of this Republic, you should have had a second thought at your decision or the advice of any of your advisers to take your own citizen to court for libel, as long as the action of that citizen was not treasonable. Today, you are the father of this nation; the big brother we all should run to for protection. You have become an elderly Statesman.
In Africa, it is said often that the big ones in a family are considered the dumpsters in which every one throws his trash. All that means in Africa, Mr. President, is that once one obtains the status of elderliness, the attribute of tolerance comes to play.
Imagine, Mr. President, if all of us five million Sierra Leoneans levied the same accusation on you as Kamara did. Would you sue every one of us?
You see, Mr. President, some us in politics today have had to learn from elders like you that some of the greatest attributes of national leadership are, tolerance, patience, forgiveness and forbearance.
An American clergy named William Swan Plumer (1802-1880) once said, “A leader that defies temptation to act impulsively may live to bear the everyday trials and annoyances of life quietly and calmly, and then, when calamity comes, his strength will not forsake him.”
Mr. President, you might have been hurt by what Paul Kamara wrote about you in his newspaper.
Nevertheless, you are already The President, and you are Paul Kamara’s President. No matter what rights you have Mr. President, it may not go down well in history for you, as a sitting president, to take your own citizen to court for writing something about you that may not be true.
You worked hard to bring peace to our nation. You lobbied the international community to come to the aid of Sierra Leone after the war. These are legacies you must guard with passion, Mr. President. Do not allow these so-called advisers to be misguiding you to take actions against your own people – the people that you took the oath to protect and defend. You may have many of these advisers around you. However, Mr. President, remember that it is not the quantity of advisers around you that matter. It is the quality of their advice that makes the difference.
Once again, Mr. president, I take this public position to beg that you consider the significance of your office and invoke the leadership qualities of tolerance, patience, forgiveness and forbearance and have Paul Kamara unconditionally released from prison before Christmas this year. You will make his day, and the day of all those that have lobbied you for his release.
Until then, Mr. President, Ramadan Mubarak.
Sincerely,
Mohamed Yahya Sillah Leader and National Chairman National Alliance Democratic Party (NADP)
SANDI’S THEORY ON MARGAI DUMB, DUMB, DUMB Thursday October 26, 2005 First_Name: Sidie Yahya I first would like to extend my appreciation to your staff for establishing a democratic forum like this for people to express themselves. I just hope that our politicians in power right now will express themselves. I am actually writing to respond to Mr. Lawrence Sandi’s article about why Charles formed a party after loosing the bid for leadership of the SLPP. I actually did not expect a question like, but I think it is that for us as Sierra Leoneans to deviate from ignorance and face real issues. Just to answer your question Mr. Sandi, if Charles had wanted to be the hier of SLPP because of his father, he would not have left and form another party. He would wait until when ever the time comes for him to lead that party. Remember, if you actually know anything at all about politics in general or SLPP in particular, in 1992, before the NPRC took over, the SLPP was formed and Charles never pushed for leadership. Instead, he passed on the leadership to then, Salia Jusu Sheriff, Maigor Kallon and others and that was because he knew that those people were the pioneers of the party, but how can you actually consider people like Berewa or even Kabba strong SLPP members when infact these two actually advocated to ban both the SLPP and APC from ever taking part into politics in Sierra Leone. Your idea that Charles wants to head SLPP because his father was involved in forming it is the dumbest thing I have heard in a long time. I believe that you live in the United States and if so, what can you say about George Bush being in power now and his dad was before. Can you Mr. Sandy actually say within yourself that things are fine in Sierra Leone and that Berewa will develop our country more than anyone else? When was that last time you went to Sierra Leone? I am asking you these questions because the majority of the people in that country do not share your view of Mr. Margai and I really believe that you just said what you said, but really don’t know anything at all about SLPP or good governance. If you are young, you need to really think deep because this upcoming election will impact the lives of many young men and women in that country because if our country stay the way it right now, I bet you would not even want to go down or people like you will deny ever knowing a place called Sierra Leone. I once again thank you cocorioko and I hope you will publish this. Tribute To Chief Hinga Norman-The Peoples’ Liberator Part III By Martin Kijangbe Dear Friends,
Thank you for reading my second article. I am sure it has started opening your eyes on why the charge against Chief Hinga Norman and his hunters may disturb any patriotic Sierra Leonean. For long our country lost the luster of peace that has been fundamental to our national social milieu and cultural heritage. We had witnessed false testimonies been given against innocent people. We have seen how those that designed false testimonies against political opponents met the requirement for benefits from political patrons. We have seen how people sacrificed even their academic reputations, moral beliefs and basic human values as long as the political system is serving their own purposes. Many of us thought that the end of anti-democratic rule in Sierra Leone and the specter of the war would foster a new conscientiousness that will be centered on national unity, hard work, truth, creativity and self-development. But what we have today as demonstrated in the silence of the educated elite on issue of Chief Hinga Norman patently shows complacency on a very important national issue-because they do want to risk chances. This is understandable but mind you history watches us as these moments of truth pass by. In this article you will learn about the layers of complex and mean relationships that RUF conjured and the disloyalties in the Army and the patent betrayal of our people, at the time the country needed patriots must. I will conclude on asking salient questions about postwar justice. Once more thanks for your interest in this matter.
Why Are Sierra Leoneans Silent About Chief Hinga Norman & His Hunters’ Fate?
Dear friends, there is a popular saying that when the cream of society rests on mediocrity that society is doomed. Why has this issue not come into our national political discourse? Here are some reasons why? v The issue has been dressed in political emblem, thus it has become partisan. Chief Hinga Norman was serving the SLPP interest therefore our support of his course will validate the SLPP and we do not want to give support to our enemy. v The issue has been smeared into nauseating tribal fragrance, so people from other tribes cannot touch or smell the issue. The common saying among their tribal caucuses is: ” Let us leave that Mende Chief to perish and let his brothers and sisters fight his case.” v The issue has been dressed in volatile hay of cannibalism. Therefore who will march for people who hide under the cloak of cannibalism, to seemingly fight for our liberation? “Although they liberated us but we cannot justify their cannibal act.” v The issue has been labeled as an international issue, so it is above local approach. Any one that is considered a reprobate must be left alone to suffer. Right now our national survival depends on international support. So we should not say anything regarding this matter because it is seen as a genuine concern to the international community. v It has been cloth into an untouchable robe of the UN therefore anyone who it accuses must be left alone to perish, because that is the world’s organization that has been instrumental in our peace process. Casting any aspersions on the court by nationals of Sierra Leone would undermine its credibility. But if some or all of these views are the resisting forces from talking about a good course that liberated the country from the hands of those evils men or political dissidents that reverted the civilization we had struggled for over 197 years (153 years before Independence and 44 years after independence), then we need a reconstruction of the mind to think as new Sierra Leoneans in this 4th Republic. The basic lesson from the war that we may only whisper today is that when the rebels were ravaging the East and Southern Provinces, there was no national sympathy or readiness or strategy to even condemn the rebels. It was believed to be the Mendes fighting the Mendes. With time, the war spread sequentially to almost every area in the country. Then Sierra Leoneans started to label the war in collective terms. The rebels became bad people to everyone. That was the time that many knew that the rebels did not mistake but they were following plan aimed at destabilizing every part of the country. Here we are today, through our own silence and lack of support in measured terms we are taking human value and dignity away from the heroes who put together a robust force to dismantle the fury of the rebels and forced them to the negotiating table.
Complexity of the War The Kamjors Fought
Friends in Part II of this series, I shared with you the evolution of the Sobels as a betrayal force and the Kamajors as a resisting force. There were more layers of complexities that many people did not know about. I wish to humbly share these layers with you and then leave you with your conscience to judge for yourself as to who Chief Hinga Norman and his men should be in our national discourse?
The Colombia Factor
If you ask any of the RUF ex-combatants, you would discover how young boys were drugged and the kind of drugs the rebel High Command was giving out to them. The rebels did not have time to grow the local Marijuana; they relied on the drugs from Colombia. RUF used the drugs from their fellow rebels in Colombia to drug our brothers and sisters-the child soldiers. It damaged their thought processes and influenced their actions, thus the barbaric brutality that characterized the Sierra Leone war. The indoctrination that followed drugging of the child soldiers set the tone for the kind of atrocities that became the order of the RUF insurgency. Colombia became a very crucial support base of the RUF; our diamonds went for drugs in un-numbered quantities. Only the RUF high command knows how often and how much of our country’s diamond went into the drug for war deal. The drug deal was so entangled that in order for RUF to say “Yes to Peace” it must settle the entire circumbendibus drug deals it ventured in with the Colombia rebels.
The Burkina Faso Factor
Anyone whose village was attack knew that mercenaries from Burkina Faso were fighting along the RUF rebels. The salaries of these mercenaries were the diamonds peaked from alluvial mining. Because these people held lucrative diamondiferous areas for over nine years no one actual could tell how much was extracted from our soil to swell the pockets of Burkina Faso mercenaries and their president. The end of the war would mean no job for the mercenaries. Therefore the war was a lucrative venture commandeered by President Blaze Campori of Burkina Faso that kept fueling his groundnut economy. This enticed the mercenaries to fight so fiercely that our soldiers could not measure up to the RUF for most part of the war before the Kamajors emerged.
The Ukraine Factor
Ukraine is a dismantled communist country, whose dictator had more weapon and army than the civilian population. It was very easy for RUF to network with the un-engaged Ukrainians who easily sold their military hardware and services. It can be recalled how the Ukrainians perished on sea enroute to Freetown to consolidate the rebel grip on Freetown. British intelligence helped in buffering their pre-eminent attack on Freetown. For more than six years Ukrainians were selling weapons to the RUF. The extent of the involvement of the Ukrainians cannot be estimated today but it was deep because our diamonds were good international bargaining tools for the RUF and they were effectively used to destabilize our homeland.
South African-The Executive Outcome
We may recall those bloody years of Apartheid rule in South Africa. It generated a color war. This tug of war on a one-foot rope between color-tension poles polarized South Africa. The white dominated rule designed ways of running through black resistance. This struggle induced progressive growth in weaponry industry. African National Congress also acquired huge cash of weapons. At Independence South Africa had huge piles of arsenals which it had no immediate use for. Also there emerged a white dominated mercenary group called Executive Outcome that made use of the left over of weapons from the Apartheid regime.
The NPRC failed to recognize and dismantle the double loyalties in the Army and the ordinary people had discovered it and were getting fed up. So for the NPRC to appear effective it had to sign a contract with the Executive Outcome mercenary company. The basic element of the contract was that if the Executive Outcome clears the diamond areas and the Mokanjie and Sierra Rutile mines respectively, it would import its own mining machines and mine the diamonds uninhibited. This was a blank check given to the mercenary group for using post-Apartheid weapons in Sierra Leone and rewarding them with our diamonds. Note that the NPRC included the Sierra Rutile in the contract because the World Bank had just allocated $18M for the rehabilitation of the Rutile mines. Also note that Sierra Rutile is an American owned company (the largest in the world).
This deal was too good to believe. In this regard, even before the Executive Outcome debut the warfront, their high technology mining machines were imported to Sierra Leone and ready to operate. In less than three months the Executive Outcome had cleared Kono Districts and Mokanji and Sierra Rutile Mines. This speed unfolded a lot of intriguing maneuvers. Some of us believed that there was hidden arrangement between the Executive Outcome and RUF. This arrangement was to allow the Executive Outcome mercenaries to take control of the areas they needed to fulfill the terms of the contract given to them by the NPRC and leave RUF alone in other areas of the country to do their limb cutting, arson, rape, and abduction and any heinous crimes that suited them.
When President Kabbah took over, he withdrew the Executive Outcome’s contract. They became disgruntled and clandestinely lent their support to the RUF after they left the country. It was traumatic for the Executive Outcome to leave the country after exploring unusual diamond locations and seeing the prospects therein. Their support for the RUF increased the scope of REUF.
The Overthrow of Valentine Strasser
The sacrifice of our nation’s diamonds to the Executive Outcomes did not settle well with the top military bras like Maada Bio, Mondeh, Tom Nyuma and Samuel Yajah to name a few. The Executive Outcome issue and the sneaky ways Valentine Strasser, who had promised the world that he was not interested in transforming his government into a civilian government, started having mad cravings and sinister inklings towards running for the political leadership in the pending General Elections. These two factors led to the overthrow of Valentine Strasser by his lieutenant, Maada Bio.
This overthrow further divided the country’s army into to factions because it gave way to an undisturbed electioneering process, channeled by James Jonah. About six weeks to the elections the division I referred to above came to light when the military dissidents, bombed the reputable James Jonah’s compound. A national conference was reconvened as a sort of referendum for the election or extension of the NPRC rule. The peoples’ representatives took the former. Therefore the way was clear for free and fair parliamentary and presidential elections by proportional representation. But the disgruntled soldiers kept disturbing up to the elections day. They started firing around the reservation area in Bo by 6 AM, but the local people and the Kamajors held them abase until the elections went without any debilitating incidence.
Military Junta
Before 1994 towns like Korribondo, Mile Siaka, Mile 91, Bo, Matotoka, Kenema, Daru, Pujehun all had well-established and equipped military arsenals. After the elections of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, there were no political old hands from the APC regime around the political rostrum. You can recall that NPRC had imprisoned some of those patrons (when the NPRC took Momoh out of power) on whose tickets some of the APC boys entered the army rank and files. During the NPRC and the emergence of democratic government, there were none of those patrons with whom those APC boys had hidden alliance or allegiance. But president Kabbah was to be protected by the same APC boys in the army; a clear misjudgment of security. Therefore, they were only waiting for an opportunity to show who they were really loyal to. In 1997 that opportunity presented itself and Johnny Paul Koroma declared himself as president. As soon as this happened, immediately all those APC loyalists who were manning the arsenals listed above immediately pledge support for the Junta. All the ammunitions deposited at those military bases were commandeered and the rebels were called to join the Junta. As a result of this partnership, the rebels’ weaponry capacity increased to very high level-about 500%. The Junta now commanded the rebels and majority of the Sierra Leone army- the old APC boys and those who thought they would better make it in the chaos created by the war and the Junta takeover.
The Kamajors As Liberators
Dear friends, as I attempt to point out some of the entrenched linkages of the rebel support and the betrayals that were apparently exhibited, we can begin to appreciate the rock against which the Kamajors were going to fight. The SOBEL constituency gradually increased and when the Junta took over, they were no longer in the hiding. How for humanity sake were these Kamajors going to take the country from the octopus-limbed gorilla fighters that had paralyzed our country for more than 8years? How were the Kamajors going to use local weapons to dismantle the military potency of the rebel cohorts in terms of numbers of fighters and power of the weapons? But bit-by-bit they started chopping away the chips and through providential powers they dismantled the rebel fire fury and deflagrated the course of the war.
Who would say that the local hunters did not kill? To clear the Kamajors of any crime, I will not do right to my conscience and to my people. They are not stones and sticks but human beings. So, they were ambushed. They were bulleted. They were betrayed and felt angry with those they suspected. They even interrogated suspected rebels and people testified against them. Some civilians set the Kamajors up so that the rebels would slaughter them? In many instances there were exchanges of fire between the rebels and Kamajors that led to many deaths. Do we call these deaths crime against humanity, when they were fighting to secure humanity?
Let me make a point here. The Kamajors were mostly from the localities. If say a Kamajor from my village Foya Mamangewor committed a blatant violation of a civilian that Kamajor would have to return to Foya Mamangewor after the war. His act would not go well with the local people who know his immediate and extended family members. His act would bring shame to his family members. Therefore there was always restraint on the side of the Kamajors. Beside that, Chief Hinga Norman being a British trained military officer introduced discipline and though military codes of conduct. The ultimate goal of the Kamajors was to free the people from the rebel insurgency and not to brutalize them. If the Kamajors were cannibals could the local people have returned to those areas the Kamajors cleared and made safe for the return of the ordinary villagers?
Postwar Justice
The desire for post war justice brought our country to where we are today; that is the sitting of the International Court to investigate war crimes. What is the legal apparatus or framework set to investigate all the rebels, their associates and their leaders with certainty? How much do these foreigners in charge of the International Court understand the socio-cultural and political dynamics of our people and which doses were injected into the war? How is the Court going to investigate these rebels when 80 % of the fighting forces on the rebel side were children? So, if we take the child soldiers out of the jurisdiction of the International Court because of the 1989 Convention of the Rights of Children (The Right of Children for Special Protection in Times of War: Children who are refugees or seek refugee status are entitled to special protection (Article 22). Children under the ages of 15 shall not be allowed to take part in arm conflict. Those that are affected are entitled to special care and protection (Article 38). Children who by any means experienced arm conflict, torture, neglect or exploitation shall receive special treatment for their recovery (Article 39) has been ratified Sierra Leone. Not only withstanding this, if the official soldiers that were legally headed by President Kabbah as Minister of Defense could receive protection what of Chief Hinga Norman? When it was war time these men were sacrificing their lives for the sake of restoring peace and democratically elected government. Tthey were called pro-government militiamen and now that the war is over and the booties of the war is long awaited peace and democratic elections, their nomenclatures have changed from pro-government militiamen to war criminals, cannibals and eventually prisoners. Who then are the actual war criminals? A relevant question to reflect on. There is no postwar justice for properties of our labor that were stolen in daylight? The desire for postwar justice brought Rwanda to similar place and it has taken the Rwanda Court more than 8 years and still there is no clear conclusion or outcome? The International War Crime Tribunal is sitting at the Hague in Netherlands, with all the arrests it has made and the global support, there are no clear and justified conclusions that are devoid of politics, human factors and mistakes? Indeed we are all yearning for justice. But as the fundamental instrument of reintegration is social justice, there should be clear understanding of the economic, political, cultural and social matrixes that constitute the reality of the people. We are yearning for justice to be done to Chief Hinga Norman and his men who stood for the country against falsehood and betrayal. We are yearning for justice when the rule of “cause and effect” would be an essential consideration within which to look for the truth. We are yearning for justice when the true testimonies against the Kamajors would come from those who were brutalized, dramatized, traumatized and made vulnerable and not from political weaverbirds that only want to destroy the beautiful foliage of the palm tree to make their own nests. We are yearning for justice when political undercurrents aimed at reducing some perceived opponents do not drive it? We are looking for justice from a sighted Court that would resist being imbibed into political pettiness and hidden vendetta. A Court that comes to the investigative table without any preconceived list of suspects given to them by political operatives in their own parties and highly placed opponents.
Yes my friends, the holy men are resting and the criminals are languishing in prison. The honest men and true liberators are sitting in air-conditioned offices, giving directives while the enemies of humanity are treated as prison gabs. The actual liberators are taking salutes and walking on red carpets, while the saboteurs are denied some basic human facilities, facilities such taking bath, change of clothes, brushing one’s teeth and lack freedom of visitation. The actual patriots have decided the fate of the seeming cannibals who fought to liberate this country when all military tornadoes were used by a divided and failed army and rebel cohorts; when every negotiations had failed; when the loyalty of the army had been sacrificed; when the president lost his authority to a mediocre; when the common people were starving to death and murdered in cold blood; when the public and private institutions were not functioning even to 10 % capacity because of the war; when our country was isolated and left alone to the grips of the rebels for 8 years (only after Kofi Anna learned the bitter lessons from Rwanda where he was special envoy before he became the UN Secretary General) and before the British came to our side. Whatever description people might give to Chief Hinga Norman and his men, to majority of Sierra Leoneans, they are heroes who were willing to sacrifice their lives for the peace and stability of their motherland. Whatever happens to them we are not going to take arms to free them but we believe in retributive justice. With the omniscience of our God who knows every secret, we submit the course of these heroes into His majestic hands. Lord, let the truth prevail.
SHAKI WAS TO THE TEMNES AS KABBAH IS TO THE MENDES First_Name: Sorie I For Siaka Stevens to come to power he had to get the support of the Temnes then. Prominent Temnes like Dr Sorie Forna and Ibrahim Taqi threw their money and expertise behind him. Dr. Sorie Forna used his the wealth he had amassed as a medical doctor in Kono to help Shaki in his efforts to defeat Sir Albert. They all saw Sir Albert as wanting to introduce a one party contstitution and to entrench his his grip on and perpetuate his stay in power. No sooner did Shaki come to power than Dr. Forna and Taqi saw how undemocratic he was as he started going against all the principles they all agreed on. When they challenged him in the interest of democracy, Shaki looked among the Temnes then and there was S I Koroma, who had become jealous of both Dr. Forna and Taqi. Shaki then used S.I. as an alternative to both Forna and Taqi. This made it easy to punish them and when that time came he eliminated them for good. Even the now famous letter for clemency from Forna to Shaki never spared their lives. In 1995, the S.L.P.P. decided to get a ‘northerner’ to lead the party to avoid that famous criticism from the APC that the S.L.P.P. is a mendeman party. People like Dr. Harry Will were in the forefront supporting Kabba as the saying then was S.L.P.P. was not a Margai party and everything was done to frustrate Charles Margai’s effort to be leader of the party. But no sooner had Kabba come to power than Dr. Harry Will and other top mendes realized that they had made the wrong choice. So Dr. Harry Will started making plans to challenge Kabba in the future. Kabba had wind of this and made plans to eliminate Harry Will. The opportunity came in that famous rice deal with Bockarie Kakay, which made a whole high court judge to be sacrificed and Harry Will held legally in limbo i.e. he cannot vie for a serious political position for years to come. Then came the turn of Momoh Pujeh. He was accused of illicit diamond deals and was stripped almost naked in his office, some said at the time, before some members of his staff. He also nutured leadership ambitions but by that time his case was in court and was found guilty only to be freed by the Appeal Court. Knowing how the judges operate in Sierra Leone, could it not have been through Kabba’s influence as the leadership election was long gone? What did Shaki achieve and what is Kabba achieving. Shaki destroyed the presidential possibilities of the Temnes as a group that has resulted in power eluding them till date. At the end of Shaki’s rule, he bypassed S.I.Koroma, as most Sierra Leoneans then believed that Shaki was afraid S.I. would arrest him. History has repeated itself again. Kabba is afraid of Charles Margai that should Charles come to power he, Charles, would ‘disgrace’ him, hence he made sure he personally took charge of the leadership election in Makeni and we all know the result. The game plan is that the mendes would fight among themselves thereby weakening their grip over the S.L.P.p. and once that is done, the Mendes would be weakened for good just as the Temnes. Now, the infighting has started just as Kabba has planned it and with Hinga Norman threatening to form his own party and Charles Margai is about to obey the call of the people to form a party, where will the S.L.P.P. be or what will happen to it? Another 1967? WHEN APC WAS IN POWER, ‘SIERRA LEONE WAS NOT DETERIORATED LIKE NOW ‘ Monday September 12, 2005
First_Name: Mohamed LIBERIAN NATIONAL ELECTIONS: A PANACEA ? By Emmanuel Abalo The Liberian Presidential and Legislative elections slated for October, 2005 represent a major achievement and progress towards national and regional instability for a country brought to its knees by fourteen years of naked, factional and ethnic violence. However, this attempt at a national transformation from a culture of death, impunity, hopelessness and corruption may disintergate quite easily if certain mechanisms are not implemented by Liberians themselves with the help of the intenational community. Thematically, the following reforms would form the bedrock for progress: Preventing and ending conflicts nationally and regionally,Ensuring economic development and reducing poverty and ensuring theeffectiveness , Transparency and integrity at all levels of the Government of Liberia. And so with cautious optimism, we recommend a drastic and intrusive reform and implementation of the academic, judicial, economic and social systems with a view to maximizing available human and material resources for Another recommendaiton is for a persuasive and credible national leadership to garner the commitment and support of all sectors of the Liberian society for the rebuilding of institutions and infrastructures necessary for the sustenance and functionality of government. In this regard, we stipulate that the University of Liberia and other national higher institutions of learning be partnered with, academically strengthened and spared no funding to ensure a sustained production of trained manpower to sustain these institutions and programs. If this means, “importing” foreign academicians and scholars, at a price, to supplement the University and community colleges’ faculties then perhaps it’s a good investment As a matter of statistical fact, the greatest number of Liberians that ever had access to some form of formal education benefited during the late 1970’s – 1990. This trend must be regenerated Of Course there were several factors responsible including the desire of the ordinary Liberian to “know book” amidst challenges and ensure a better future. The current challenges of the local disregard for rule of law, graft The new government must review international treaties and protocols to which it is a signatory with a view to positioning itself to compete and benefit from programs and partnerships that lend to the transition from a pariah state to that of a trusted and progressive nation. For example, I urge the new government to invite the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) andInterpol to open and maintain field offices in the country as a way of demonstrating its commitment to the fight against modern day international terrorism and drug trafficking in the region. Additional long term issues such as decentralization of government functions, fiscal reforms and accountability must command immediate As for security, the AU and ECOWAS could be requested to second long term military advisors and liaisons as the country is still vulnerable on security. There are also issues of citizenship, constitutional reforms and the re-integration of ex-combatants which must be addressed sooner than later in order to spur the economy. Finally, there has to be a national and international engagement of”rejectionists” of the results of the elections who may want to undermine the gains made so far. Remember, some of these “rejectionists” lost the ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
IT’S BEREWA TIME: By Ansu Bapoto Momoh
Saturday September 3, 2005
Recent events surrounding the forthcoming Leadership Elections for the Sierra Leone Peoples Party seems to confirm a popular saying among wise people “that in the heat of things, the wise head is usually one that stays calm throughout”. That precisely characterises the Cool disposition of Solomon Berewa despite all the noise and fanfare being drummed by his main challenger, Charles Margai. Berewa has shown that he is the only proper choice and the person most capable of leading the country out of this traumatic period in its history.
Those who know him refer to him as Mister cool. Even in court, they claim, Berewa maintain his composure when opposing counsel dishes out sometimes-unwarranted attacks on him personally. His strength, which colleagues and opponents have conceded to in equal measure, is his sharp intelligence, coupled with his capacity to surgically analyse every situation before making a commitment. The apogee of Berewa’s forensic mind was evident in his handling of the rebel war. Unruffled and undeterred by the immediate hullabaloo that accompanied the Lome agreement, Berewa’s wisdom to move the peace process forward was vindicated when the RUF leader squandered the opportunity for national reconciliation in the eyes of the major stakeholders of the process like the UK, USA, and Nigeria in the tragic events of 8th May 2000. This clearly underlines the fact that he is a man with the mental stamina that this country desperately deserves. At the height of his negotiations to end the Rebel war, many thought that he would sell out and compromise the constitution of this country, but they were disappointed as there is no evidence to show that he ever did. In fact it is on record that he did not compromise the constitution and even went on to acquire not only friends but also new and very reliable supporters as a result. This can be explained in light of the fact that this distinguished seasoned lawyer has always sought to protect the legal framework to which he has devoted the better part of his life fighting for. As a politician, the 2002 election highlighted the strengths of Mr Solomon Berewa as a disciplined politician with considerable reserves of stamina. On the stump, he proved himself articulate, fluent and confident: seldom discomforted by a question or a challenge.
Berewa can only better the situation as to suggest otherwise will be arguing against the evidence. As Attorney General, he sought to resurrect a Judiciary that was crumbling and at the throes of death, updating the law and helping to create new legislation to replace archaic laws in the statute book, and finally fighting to preserve the very survival of this country. In short, the man has form and a proven track record, which evens his opponents, cannot deny him. Can anyone really show me when Berewa ever referred to people as his enemies? No! This man is a seasoned professional who believes in the democratic norm and sees people as opponents, rather than enemies. When asked what he will do if he lost the leadership battle, his reply was pristine and typical of the man himself: “I will return to my chambers”, he replied without hesitation. This is a clear pointer to his respect for the democratic process; rather than pre-empting the outcome like some of his opponents who even before the convention have signalled an intention to challenge the result if it does not go their way – this is clearly what democracy is not about. This sad, but predictable ranting, of some of his opponents clearly indicates that they want to have the best of both worlds- a situation, which political pundits will admit, is a recipe for disaster.
Rather than contemplating challenging results, they should instead be thinking of ways to support who ever wins and plot ways of assisting in the big battle that is the actual presidential elections itself. The people of Sierra Leone need a matured politician who has something to show, not one that relies on past “glory” to which they did not even contribute. A name is as good as it gives and truly we must not just be going about trying to reap from what we did not sow. What has Charles Margai got to show in terms of solid and visible achievements? Nothing of significance that posterity will judge him by. And we must learn to respect the memory of our past Leaders just because we share the same name. Our Great Leaders, Sir Milton and Sir Albert did a good job and that is why history has judged them well. Let Charles aspire to Leadership on his own achievements rather than trying to use their names in the process.
Africa has come a long way and we must now strive to detach and wean ourselves from the politics of mere association. Instead, let the people have a Leader who have proved himself in their chosen field. Berewa has proved himself as a Student, a Father, and a respected Legal Luminary, who’s record as Attorney General and currently as Vice President is laudable. Berewa’s noble quest to seek the highest office in this country is guided by one principle: the imperative of justice; by one criterion: the general interest; by one aim to improve the lot of ever Sierra Leonean Man and Woman. Berewa is certainly mindful that these noble aspirations can only be realized by fully embracing free market ideal rooted in solid social democratic principles which embraces good public services and decentralization of decision-making. Crucially his impressive rise from a humble but respectable background provides a compelling narrative which places him in a good stead to understand and champion the challenges of the under-privilege in achieving their personal aspirations. In the run-up to the Makeni convention, I urge all those who have embarked on supporting this noble purpose to remain resolute in our determination to engage, inform and help others understand that we need a leader who has the will to make the unpopular decisions that will move the nation forward. The fact remains it is only Mr Solomon Berewa who posses the substance, intellect and a proven track record to achieve sustainable political and social -economic development. Remember “any man can hold the helm when the sea is calm, but he who holds the helm in torrential and stormy weather is the man”.
This why I say that this truly is Berewa time
READ E.P.J VANDY’S ARTICLE, “BIO TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT” RIGHT UNDERNEATH THIS ARTICLE ————————————————– SLPP IN DISARRAY-BEREWA WALKS OUT Thursday August 25, 2005
We are receiving further information on the apparent disarray at the SLPP “Lawyers Convention” and the walkout by aspirant, Vice President Solomon Berewa. According to our sources, the drama took place at the National Secretaiat of the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) yesterday when the Vice President, Solomon Berewa unceremoniously walked out of the meeting scheduled exclusively for Lawyers in the party by the National Chairman, Dr. Sama S Banya.
The meeting was convened specifically to carve a way forward for the party in view of the current Supreme Court injunction against the election of Party Leader at the Natoinal Delegates Conference. The injunction is as a result of the lawsuit brought against the party leadership by lawyers for Chief Sam Hinga Norman, presently incarcerated by the so-called special court for Sierra Leone. The suggestion was raised by Charles Margai for the party to forward the matter to the National Electoral Commission (NEC) possibly for an advice.
According to sources, Berewa rejected the suggestion and insisted an holding a National Delegates Conferece. Mr. Margai, sources futher states, queried how they could go to the National Delegates Conference when even the delegates list was not prepared. It was at this point that Mr. Berewa said he was going for a consultation. Then J. B. Dauda asked who Berewa was going to consult when all of the principals were there (presumably including Berewa’s boss, President Kabbah).
This question apparently angered Berewa who abruptly left the meeting slamming the door heavily behind him. Commenting on the episode, a keen observer said Mr. Berewa should not have left the meeting in the manner he did but should have stayed and agreed to disagree in typical SLPP fashion.
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So mi fambul dem, nar so de go di go. Ow oona si am? Does this look like 1967 all over agin, or what?
A. SamForay, Campaign to Elect Hinga Norman Maada Bio Taken out of Context: They got it all wrong. Says Edie P. J. Vandy
Time and again, very trivial issues that serves the nation no good gets taken out of context and blown out of proportion. And lately a group known as Concern Citizens for the Restoration of Democracy has put up an amber alert for the arrest of Bio and charged with treason. What was his crime? Mere expression of his gut feelings, directed at the opposition APC party! And the outcome, vivid outburst, name calling, mudslinging, you name it. The irony of it all: misinterpretation. His words completely taken out of context, by people considered knowing better. Woo!! One wonders on possible repercussions, had the APC being the government of the day. The question many ask is whether this group is speaking on the behalf of mainstream APC? And if they do, it is a clear reminder of the APC hey-days, under the tyrannical rule of Siaka Stevens. No utterances of anything anti-APC, or be damned.
Mediocrity. Pettiness. Narrow-mindedness; all locked in one has been demonstrated by this group and all those making a case for an end to tyranny and military adventurism, within this context. Nobody in sane mind will read Bio’s interview and get it distorted, except for one thing, recognition, with a political agenda. The bigger picture is this: Bio was merely making a retrospect of the dark and terrible days of the APC, with a gentle reminder of a would be consequence on repeat of such heinous rule orchestrated by the APC, should they come back in power and replicate same wrongdoings on their people. The fact of the matter is; they things that the APC did: plunder and bastardization of state resources, economic wreck, corruption, blatant human rights abuses, lack of governance, tribalism, nepotism, you name them; these same things other African nations continue to perpetuate, are instruments that play right in the hands of military adventurers. And where such coups are popular, regime change and military adventurism will be pursued as an option for many? By extension, Bio was justifying the NPRC coup that sent the APC packing from political power, which to this day is an embarrassment to the party. This was a populist coup, hailed by 90 % Sierra Leoneans, and from all walks of life. The entire Students body, the civil servants, market women, the elderly and children danced the streets of Freetown, BO, Kenema, Kono and Makeni (I’m sure), and in the villages, jubilation for the NPRC, giving them entrance legitimacy. The International community hastily joined in the celebration. Sierra Leoneans wanted the APC out by any means, as the ballot box was never going to be the answer. The coup redeemed the people from APC clutches and ushered in a newfound democracy, consequently hijacked by another rogue element in the AFRC and RUP alliance. Bio is not showing any remorse on this overthrow, for how could he, when the coup was granted legitimacy by all. What they did during their tenure is another matter but the NPRC coup was justified and the whole nation and international community supported it to its fullest. In fact the first two years of the NPRC coup could be described as the best in the annals of Sierra Leone politics after the Margai era. Nobody is making a case here for military interventions, which have no space in current political processes, but theirs was an exception, just like the most recent one in Mauritania, a coup now widely acclaimed. Who said, it is not a feather in his cap? The APC overthrow was a necessary evil and made Bio what he is today; a military officer, made chairman and now a civilian, poised on a political campaign. Forget about Bio making a coup. This is foolhardy, a crap. He is a civilian, and civilians do not mount military interventions. It takes a military to do that. Or are you insinuating that our military should not be trusted any longer?
By coming out in such a strong term and calling for treason, it appears, the Concern Citizens for the Restoration of Democracy are being misguided, mislead by their leadership clamoring political recognition. But he got it wrong. This move smells of hate, malice, driven by a self-driven agenda. Were lies the treasonable act? I’m sure President Kabbah has better use of his time to address important state issues. I’m sure Mr. Rupeat Davis, Sierra Leone Head of Chancery at the mission in NY, has better things to do with tax payers money, than delivering letters not worth its salt. Potential investors I’m sure have better ways of getting information, and not one based on distortion.
Make no mistake, just like Bio said; the APC party has very good men and women, poised to take their party to a new level. They should be worry though on the existence and actions of such extremism within their rank and file and wanting to give them such negative publicity. I’m sure COCKORIOKO will ensure that Bio’s view is heard in the matter. Peace.
SAMFORAY LOOKS AT THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE NORMAN CASE
Friday August 19, 2005
The Supreme Court of Sierra Leone today heard final arguments in the matter of Sam Hinga Norman versus Sama Banya, Prince Harding and SLPP. For the past two days, the High Court galery has been standing room only as spectators jammed the court to hear the historic lawsuit by Chief Norman against the SLPP and its leaders over the issue of electing the Party leader at the SLPP Delegates Conference originally slated for Friday, August 19 -20 in the Regional Headquarter town of Makeni.
Mr. Norman’s suit, if successful, wil prevent the party from selecting a Party Leader who will in turn be the party’s only candidate for President in the 2007 General Elections. The lawsuit also contends that no person holding party executive position can at one and the same time hold cabinet level position. It will also bar President Kabbah from relinqushing the Party Leader position without relinquishing the office of President of the Republic on the grounds that the titles of President and Party Leader are integral and one cannot expire without the other.
The High Court on Monday issued an injunction against the selection of Party Leader until it decides the legality of the selection process. Although lawyers for the party have offered to postpone the Delegate’s Conference altogether, Mr. Norman’s lawsuit only sought an injunction against selecting the Party Leader.
Our sources tell us that the packed court room gave Mr. Norman’s lawyer, Dr. Bubuakai Jabbi, a standing ovation for his performance before the High Court. At the same time, SLPP Counsel and former Attorney General, Eke Halloway, is said to have received a tongue lashing from the judges for his performance – or the lack of it. The judges admonished Mr. Halloway to better prepare himself before appearing before the High Court in the future.
The High Court adjourned until Monday when it is expected to deliver its verdict. It is now left with party officials whether they will go ahead with the convention without selecting the Party Leader. Many delegates from abroad are already in Sierra Leone for the Conference.
Meanwhile, we are highly encouraged that solidarity among the various aspirants is growing as some of the presidential candidates consider consolidating their efforts for the sake of party and national unity. More on this later.
A. SamForay, Campaign to Elect Hinga Norman. What can we do ? We can help rebuild Sierra Leone First_Name: Shykh What can we do? We can help rebuild Salone… We have given up on our politicians, because they all have failed us. Their failure had been explained in different ways. Excuses such as the mantle of political leadership was handed over to unprepared and untrained locals, the country was not ripe for political independence, to sabotage by remnant of APC politicians that never seizes to be in any government since it was dismantled in 1992. These flimsy or inexcusable excuses may have some merits or not, but fact remain constant; deep-rooted disappointment, hate and disgust for politicians. We wake up everyday hopping for a miracle to change our deplorable and miserable conditions. Many have resolved that we are curse nation, some have lost fate, other just don’t know what to expect from Sierra Leone and many more don’t believe we will ever progress. I will say to that all is not lost, “once there is life there is hope”. What we need to do now is to redirect and refocus Sierra Leone to a progressive path. It is still possible to move away from decadence to modernity, we can escape Armageddon by properly shifting our energy to progressive change. We have focus too much attention on politicians and political solutions to our national problem and forget the other solutions. Politicians are the only one that need to monitor and change. There are other major players who are as responsible as politicians and therefore they also must get our attention. We can redirect our energy to other spheres and solution to resolve and advance our national goal. It is true that politicians are the main custodian and promulgators of our national agenda, just as it is true that they are there for a specific period (now that we are practicing votocracy). Sierra Leone problem is manifold and no single solution is the best and the only. It is not my intention to explain or defend the ineptness of our political leaders nor am I shifting blame away from them, I am only looking at the other people involve in the quagmire. We have tried time and again to punish our leaders and get result out of them but to no avail; when we change politicians and political situation in the country. I am also not reminding Pa Kaba and his predecessors that they have failed, nor admonishing his successors that they are bound to fail, these people already know they are failures. So what I am trying to do is to awaken some interested friends to reverse the economic, social and political regression. What can we do to stop the retreat? Changing the guard at Tower Hill or Hill Station (state house)will not cure our malady. We don’t need tablet or just any old prescription; we need surgical operation to remove the cancer. We have many times changed our political leaders, and yet nothing changes in the country. Remember Sir Milton, Sir Albert, Siaka Steven, J S Momoh, Strasser, Bio, Tejan Kaba, JP Koroma and Tejan Kabba again? Many of these leaders initiated progressive and inductive programs but they failed. Whether it was anti smuggling program, self-help project, green revolution or structural adjustment program, no matter what the program was it all failed woefully. I cannot outline the differences in situation that led to the failure of any of these programs nor I am interested in the differences between these leaders. I don’t want to be tied by “pull him down syndrome” that has clouded most analysis of Sierra Leone Problem. All of these leaders came to power with their own specific agendas and programs but they all inherited and shared the same CIVIL SERVICE. The civil service over time has created it own culture (which obviously is a corrupt one) that is derailing progress in service delivery. Everything in Sierra Leone has undergone some major changes or refurbishment except the damn civil service. It is true that most of our politicians has been down cycled but our civil service has remain intact since independence. I think, for any government to succeed in this country, that government needs first to overhaul this archaic bureaucracy, totally recreate a workable bureaucracy. Government only formulate programs, it is the bureaucracy or agencies that really implement programs. What we have in Sierra Leone is a group of lay low criminals who have escaped scrutiny either because of the inability and negligence of our politicians or prosecutors or because of the shrewdness of the of the low lives (the few distinguish civil servant are excluded) or because of the union in purpose between the civil servants and the politicians. How can we rely on a system that was structured in the 1960s and for the 1960s for the year 2005? Don’t misunderstand me, I have greatest respect for people who have served this nation diligently, without their sacrifice Sierra Leone would have been worst, but the fact tell the story, majority of the people who have held position of responsibility are disgrace to rest of us. There is a need to miseducate this elite class.or else we will continue to go down the drains. The present CS will continue to produce it kind and it kind will continue to produce the same result. Sierra Leone will not o forward with people who believe, trust, and are train by such drained civil service, it has outlive it span, we need to dismantle it.it should continue to lure us backward. |
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