Kai   Pokawa  Croydon  UK

For sometime now I have endeavoured on this sight  and elsewhere to assist readers in putting the record straight on the Kabbah issue relating to the commissions of inquiry.

The situation had become axiomatic when I saw even so called well educated contributors, from America, United Kingdom and even Brussels continuing to misrepresent the situation and therefore misinform the public.

May be my contributions had been too legalistic. Just when I was losing all hopes that Sierra Leonean will never understand the difference, then I saw a letter from a Mr Mundo Tombo from Bo town. It is ironic that he actually wrote to condemn Kabbah, but ended putting the record straight. He said..Kabbah has been recommended to be barred from holding office..’ Thank you Mr Tombo.

This is the point that detractors, political opponents, mischief makers or people simply with supercilious minds wanted you to forget.‘Recomended’

Facts:

1.  Kabbah has never been convicted of theft, by any judicially established court of Law in Sierra Leone or elsewhere. That been the fact he can never be called a convicted thief. Kabbah has every right to institute action of Libel against anyone who makes such allegations. (Wheather it will be seditious will be matter for the courts to decide) As long as the Law remains on our statute books The Courts should never feel shy in implementing it and individuals be they Presidents or farmers should never feel constrained to use it.

2 A commission of inquiry may have recommended that Kabbah should not hold public office.but that is all. ?A Recommendation’ a recommendation had to be implemented. To my knowledge there is no record or document anywhere indicating that those recommendations were ever implemented. Quite why no one knows. I have my own theory on that.

Finally, how legal were those commissions of inquiries set up by Authorities whose very own legality was at best dubious. Since it is illegal to overthrow a properly elected Government and suspend the Constitution in the first place.

Whether we like him or not  Kabbah, has earned his good place in the history of Sierra Leone. He will leave a Country in good health, vibrant democracy, freedom of the Press, respect for Human Right, well functioning Judiciary and the Rule of Law as its underpinning factor..(We have no secrete torture chambers, and no political prisoner any where) even President Bush agrees with that. But those who break the Criminal Law will be subject to Laws of the land without exception. And finally PEACE. Peace which Sierra Leonean are enjoying now, for without peace, all the above will be but a dream. Sierra Leonean will never forget the APC years. SLPP will fight the next election on just one word PEACE. Peace in our life time.

Solomon Berewa will follow Kabbah, and will continue the Good work without a doubt. People must remember that our Party has a past and has a future, Apart from Berewa, we can choose from at least one of 10 individual men and women who can be successful leaders of SLPP  and hence Sierra Leone,  that is how rich our party is. But for now we have Kabba and then BEREWA…the rest of us will have wait our turn. we won’t leave to form another Party.There is some called LOYALTYand CONVICTION.

Happy New Year

THOUGHT FOR THE YEAR : WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR SIERRA LEONE ?

Thursday December 22, 2005

First_Name:  Sheku
Last_Name:  Sheriff
Email_Address:  [email protected]
Address:  8120 Zane Ave. N. #107
City:  Brooklyn Park
State:  MN
Zip_Code:  55443
Comments:  Thought for the New Year

Happy Holidays, to all brothers and sisters in Sierra Leone, and in the Diaspora. Let us take this time to pray for our country and the people, both at home and abroad. I left Sierra Leone during the war, passed through some African countries and eventually found myself in USA.

During my sojourn in Africa, I came across Sierra Leoneans in many far flung and unfriendly villages and towns along the West African coast. Many stories were told of the maltreatment meted out to Sierra Leoneans by neighbours who we had considered to be brothers in the past. Many Sierra Leoneans were taken aback at the open hostility shown by our neighbours to our very presence in their lands. A lot of Sierra Leoneans in our quiet moments, or in our national meetings, did attempt to proffer explanations to this surprising phenomenon. After all, we had opened our educational institutions to brothers and sisters from all across the continent in the past and satisfied their thirst for knowledge.

We opened our diamond fields to foreigners to exploit the wealth therein. We even gave our daughters as wives so that young men would not feel the loneliness of being away from home. We gave them houses to live in without asking for rent. Naively we told ourselves to open our houses to strangers, as we do not know when we will also be strangers tomorrow. In our naiveté we were right though, as almost all of us became strangers in some fashion. Our kindness though was seldom repaid. So, we asked ourselves why? What had we done in the past to deserve this? Why was there hardly a country in Africa in which we were made to feel welcome?

We had had people in our country for years and never even asked for residential permits. Many of us attempted to give answers to these questions. Some said others were jealous because Sierra Leoneans were more modern, we were more westernized. Others said they were jealous of our education. Some said it was because we could dress better, and could stand out a mile as cultured people. I always took these simplistic explanations with a pinch of salt. I am of the fervent belief that one primary factor that is responsible for the way we were treated and continue to be treated is simply the way we treat ourselves.

A house divided against itself cannot stand. If you do not love your brother, would you blame someone else for hating him? In Sierra Leone if a Sierra Leonean has a conflict with a stranger, people would rather side with the stranger. In Gambia, if a stranger has a conflict with a Gambian, you have a conflict with his family. I remember a time when our fledgling manufacturing sector was trying to come up, nobody wanted to wear anything that was made in Sierra Leone. Hence the terms “city link my money lift me up and Zangalewa” We would rather buy trash from China than help our own domestic industries.

Look at China today. All we ever do is blame the government. In America, I work in the health sector and I do not even know or even care to know who the Health secretary is. People go back for holidays and come back with stories of how bad the leadership is or how dirty Freetown is. Dig them a little, and they would tell you about the way they enjoyed at Lumley beach, the girls that came around, the fact that they went with 6000 dollars, yet came back broke. Just ask, “out of that six thousand, did you buy a wheel barrow or spade and donate it to the Freetown City Council?” They would look at you as if you were crazy.

What is the Government there for? USA has the richest government in the history of mankind, yet in the face of Katrina, the government appealed to everybody, including school children to help. Where am I leading to? A lot of us are here in better places today with some change to spare. Let us resolve this New Year to invest a little in Sierra Leone. If a hundred Sierra Leoneans in the Diaspora decided to build or repair a house in Freetown every year, that would be a thousand houses in 10 years. Now that is what I call development. We can develop the country if we want. So let us all invest at least a hundred dollars in Sierra Leone this year. You can start by giving scholarships, sending money to brush the path to your village. Whatever you do, do sometime positive. Thanks

FAKING A COUP D’ETAT 

S. I. Kamara

To fake a coup d’etat just to keep Charles Margai behind bars and to charge him with treason to make the way easy for Solomon Berewa to get to the presidency of Sierra Leone will show the desperation in Kabba and Berewa.

Since Africans were left to rule themselves, their interpretation of power has been physical brutality, prison term and outright extermination of perceived enemies. Africa has seen this in Guinea when Sekou Toure dealt lethal blows to Diallo Salifoulaye, Diallo Telli and a lot others, Siaka Stevens sent Sorie Forna, Ibrahim Taqi, Bai Makari N’Silk, and Brigadier Bangura to their creator, Momoh sent Francis Minah on the same journey, Samuel Doe and Quewompa. Now it is Mugabe in Zimbabwe prosecuting his arch rival Morgan Mtchangirai. It was Bakili Muluzi prosecuting Brown Mpinkanjira. Of late there is Yoweri Museveni, who, has all the time been a cool guy and praised by the West, has now wasted all of that by hounding Dr Kizza Besyge by bringing up trumped up charges just to keep him behind bars and he is doing it shamelessly. In Sierra Leone, we are about to see the same pattern as I have narrated. Kabba and Berewa, rather Kabba, because without Kabba Berewa hasn’t that power to execute such a plan, has among his numerous plans to hire or incite soldiers to go and be shooting around to fake a coup and as a result Charles Margai would be arrested and charged with treason then a massive disinformation would be launched..

What is interesting here is why have Kabba and Berewa not expended all this energy on developing the country for all the years they have been in power? Suddenly, development projects are appearing from nowhere for places like Pujehun etc. Why now? Just because Kabba and Berea have taken Sierra Leoneans to be fools because nobody has been bold enough to challenge these people all this time. I blame the very Sierra Leoneans. I just wonder when the average Sierra Leonean would realize that God will never help a people who do not help themselves and that means when He has given us leaders He gave us also the power to challenge our leaders to do the things we put them in power for. Failing to do that has brought us to where we are today: no electricity, no jobs, no good schooling, rampant corruption, injustice and all the vices of bad governance. Africa is centrally located in the world map but everything is flown over Africa from West to East and vice versa. Why is this happening? Since independence African leaders have not been serious about economically developing their continent so much so that the continent is regarded as a continent of begging bowls and savagery. Of late the BBC conducted a programme comparing development in Ghana and Malaysia having independence on or about the same time and how Malaysia developed and is exporting products from palm kernel from the palm tree that was transplanted to Malaysia from Ghana. The same was done for Sierra Leone some years back when the then president of Singapore Lee Quan Yiu used to mock Sierra Leone for its lack of development having had independence the same year and having had two leaders Sir Albert and himself who attended the same university the same period.

What relevance has this story got with the title of the article? Military interference in African politics had always been deterrence to development and nowhere has this been demonstrated like in Africa, Sierra Leone being a very good example. For Kabba and Berewa to be able to execute a plan to rope Charles Margai in a fake coup d’etat, he must have the compliance of military boys though the Army boss has said repeatedly that the Army is not in for that. But what control does he think he has over individual soldiers and what thy think? This is why I want to remind Sierra Leonean soldiers that to allow someone who has little or no regard for you or your welfare to hire you to do something just to harm his opponent would be counter productive and a demonstration of betrayal of the people of Sierra Leone which will be tantamount to unpatriotism. Let the Sierra Leone soldier ask him/herself whether Kabba and Berewa are worth that exercise. These people had ten years to do very well for that country and they have not done a thing and now they want to use the army as a desperate move to fulfill their aim. The soldiers are Sierra Leonean and like the rest of the population they also suffer the bad governance brought about by this very Kabba and Berewa and not only that the people will rise up again. Can the army afford to go against its own people just for Kabba and Berewa? Was this not the very army boys that Berewa successfully prosecuted 1998 in a show trial a la APC? The soldiers must have got a short memory.

If Kabba and Berewa believe they are so popular let them go the free and fair way without intimidation. I will tell Kabba and Berewa that the only antidote to Charles Margai should have been good governance but they are both guilty of the elements of bad governance so how can they stop the wheels of change. They are both old enough to remember what Sir Harold Macmillan once said “a wind of change is blowing over Africa” and there was no way to stop it except acquiesce and allow Africa its independence lest the continent revolted.

So let Kabba and Berewa realize that faking a coup d’etat will not help them once the wheels of change have started rolling. Let them be well advised not to dump our beloved Sierra Leone, the land that we love, into chaos one more time. Faking a coup d’etat will not help but if this does not succeed the only plan left will be to rig the elections using Christiana Thorpe. We will be watching. Lonta

RAHRAY BOYS

Monday November 28, 2005

It is with keen interest and concern I have followed events as reported in the local papers regarding the unfortunate incidents in Bo, at the prize giving ceremony last week-end, 18/19 November, where a school’s event turned into a political stand-off between two former students of the school, VP Berewah (Solo B) and Charles Margai, both having declared interest in contesting the next presidential elections in 2007. It was a day that the school, CKC should have been proud of, to show the country the eminence and achievements of its past pupils.

I am extremely appalled by the reference in the papers to the supporters of Charles Margai as RAH-RAY BOYS. Has anyone ever wondered why these young men are what they are described as such today? Are they not citizens of the same Sierra Leone to which any other privileged citizen belongs? It is obvious that the rahray boys have been produced in the country, not by their own making but by the continued misguided and retrogressive policies of the APC/SLPP politicians who have recklessly governed our erstwhile beautiful country into now wretched, filthy, aid-dependent poorest of the poor nations in the world.

These privileged politicians have contributed to the making of these young men into rahray boys – young men without jobs to occupy them; poor; destitute; uneducated; underprivileged; despised; homeless; they have lost hopes with no future in sight for them; the list goes on, and on!!!! They are our brethren, are they not, despite their conditions? Do they deserve the aspersions being cast on them? Should we not turn on to and query the politicians and so called privileged non-rahray elites, who have failed the nation with bad governance, chronic corruption, self-centred greed, that have caused the turning of a teeming population of our youths into RAHRAY BOYS?

The rah-ray boys should be the concern of the SLPP government, and government worth its salt and credibility for that matter. The incredulous and directionless policies of government will create even more rah ray boys, for as long as the Kabbah legacy is continued through the Solo B leadership on standby for 2007. The populace should change this pity state of affairs at the next elections. Surely, if the government were to have addressed some of the issues that affect a very large proportion of the youths’ problems as judiciously as they busily take care of their privileged kit and kin’s, would the country breed rahray boys? Indeed not.

I count myself of having been among the lucky ones who grew up in the 50s, 60s, and early 70s. Then, we were proud to be Sierra Leoneans, we enjoyed high quality education, good health facilities, enough food being produced by our dedicated farmers who fed the nation with surplus, farmers in produce and other cash crops, produced sufficient for export, the mineral resources were utilised to the benefit of the nation, transportation network and roads were in good state, including, I must stress here, a very functional railway, linking Freetown to towns in the south and east of the country. Yes, the railway was very useful to both passenger traffic as well as conveying the farmers’ produce from the hinterland to Freetown for export.

The demise of the country started when APC came to power and Stevens turned the nation into a one-party state. That put a stop to democracy and stifled all dissenting voice. Stevens began the systematic destruction of the fabric of the nation (including the removal of the very useful railway system, even ripping out all its tracks and sold to profit himself), and the well established national institutions with impeccable high standards. He was so successful with the destruction to the point that the legacy is what we are still living with in the country today. The Kabbah led SLPP government and all that crap of being in power made no effort to redress malaise, instead he continued on with the same Stevens-APC style and tactics of governance.

Stevens, at the end of his reign arranged for Momoh to take over from him in order to cover his back, to avoid an unpalatable expose of his maladministration. Stevens institutionalized corruption, by injecting into the psyche of the people the famous saying coined by him which became the order of the day: ?where you tie a cow it must graze there’. So, all and sundry took that as a green light from the President himself to steal in high office with no recrimination to worry about. The demise of continued with Momoh in place who hadn’t the fuggiest idea of governance; he even declared to the world on a BBC ?Focus on Africa’ programme admitting that he had failed his nation, but he stayed on until the calamity of the doomsday rebel war befell the country. The pitiful and disastrous outcome of the war we all know, I need not dwell on it.

As if the Lord was watching the country as it plunged into the abyss, and He decided to give the people a second chance with the Kabbah led SLPP government. But did Kabbah and his APC henchmen who were now parading in SLPP clothing, take any heed of the opportunity the Almighty gave the nation again? No, not at all!!! The politicians and those in position of authority ignored the consequences of the brutal war, learnt nothing from it, and continued as if nothing had befallen the country by the war, the Stevens/APC legacy through Kabbah’s directionless and corrupt governance.

I wish to mention here how a friend describes the present state of affairs of the SLLP as a party: that the landlords of the party have been driven out by the tenants who have now taken over the SLPP house, what an apt description!!!! Are the so called elders and custodians of the SLPP proud of such a sorry state of affairs of the party? What a big shame and a let down by them, for selling out the party to selfish megalomaniacs and people with no priciples, and lack of conscience for the citizenry they profess to be leading, and ought to be taking care of their welfare.

Now just like Stevens, Kabbah has arranged the handing over to Solo B to continue with his corrupt maladministration. According to Solo B, when he visited London recently on his succession to the SLPP leadership, explained that his choice was an obvious and natural progression from Kabbah. He went to pains trying to justify himself as the only right choice Kabbah had to make. He did not even attempt to touch on what he can do to attempt to address the dire state of affairs in the country, rather, he wallowed into how successful he has been, how he has worked closely with Kabbah to plan for the country (he did not mention what plans – could it be the last stride to Armageddon for poor Sierra Leone, may God forbid!), as VP, the level of experience to his name, etc., etc., etc. In my opinion, the reasons he gave as his qualification to succeed Kabbah is an outright disqualification – most of us who have been longing for a change in the misfortune for the country’s leadership and political direction do not buy his selling ploy. He outright disqualified himself to be our next President.

Most Sierra Leoneans are tired of the APC-SLPP dichotomy and polarisation in the country. We want a change that will take the country in a positive direction with the goal of uplifting the the population from abject poverty, a self-reliant and a productive society that can thrive on its God-given resources which are in abundance, a political direction which recognizes and attempts to help and cater for the poor, the weak, the downtrodden, uneducated, and RAHRAY BOYS. The demi-gods of these old-fashioned parties with anachronistic and archaic ideas have proven umpteen times over to be either incapable or are unwilling to move along with the rest of the world in this modern times, to be of any good to the electorate and the nation at large, and are leading the country to nowhere but backwards and doom.

For the record, if Solo B and the Kabbah government are out of touch with the rest of the world: in the USA, Clinton was not a VP before was voted into office, and was a relatively young man; the same goes for Bush; in UK, Blair was a young visionary for the Labour Party when he assumed the leadership of the Party and now PM, he was a deputy PM before then. His present deputy PM, Prescott is not claiming natural progression to the Labour Party leadership when Blair quits. The Conservatives, Clarke with all his experience qualities was rejected in his bid for leadership mantle and consideration is being given to two younger hardcore members with progressive outlook, not opportunist who enter through the back door as Kabbah has allowed and made mockery of the SLPP party. Can’t we take a leaf from the first world that is helping us nurture our democratic sojourn?

This brings me to the issue of Charles Margai, and his attempt to exercise his democratic right of choosing which party he wants to belong to, or create. The old cronies who are latched on to Kabbah/Berewah and completely enmeshed in their myopic philosophy of ?the elder is always right and the young must not be heard to question the misplaced ?wisdom’ of the elders even if they are leading the nation to catastrophe’, accuse Charles of being arrogant and disrespectful, all because he speaks his mind boldly and without fear or rancour. That is the prescription for not gaining favour to the hearts of the elders who decide against considering or approving Charles for leadership. Or, those who, through their sycophantic disposition have gained Kabbah’s favour now wield their muscles as the powerful and almighty and want to retain their undeserved positions for as long as the Kabbah legacy continues, say Charles is still young and must wait his turn for the leadership of the SLPP, whenever that is, is yours or anybody’s guess, if it will ever be allowed to happen, or he must wait till the hens come to roost.

Charles failed to win the hearts of the SLPP delegates who are of the same philosophical vein as the leadership and was not elected as leader of the party. He decided to quit the party and form a new party, yet to be registered, where he thinks he can pursue his vision for the country at large, and not for just the few privileged elite. The SLPP was not happy with him and the chairman swore openly that the SLPP would wage an open WAR against Charles!!! How shameless and demeaning for the party in government to declare open war against one person who only wants to exercise his civic and democratic right? Again a leaf from the international political stage in Israel, PM Sharon of the governing Lekud party of which he was founding father finds he cannot progress with his policies for peace and vision in the Middle East, has decided to quit his party and form a new centrist party expecting to be joined by the former Labour leader and one time PM of Israel. DIS THE Lekud come down heavily on Sharon threatening with war?

In fact this brings to mind the statement ascribed to Berewah, which people of Christian faith may regard as blasphemous: that Christ was tortured and brutally led to his death because he disrespected the elders; I very much hope he is not alluding to the fact that they plan to treat Charles in like manner and possibly get rid of him by what ever means, so that he does not challenge the SLPP at the 2007 election!! Berewah again, is ascribed to the belief that political parties are there to win elections, irrespective of whether they build roads or carry out any type of developments. Now this tells us what the party is up to, only to win elections but not bother to develop the country for the good of its citizenry, except to cater for the privileged mafia in the party. With such conviction, I can see they would go to any length to win the 2007 elections – that’s what their party is for, they not a party of policies and what they can do for the common man who is being forced to become a rahray boy; how enchanting but most unfortunate for the people of Sierra Leone!!!

If Charles Margai can beckon onto the ragray boys with a clarion call to help them out of their misery, and all the poor and down trodden, a mission is to help elevate them from their predicament and give a place in their society and make them proud of themselves as he Charles is of himself which the old brigade dislike him for, contribute to the development their father/motherland rather worry about the privileged few, then Charles has a far more credible mission and purposefulness to lead Sierra Leone – at least he will help lift a very large proportion of our people from being rahray boys to being useful citizens of the country.

The country must demand and welcome the registration of new political parties, including the PMDC. Such a move will only augur well for removing the strangle hold to ransom of the country by the polarisation caused by APC-SLPP in the body-politic of the country. The people are not being given, nor having any other choice than the APC and SLPP, which from all intent and purposes have now become one and the same entity, filled with the same old cronies for decades.

I have deliberately not mentioned other parties that mushroomed during the onset of the introduction of the multi-party process from which SLPP won, these have all metamorphosed into the SLPP. I have also left out the role of the military because I am more concerned with the civilian and democratic opportunities open to the country which our politicians have squandered. I need not mention the war because all the woes and non performance by the SLPP government is ascribed to the war. Another leaf from the int4ernational scene, other African countries like Mozambique, Angola, Rwanda, etc. have gone through similar wars, but they are making very big strides in their counties development. For Sierra Leone however, the excuse for retrogression is still to do with the war, and will so to perpetuity if the present dispensation is allowed to stay in power.

I urge Kabbah to put in place immediately the commission for registering political parties, for the sake of democracy, fair play and the exercise of the civic right of every Sierra Leonean. No obstacles should be placed on the PMDC to register as a party; and SLPP should dissociate from waging war against Charles Margai. If all Margai does, is woe the rahray boys, the poor, deprived, underprivileged, uneducated, and if they can bring him to power, he would do far better than all that has been done and undone by the APC and Kabbah/Berewa’s SLPP for all these years the country has being suffering in abject poverty in the glaring face of all the natural God given wealth the country is endowed with.

It is time the old order, APC-SLPP be eased out of power and give way to a new order, PMDC. SLPP please, do not embark on any diabolical acts against Charles Margai, nor should you attempt at election rigging. The nation needs to sustain the democratic process and consolidate it with peace and tranquillity. We must move forward as a nation without the likes of the present SLPP clique who have failed the people’s aspirations for so long. After the war, the present problems in the country are associated with poor governance and corruption, which lay squarely at the doorsteps of the Kabbah-led SLPP government which has failed to appropriately address these issues effectively. There is still hope for Sierra Leone, but only if the old order is displaced from power.

(Fayia Kandeh, London).

WHAT A PATHETIC SET OF PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

Wednesday August 31, 2005

Dear editor,

Please allow me to express, once more, my deep sense of sadness for our country. This time, I am sad because of what I have not heard from the presidential candidates. These guys are vying for the presidency of a country that is full of problems needed to be addressed. But all they are doing is arguing like grade school students.

WHAT I WANT TO HEAR:

1.  I want to hear what a candidate will do differently from previous governments that will significantly improve the quality of life of the majority of people in Sierra Leone.

2.  I want to hear about solutions to the epidemic smuggling of our country’s diamonds and gold.

3. I want to hear what the candidates will do about the stupid and senseless Sierra Rutile Agreement (Ratification) Act of 2002.

4.  I want to hear about the ridiculously low 3% total tax (income, valuation, & fees combined) on legally exported diamonds through the GGDO.

5.  I want to hear some explanation about the $721.2 million the IMF claims Sierra Leone has received for various reconstruction efforts since the end of the war.

6.  I want to hear what the candidate will do to control our territorial waters to prevent the estimated $300 million lost in revenue to illegal fishing in Sierra Leone’s waters.

7. I want to hear what public contract administration techniques will be implemented to prevent contractors from getting paid without them first performing their obligations under an awarded and fully funded public contract.

8.  I want to hear what inter departmental information technology applications will be implemented to streamline government operations to be more business friendly and facilitate rapid commerce.

9.  I want to hear how the candidate will build modern integrated highways through Freetown and into the provinces to facilitate rapid commerce, and a comfortable movement of good, services, and people.

10.  I want to hear how the candidate will review and amend or abolish some of the oppressive laws in the country like the out dated 1965 criminal libel law, and the law that allows death penalty for so-called “misprision of treason” crimes.

11. I want to hear about the candidate’s vision with respect to the size of the economy he or she intends to generate, and how.

12.  I want to hear how the candidate will investigate apparent financial misconducts by international financial institutions that indebted our country through corrupt financial practices in collaboration with Sierra Leone government officers.

13.  In essence, I want to hear about real issues that affect the lives of our people.

But my fellow citizens, don’t raise your hopes thinking that the debate is going to change from what they are saying now to anything meaningful. We all know the candidates – they have had countless chances over ages to make meaningful changes in our country. They never did it, and they are not going to do it now. I can’t run for president, but I hope someone with answers to the problems in the country will come along before 2007.

HINGA NORMAN IS NOT ABOVE THE LAW

By Joseph Seidu Sherman, Washington DC

I think that in Sierra Leone, people have the tendency of taking the law for granted especially if it applies to our kith or keen.  As we are all enshrined with certain inalienable rights to dignity, which are the foundations of freedom and justice, those same rights should be extended to every Sierra Leonean irrespective of your tribal affiliation or strong political support.

News about Hinga Norman, War Crimes indictee contesting the leadership of the SLPP and the presidency in Sierra Leone while in incarceration, signals that his supporters are taking the law for granted and encouraging the culture of impunity.

Perhaps no word defines the experiences encountered by innocent civilians in Sierra Leone like the word impunity. The lack of punishment, of investigation, of justice.  The crimes committed during the civil war-from common robberies to rape, torture, murders-without having to face any punishment is an implicit approval of the morality of these crimes.  Our nonchalant attitudes or paying blind eyes to these atrocities is sanctioning that perpetrators of these heinous crimes are free to repeat them any time without fear.

Since the brutal civil war, relatives of the victims are waiting patiently for justice and truth.  Elements of truth and justice are essential for lasting reconciliation and for allowing Sierra Leone to move forward.  At the moment, all rational Sierra Leoneans should allow the rule of law to apply to all the accused irrespective of the popularity of any of the accused.

Can there be lasting peace with impunity alive and well?  The answer is an absolute no!  Impunity is a main factor which allows torture and crimes against humanity to continue.  It promotes further disintegration of the rule of law.  It undermines systems built over years to protect against atrocities.

Finally, supporters of Hinga Norman’s leadership for the SLPP and candidacy for the presidency should allow the rule of law to prevail if Sierra Leone is to experience total peace and reconciliation.  There are many qualified and aspiring candidates out there untainted with the blood of Sierra Leoneans and foreigners killed in the brutal civil war. Giving dim hopes to Hinga Norman that he is above the law is encouraging him to be unrepentant for the crimes he is alleged to have committed against the people of Sierra Leone.

About The Author:

Joseph S. Sherman was an  erstwhile Broadcast Journalist with ELCM
Community Radio, now Radio Veritas, Monrovia, Liberia, and General Editor
of the defunct FOOTPRINT Newspaper, Freetown, Sierra Leone.  At Present
he is a Director of a Multi-Cultural Adult Education Center in
Washington, DC.

SNUBBED BY THE G8: WHAT HOPE FOR DEBT CANCELLATION????

By E.P.J. Vandy

Monday July 11, 2005

The June 11^th 2005 G8 Finance Ministers proposed debt cancellation for some 18 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries, including 15 African countries is a landmark decision. The initiative spearheaded by British Premier Tony Blaire, and backed by the US Administration, when adopted at the upcoming G8 meeting on July 6, 2005, will free some USD 40 B (or an average of USD 1.03 B, a year) cancelled debt service, to use for poverty alleviation. The more than USD 45 M freed from this arrangement will be made available to these countries for utilization in the fight against poverty, on health care and education.

This is good news for Africa, and in particular for the 14 African beneficiary countries, now in jubilant and festive mood. Sierra Leoneans are disappointed to say the least, and questions are now been asked as to what must have gone wrong for us to be excluded, in this first round of draft of the already completed 18 countries? The good news is that, Sierra Leone is among some 9 other completed point countries that will wait out within 18 months to qualify.

Good governance and the tackling of corruption, amongst others are the benchmarks for country eligibility. Mixed signals are now been sent here on the choice of countries like Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, and Uganda, with weak governance, flagrant abuses of human rights violations, and corruption; and categorized by political analyst as worst than Sierra Leone. Democracy is at stake in Uganda, where President Museveni is now poised to govern for according to the opposition, and following an overwhelming parliamentary vote on constitutional changes for a more than 2^nd term rule. Reports are abound that he has ordered the police to lock and clamp down on any political dissent on the matter. Museveni’s quest for power is akin to that of Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, also working tirelessly to consolidate grip on power, with forced brutality by the police, with reported deaths and injury.  Ethiopians are starving today, as a result of his military aggression on neighboring Eritrea, against International restrain.

The snubbed by the G8, at least for now should be looked upon as an opportunity, presenting a challenge. For the administration, it is a wake up call to write some political correctness in the many gray areas castigated and bashed for, mainly to do with good governance and corruption. For once the administration should demonstrate some real commitments on the basic tenants of governance and be serious in the fight against corruption.  But, this is funny! The Government-owned Institution set up to control corruption, is now itself under fire, lambasted by the media and it’s boss marshaled to parliament. But will something come out of it??

What an opportune time for Preso Kabbah to re-define his legacy to the people of Sierra Leone, bordering around corruption, especially where his tenure of office comes to an end in 2007. This Presidency is known for making policy statements, and trust me, he has made a number of them through his tenure, but has been short in following up on them, and on many occasions’ only acts when cornered or pressured?? Perfect timing for a cabinet clean up, following the many controversies of administrative corruption and blunders, but would he? His legacy will be defined on his many failings, if he fails to act now.

The time for rhetoric’s is over.  And the country is on track as recent developments depict it all. Pressure both internal and external is bearing to mount on the administration, with the civil society poised to take the lead, and the administration, itself ready to make amends. Very strong words coming from the President to his own party, the SLPP and warning against any irregularities in the forth-coming party election, with every efforts made to ensure the process is transparent and credible. The new Chairman of the National Electoral Commission, Miss Christiana Thorpe, it seems is on a pretty good start and we wish her well in those reforms. Additionally, the resumption of the most popular public discussion program “Le Di Pipul Tok” on June 16, 2005 on the issue of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper is a welcome move.  We hope that this is not another talking shop, where problems are diagnosed, but left unattended and fixed.

Donor nations are also speaking out loud, and with one accord, calling on the administration to pursue amongst others: a free, transparent and credible election system; determination for reform; sincerity in the fight against corruption, or else risk losing donor funding and support. The US Ambassador, Thomas Hull, while making a statement on his country’s foreign policy to Africa and Sierra Leone in particular, at Mary Kinsley Hall, Fourah Bay College Monday, is quoted to have said, “If the widespread fraud that has tainted past elections in Sierra Leone is not corrected, the assistance from my government and other donors will undoubtedly be redirected to other countries that show greater determination for reform”.   (Concord Times edition: June 16, 2005).

SOLOMON BEREWA’S FLIP FLOPPING ON THE SPECIAL COURT

Tuesday June 14, 2005

“Vice President Solomon Ekuma Berewa has disclosed that during the planning and setting up of the Special Court he and his boss (President Kabbah) never imagined that members of the Civil Defense Forces (CDF) would be candidates for trial at the courts.”
As culled from COCORIOCO

It would be hard to believe that press statements above attributed to vice president Solomon Berewa on the establishment of the Special Court in spite of the public record. It is understandable that in the season of elections, flip flopping instead of coherent statements of purpose become the coin of realm for acquiring votes.  If the press accounts are true as quoted in the Cocorioco article, Mr. Berewa’s statements may be taken in truth with a degree of allowance.  Let us closely look at the quoted statements we are about to trump for their incredulity.

Mr. Berewa says he could not imagine the Prosecutors of the Special Court indicting CDF fighters because they were purportedly heroes – “Mind you they were held out to us as just acting in defence of the nation giving protection to this country.”  We use the adverb, ?purportedly’, to denote Mr. Berewa’s claim that the CDF, “WERE HELD OUT to us as just acting in defence of the nation…”  The context of the sentence has quite a weight. The full import of this assertion is appreciated when we read the whole matter below.

SOLOMON BEREWA: “To be honest with you . eh . to be very frank with you, I never . because I didn’t know how they were operating. Mind you they were held out to us as just acting in defence of the nation giving protection to this country, so it never crossed my mind that even one person in the CDF would have committed a child abuse in the statute of the court. I get it now only from the accounts I get in the papers and on the radio of the proceedings of the court.”

REBUTTAL: We are taken aback that Mr. Berewa, a veteran prosecutor of treason suspects and hitherto, defence counsel for the same, telling us he had no reason to believe the CDF would be tried for war crimes.  If this is not demagoguery we do not know what is.  Mr. Berewa more than any Sierra Leonean or public official knew and had reason to know as chief negotiator for the special court that anyone among the various combatants in the theatre of conflict would likely be prosecuted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.  International law does not distinguish heroes from traitors in combat as he now suggests to us.  Sierra Leone being a member state to the United Nations, as Attorney General, Mr. Berewa must have known the obligations of the Geneva Conventions and crimes within the jurisdiction of international humanitarian law.  He should have known that even if the Laws of Sierra Leone do not cover war crimes and crimes covered by international humanitarian law, he and President Kabbah conceded that fact to the United Nations Secretary General when they requested that a special court be established to avoid impunity for such crimes.  Thus, on August 9, 2000, Ambassador Ibrahim M. Kamara, the permanent representative of Sierra Leone to the United Nations, delivered to the President of the Security Council a letter, dated June 12, from President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in which the latter requested that the UN “initiate a process whereby the United Nations would resolve on setting up a special court for Sierra Leone” to “try and bring to credible justice those members of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and their accomplices responsible for committing crimes against the people of Sierra Leone and for the taking of United Nations peacekeepers as hostages.”

While the letter restricted prosecution to the RUF and its confederates, it left the door wide open for other combatants who may have committed war crimes under international law.  It would be unthinkable to ask an international organization such as the UN to prosecute war crimes yet prosecutors as a rule invariably extend the dragnet of investigations where the evidence leads them. Thus the letter by citing both the precedents of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and its emphasis that Sierra Leonean law does not include substantive war crimes indicated an open door to extend prosecutions beyond the RUF.  President Kabbah even further drew a large province for the United Nations in his letter to broaden the mandate of the special court he was requesting because of the alleged “collapse of the judicial system in Sierra Leone wrought by the conflict.”  In doing so, President Kabbah invited the Security Council to send a fact-finding mission to assess the situation and enclosed a suggested framework for the resulting tribunal.  In fact, an international fact-finders would be less interested in looking at the RUF because the rebel group was already being prosecuted in the High Court of Sierra Leone for treason among other crimes. Thus, Mr. Berewa’s statements as adduced above are incredible for their lack of candour.  But let us press onto his next incredulous statement.
We next rebut a kindred statement to the other unbelievable contentions above.

SOLOMON BEREWA:”I remember the only people who knew what they were doing were their fellow Kamajors of CDF and it is they who are now giving evidence. Nobody else knew, no person who was not in the CDF, – but one thing I would repeat I did not know and I don’t think the President too ever imagined that the CDF would one day be one of the culprits in the dock.”

REBUTTAL: Mr. Berewa alleges that the CDF was never under the command responsibility of the President (the constitutional Commander-in-chief). Mr. Berewa has forgotten, or does not know this provision of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 of the Geneva Conventions:

“Article 43.-Armed forces: The armed forces of a Party to a conflict consist of all organized armed forces, groups and units which are under a command responsible to that Party for the conduct of its subordinates, even if that Party is represented by a government or an authority not recognized by an adverse Party. Such armed forces shall be subject to an internal disciplinary system which, inter alia, shall enforce compliance with the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict. ”

The Sierra Leone government financed the CDF, yet we are now told, its two top officials were unaware of what happened in the theatre. We are nonplused to hear this other statement of incredulity.  At Lome Mr. Berewa negotiated a peace accord that averted all criminal prosecution for war crimes.  He has forgotten that international law and customs do not recognize blanket amnesties for war crimes especially those covered by the Geneva Conventions.  Mr. Berewa appears not to be familiar with the fact the laws of war govern all combatants, whether heros or not.  At Lome Mr. Berewa was aware of this because, the amnesty provision covered ALL combatants.  Thus in Article IX (3), the Lome Accord grants that,

“To consolidate the peace and promote the cause of national reconciliation, the Government of Sierra Leone shall ensure that no official or judicial action is taken against any member of the RUF/SL, ex-AFRC, ex-SLA or CDF in respect of anything done by them in pursuit of their objectives as members of those organisations, since March 1991, up to the time of the signing of the present Agreement….”

Now, if the CDF, according to Mr. Berewa was never to be tried for war crimes, why was it necessary to wrap them in the amnesty and Pardon blanket in Article IX that also covered the notorious RUF and its co-belligerent AFRC? More than this, notice that Article IX (3) also protected the Sierra Leone Armed forces (SLA). Thus if a member of the SLA were indicted today, would Mr. Berewa prevaricate that he could not have imagined the SLA in the Dock? Accordingly, Mr. Berewa knew that the CDF like all other combatants could be prosecuted.

On this same point, Mr. Berewa knows that on the day of the signing of the Lome Accord, the United Nations had instructed the Secretary General’s Special Representative, Ambassador Framcis Okello to protest the blanket amnesty provision by stating an exception to his signature.  That was the clear signal that in due cause, whether under Universal Jurisdiction, the International Criminal Court, or the Special Court, the United Nations would have brought to the attention of Sierra Leone that it did not recognize the amnesty and thus would proceed against all combatants who have allegedly committed war crimes.  In fact, during the special court negotiations, Mr. Berewa was reminded many times that the United Nations’ protested against the Lome amnesty and thus, when the Statute of the Court was negotiated, all amnesties were voided and Mr. Berewa AGREED to that fact as chief negotiated for Sierra Leone.

When questioned that as a lawyer whether he did not have any inclination that the CDF would be tried, Mr. Berewa, repeated his assertions as if their restatement was reasonable explanation.  But we are not blind to the public record.  Once more Mr. Berewa skates on thin ice.

SOLOMON BEREWA:”I knew people of the RUF and AFRC were going to be indicted at the special court because they were the ones I knew who were committing atrocities. The ones we knew who were notorious for the atrocities, whom I thought were the ones that were going to be netted in this thing, were the RUF particularly and to some extent the AFRC as well. And I say the AFRC because I prosecuted those extra judicial executions of those two men I saw all of that. I had a small taste of the evidence because I prosecuted some cases. There was nothing like that for the CDF so I had no basis to assume that the CDF were doing anything that would bring them in the compass of the court. I did not know or imagine that they would bear the greatest responsibilities in the sense of the crimes that were listed.”

REBUTTAL: The assertions above are empty of rationality for Mr. Berewa knows that when he purports “I did not know or imagine that they would bear the greatest responsibilities in the sense of the crimes that were listed [in the Statute],” he exposes himself to the fact that as the chief negotiator, he discussed with UN officials that allegations of violations of the laws of war under international humanitarian law would not vitiate their prosecution against any combatant.  Thus, Secretary General Annan tells us what Mr. Berewa hides from us that he in fact discussed these issues when he reported his findings to the Security Council,

“The Security Council, by its resolution 1315 (2000) of 14 August 2000, requested me to negotiate an agreement with the Government of Sierra Leone to create an independent special court (hereinafter “the Special Court”) to prosecute persons who bear the greatest responsibility for the commission of crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law, as well as crimes under relevant Sierra Leonean law committed within the territory of Sierra Leone.”

The Secretary further reveals what Mr. Berewa has not yet told us,

“The negotiations with the Government of Sierra Leone, represented by the Attorney General and the Minister of Justice [Solomon Berewa], were conducted in two stages. The first stage of the negotiations, held at United Nations Headquarters from 12 to 14 September 2000, focused on the legal framework and constitutive instruments establishing the Special Court: the Agreement between the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone and the Statute of the Special Court which is an integral part thereof.”

And Secretary Annan further reveals that Mr. Berewa, President Kabbah and even the Judiciary knew what was coming when the Secretary reported to the Security Council that,

“Following the Attorney General’s visit to Headquarters, a small United Nations team led by Ralph Zacklin, Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, visited Freetown from 18 to 20 September 2000. Mr. Zacklin was accompanied by Daphna Shraga, Senior Legal Officer, Office of the Legal Counsel, Office of Legal Affairs; Gerald Ganz, Security Coordination Officer, Office of the United Nations Security Coordinator; and Robert Kirkwood, Chief, Buildings Management, International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. During its three-day visit, the team concluded the negotiations on the remaining legal issues, assessed the adequacy of possible premises for the seat of the Special Court, their operational state and security conditions, and had substantive discussions on all aspects of the Special Court with the President of Sierra Leone, senior government officials, members of the judiciary and the legal profession, the Ombudsman, members of civil society, national and international non-governmental organizations and institutions involved in child-care programmes and rehabilitation of child ex-combatants, as well as with senior officials of UNAMSIL”

Thus, when Mr. Berewa says “I did not know or imagine that they would bear the greatest responsibilities in the sense of the crimes that were listed,” except the RUF and the AFRC, we are baffled because Secretary Annan in fact has confirmed that the Security Council required him in Resolution 1315, to negotiate with the Sierra Leone government for a special court which would “prosecute persons who bear the greatest responsibility for the commission of crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law, as well as crimes under relevant Sierra Leonean law committed within the territory of Sierra Leone.”

So who does Mr. Berewa think he is fooling?

Then Mr. Berewa in his incarnation as prospective nominee for the SLPP candidacy, he also asserts new grounds for the role he played in negotiating the special court.

SOLOMON BEREWA: “I negotiated the peace agreement for the government in Lome, I resisted any suggestion for us to introduce into the peace agreement a judicial mechanism for sustaining the peace because there was a very strong lobby from these international human rights organizations that unless there was a judicial mechanism to review the events of the war we are not going to have sustainable peace.”

REBUTTAL: Mr. Berewa may be right in this new assertion presumed at Lome that he resisted the goading of the Moral Guarantors of the Lome Accord to establish a war crimes tribunal to avert impunity.  But what happened on the road to the United Nations to negotiate the special court, did Mr. Berewa have an epiphany at the negotiating table when he agreed to the prosecution terms in the Statute of the special court to include ALL combatants, which would mean the CDF too?

Next, Mr. Berewa claims that at Lome, he was particularly interested in a ceasefire instead of lasting peace when he ways the following.

SOLOMON BEREWA: “I was of the belief, which was shared by the president as well, that all we needed really was to silence the guns and go about our normal business and all would be well with us. So the question of the call for a tribunal we resisted that” he said. Recalling the events leading to the call for the Special Court he said “We all know how it happened and what caused it. We know Sankoh came they were given all they were entitled to, ministerial appointments and so on, and they were treated better than myself. At his quarters at Spur Road 20 something people were gunned down and despite the amnesty that were given to them they were kidnapping, taking UN soldiers as hostage and threatening people.”

REBUTTAL: It is a well-worn reminder that ceasefire agreements are not peace.  To say that he only wanted the rebels to cease hostilities and all would be well for Sierra Leone is a dangerous assumption by any peace negotiator.  To assume also that a blanket amnesty is a surety against war is preposterous. The question impinging at Lome was not when gun blasts should cease, but how to achieve lasting peace and stave off impunity. To Mr. Berewa, giving amnesty to the rebels and going home to celebrate was to be the harbinger of peace. But Mr. Berewa was reminded by Secretary Annan’s report that, in adopting Resolution 1315, the Security Council at its 4186th meeting, on 14 August 2000, stated in its preface that “Recalling that the Special Representative of the Secretary-General appended to his signature of the Lomé Agreement a statement that the United Nations holds the understanding that the amnesty provisions of the Agreement shall not apply to international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law;

“Taking note in this regard of the letter dated 12 June 2000 from the President of Sierra Leone to the Secretary-General and the Suggested Framework attached to it (S/2000/786, annex),”

“Recognizing further the desire of the Government of Sierra Leone for assistance from the United Nations in establishing a strong and credible court that will meet the objectives of bringing justice and ensuring lasting peace.”

Thus when Mr. Berewa claims that the thrust of his aims in the Lome Accord was to establish the absence of gun shots, and go about his business, he forgot that the RUF had signed so many ceasefires and broke them all, to the extent that no one really took their word seriously any more.  Had Mr. Berewa forgotten the Yamousoukro Communique, the Abidjan Accord, the Conakry Accord, the Abuja Ceasefire, all preceding the Lome Accord, to trust the implacable and recalcitrant rebels?

Instead of seeking lasting peace, Mr. Berewa is now telling us that the cessation of hostilities was his kind of peacemaking. So after Sankoh and his cutthroats murdered 19 people at Spur Road, President Kabbah sent a letter to the UN expressing the “desire of the Government of Sierra Leone for assistance from the United Nations in establishing a strong and credible court that will meet the objectives of bringing justice and ensuring lasting peace.”?

SOLOMON BEREWA: “After the incidence there it became apparent that just signing the peace agreement and giving amnesty would not give us peace. So the only thing that would give us peace is if there was an accountability mechanism put in place like the judicial process. That led to the president asking the United Nations Secretary General to put in place a judicial mechanism to address the ills that have occurred during the war. Then the process of course led to the Special Court.”

REBUTTAL: Imagine Attorney General Berewa claiming that he resisted the establishment of a war crimes tribunal at Lome, yet months later, without much reflection on what this sort of court would accomplish, requested “a strong and credible court that will meet the objectives of bringing justice and ensuring lasting peace,” on the proposition of anger against the RUF’s latest bloodshed instead of on knowledge of international humanitarian law.  But while Mr. Berewa was negotiating the special court Agreement and drafting the Statute with the UN, many forces were telling him what this special court would do and is expected to do and we trust he listened.  Thus, in  its resolution of 6 July 2000, the Sierra Leone Bar Association welcomed the proposed establishment of a judicial mechanism to try the perpetrators of violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. It repeated its criticism of the amnesty provision contained in the peace agreement and of subsequent legislation to enforce this provision, and, furthermore, called for the immediate repeal of the amnesty provision. It urged the government to ensure that amnesty or pardon only be granted after a process of truth and reconciliation. NOTING THAT ALL PARTIES TO THE CONFLICT HAD VIOLATED BOTH NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL LAW, the Bar Association called on the government to ensure that prosecutions should not be restricted to one faction or group

Then, on 26 July 2000 Amnesty International issued a report with recommendations. No single individual or party to the conflict should be singled out for prosecution to the exclusion of others. Trials should focus on those most responsible for the gravest abuses of human rights committed since the conflict began in 1991, whether they are members of the RUF, the AFRC, the Sierra Leone Army, or the Civil Defence Forces. Amnesty International opposes the creation of any tribunal or court which would have the sole aim of bringing to justice one named individual or group of individuals. Given that any judicial mechanism established would not be able to try all perpetrators of serious human rights abuses, any process for deciding which alleged perpetrators to prosecute would have to be transparent, impartial and independent of government or other influence. Any process that is not objective and impartial will impede the process of national reconciliation. There should be a non-selective, balanced and independent prosecution policy to ensure that the perpetrators are identified for prosecution regardless of their current political position and allegiance.

Mr. Berewa told us that when he negotiated the Lome Accord, he resisted the pressures of the Moral Guarantors to establish a war crimes tribunal, but he has not told us that when the Sierra Leone Bar Association, Amnesty International among other groups expected Attorney General Berewa to stave off impunity by establishing a court which would prosecute ALL combatants as required by international humanitarian law, he agreed with them. So why is Mr. Berewa now pretending he knows nothing about CDF prosecutions?

FINAL DELIBERATIONS: Mr. Berewa has stoutly claimed surprise at CDF prosecutions on the campaign trail for SLPP delegates. He has a public record he wants to disown by pandering to the notion that the CDF leaders were beyond the Prosecutors’ dragnet.   As others pander and issue demagoguery on the political hustings, Mr. Berewa is abandoning his record to ensure he gets the endorsement of supporters of the CDF.  Two things betray his empty claims to surprise at CDF prosecutions – his experience as a good prosecutor and his incarnation as a bad politician.  In the former role, he betrays his profession because he knows that a clear-minded prosecutor would say what Crane has earlier stated before he arrived in Freetown, “I’ll go where the evidence takes me.”  If that includes all combatants or even the President, then so be it.  In the latter, he sounds like a quintessential rabble-rouser looking for votes.

Had Mr. Berewa being reading about the prosecutions in the other international tribunals, he would have noticed that international humanitarian law prosecutions are no respecter of heroes of war.  That many have protested the indictment and arrest of the CDF, is not a surprise but a natural feeling that those who take up arms to ward of traitors and treachery in particular, are to be appreciated for their patriotism.  For example, news accounts tell us that Croatian General Mirko Norac was indicted for war crimes although thousands viewed him as a war hero, but to prosecutors he was a war crimes suspect. The offences for which General Norac has already been jailed took place in 1991, when more than 50 Croatian Serb civilians were killed around the town of Gospic. He is serving a 12-year sentence. Before he was indicted, more than 100,000 Croatians marched through the Adriatic port of Split to protest his arrest for war crimes. The Mirko Norac case provoked country-wide protests as war veterans organized road blocks and demonstrations for the general. War veterans’ spokesman Mirko Condic told the crowds: “Norac will not be tried in court for defending his country while we are alive.”

But when a head of state calls for a special court and his chief law enforcement officer is delegated executive authority to negotiate its terms, the best bargain must be expected.  In the wake of such statecraft, those who failed to acquit themselves must live with the consequences in spite of their insatiable appetite for power. All we can hope for is that due process of law will justly take it course to exonerate those whom we now presume innocent.  We continue to harbor the notion that the rule of law will protect the innocent parties before this special court.  That is all.

John Lansana Musa

Silver Spring, Maryland

First_Name:  Patrick
Last_Name:  Fatoma
Email_Address:  [email protected]
Address:  15a Mudge Farm,
City:  Freetown
State:  Sierra Leone
Comments:  I am pleased to find to know that Sierra Leoneans out in the rest of the world continue to show interest in what go on in our country. the cocorioko forum must continue to serve as for  analytical discussions and exchanges without the use of force (as had been the case for ten odd years)

On the christiana Thorpe issue, many members of the Civil Society in Sierra Leone know that her appointment is probably one of the good things that heve happened to Sierra Leone in a long time. For her past let me say that everyone is entitled to a past. Miss thorpe’s past has more going for her than against her. Her role in fighting for the rights of girl children that suffered during the war will remain indelible in the minds of human rights and civil society activists. For the chastity vows, too personal to means much in determining her fitness for public positions in post conflict sierra Leone

CHAIRMAN BANYA IS CONFUSED OR POLITRICING

BY

JOHN LEIGH

A news article published in the Concord Times edition of Tuesday, March 8, 2005, under the byline of Mr. Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, stated that Dr. Sama Banya responded to ?claims made by Mr. Moijueh Kaikai and I that SLPP has adopted a policy of excluding overseas party members from contesting positions within the Party’.

I write to inform the general public as well as Party members and officials that at no time have I ever claimed, alleged or insinuated, nor ever stated at any time to anyone that our Party has ever adopted any such policy. As far as I know, no such policy has been adopted.

Reporter Bah went on to quote Dr. Banya as claiming that the so-called policy of marginalizing overseas Party members “is a rumor built out of the imagination of propagandists like Moijueh Kaikai and John Leigh who have made it a point of duty to misinform other party members”.

Dr. Banya must be confused. He is certainly mistaken and must have forgotten that the so-called rumor originated right inside his own headquarters secretariat. In fact, the policy is not a rumor at all. It was a published trial balloon that failed to float.

Again, I wish to inform Party members and officials as well as the general public that at no time have I ever claimed, stated, alleged or insinuated that our Party has ever adopted a policy of excluding overseas Party members from contesting positions within the Party’. Nor is it, or has ever been my policy or practice or record to misinform anyone at any time about anything.

Further, I am not a propagandist by any stretch of the imagination. Lastly, it is clear to those who know me that my culture is totally different from the culture of the bad politics of lying liars. It is a culture long practiced in our country by recycled politicians whose policies and practices provoked a savage war and degraded our people to penury. The end result is that our once successful country has been deposited into the world’s last place position of human well-being and the first place for human misery.

THE 7 MILLION LEONES FOR FESTIVITIES AT BO

The first I heard that insiders within SLPP were seeking to enhance their re-election chances by eliminating competition from overseas members was on January 15, 2005 in Bo. My lieutenants there informed me that a top government official and Party new comer, vying for the SLPP Leader position, had spent several million leones in Bo the previous Saturday (the most frequently amount cited was a whopping Le7,000,000) to sponsor a festive affair at Bo Town Hall so that the Bo Branch of the SLPP’S Young Generation arm would pledge their loyalty to him in his over-ambitious bid to be Sierra Leone’s next president.

Both that official and the SLPP Secretary General reportedly attended the festive event and made speeches. I was told that it was a government-Party official who informed the attendees of the bold plan to marginalize overseas Party members out of leadership positions because overseas Party members were threatening the re-election of a number of officials.

When I visited the Bo Party office a week later, I saw wall-mounted copies of the Democrat newspaper there. The mounted Democrat reported news of the so-called Pledge of Loyalty by the unemployed youths in praise of the ambitious Party new comer.

It was reported to me also by several rank and file Party members that it was at that January 8, 2005, afternoon function in Bo that a member of SLPP’S National Executive Council publicly announced that his insider group will work to exclude overseas members, through a constitutional amendment, from contesting elected Party positions by imposing outrageous residency requirements as pre-conditions to qualify to contest. The Party executive member reportedly boasted that those conditions would be so onerous that no overseas member could possibly qualify to contest any Party office.

CHARLES TAYLOR

This news immediately brought to mind Charles Taylor and the 10-year residency requirement he imposed on overseas Liberians who wanted to contest against him. I knew that Taylor cared nothing about keeping his country down, backward and in ruins with his people starving, so long as he was in charge. I was thus not surprised that like-minded people in our Party would eventually imitate him to indefinitely subjugate and marginalize our people under their failed leadership of lies, selfishness, greed, vindictiveness, incompetence and terrible sanitation.

The SLPP residency pre-condition requirement reportedly enunciated in Bo on January 8, 2005, was news all over Bo town for weeks. I heard it myself at several spots and homes in Bo and in Kenema. Although I hadn’t seen an official statement about the proposed plan to impose residency requirements on overseas Sierra Leoneans, I knew that excluding highly productive and loyal Party members from positions in the Party’s executive council would neatly compliment the crooked intra-Party elections cavalierly staged by Party rogues and rascals in many districts around the country.

I also knew that decent people and officials in the Party would not go for such a backward and self-defeating policy, especially when such a scheme was concocted and was being promoted by well-known kahlow-kahlow elements within our Party’s secretariat.

THE INDEPENDENT OBSERVER PUBLISHED THE GUIDELINES

Another source of the news ascribed to Mr. Kaikai and I by Chairman Banya, is the Independent Observer, a Freetown tabloid. On page one of the Tuesday, January 25^th edition of the Independent Observer, in a news report occupying the whole front page but with no byline, and with a photo of someone resembling Party General Secretary speaking from a high table in the presence of apparent Party bigwigs as a backdrop, I read the lead banner and only headline that stated: “AHEAD OF CONVENTION! SLPP Moves To Eliminate Ineligible Members”.

The page one Observer report specifically stated that the SLPP Secretariat “is drawing up guidelines” to impose residency requirements on overseas and other Party members.

The article stated that the said guidelines would decree that in order (i) to run for the office of Party Leader, a member must have been resident in Sierra Leone – as was in Charles Taylor’s Liberia – for a minimum of 10 years and (ii) to run for any other office, a member must have been resident for a minimum of 5 years. The Independent Observer article also stated that even if a member meets the above residency requirements, he or she will still be ineligible to contest for any party executive position unless that member has been involved in Party affairs for at least 5 years.

I have retained a copy of the said edition of the Independent Observer in my files and for whomsoever may wish to inspect it.

THE POLITRICS OF FAILURE

Thus Dr. Banya must either be playing the usual bad politics of lies associated with our discredited, recycled, lying politicians; or he was confused when he deliberately blamed Mr. Kaikai and I for something we never did – and I will never do.

Instead of blowing off his top and content to unjustly blame innocent Party members, Dr. Banya should check with kahlow-kahlow elements within the Party secretariat as well as with the Publisher of the Independent Observer. Last but not least, Dr. Banya should also check with the Party’s Bo Branch Young Generation members and officers so he could determine the true source of the news about the proposed guidelines to disqualify the most prolific contributors to the success of the SLPP.

POLITRICS AND VISAS PROBLEMS FOR SIERRA LEONEANS

WE Sierra Leoneans should realize that statements and/or attempts made by people in authority, such as Chairman Banya and those in the SLPP secretariat as well as by government officials, that indicate in the slightest degree that officialdom is out to discourage overseas Sierra Leoneans from getting fully involved in the affairs of our country, will simply translate into tighter and tighter visa restrictions and fewer and fewer visas for Sierra Leoneans who would like to travel abroad, among other consequences.

If our leaders indicate that they have no use for Sierra Leoneans who have already gained valuable education and/or experience abroad, officials of other countries would ask, ?why would we allow additional Sierra Leoneans to travel to our shores? Their own people do not want them after we have educated and trained them. Look at the mess in their country! Why let more of them in?’ Public policies concocted around greed and foolish pronouncements by authority figures are costly to the population in many more ways than one.

People in authority should therefore think very carefully before proposing policies that can only damage the future of our own people. Ignorance of how the world works and the lack of knowledge of the calculations that go into decision-making by officials in other countries are some of the liabilities created by our bad politrics of selfishness and vindictiveness. It is our bad politics that dragged Sierra Leone down the road to last place.

STINK AND THE CHAIRMAN

Lastly, I have written enough about the utterly disgusting and sickening stink and stench problem permeating the premises at SLPP headquarters at Rawdon Street, and I need not belabor that issue any further. Suffice it to say that Chairman Banya is full of lame excuses to avoid doing anything effective to properly clean up the place while the Party secretariat premises continue to reek and stink to high heaven.

It is my view that if Chairman Banya does not wish or knows how to work with the other users, tenants and the landlord to solve the approximately 8 year-old sickening stink and stench that has contaminated the air around Party headquarters’ premises, in disregard of the health and/or comfort of all those frequenting the premises, including long-term SLPP workers; then what good can we legitimately expect from him and his leadership group?

CONCLUSION

It is obvious that Chairman Banya is confused or politricing when it comes to acknowledging responsibility for the notorious guidelines instigated by his own secretariat to marginalize overseas Party members. He has now falsely blamed two innocent Party members unjustly.

Chairman Banya also appears to have no valid defenses to the issues of (i) the public’s frustration with our Party-led government as well as (ii) the misplaced over-ambitions of insider Party under-achievers since he has so far failed to address the very specific issues he himself first accused Mr. Kaikai and I of.

Let it be remembered, therefore, that where stink, garbage, darkness, flies, mosquitoes, economic hardship, vindictiveness and frustration flourish, leadership is nothing but a bunch of flunkies – hell bent to indefinitely subjugate and marginalize the people while misleading their international benefactors and keeping our country backward. Those who have a record of achievement and now want to work peacefully to discontinue Party kahlow-kahlow leadership and bring change for the betterment of mankind in Sierra Leone are thus not unduly ambitious. Thanks for your attention. ****JL

COMMENTARY

An Idiot of an Attorney-General

With his rather surly features and near mustache (sic.), Attorney-General Fred Carew looks a little bit like Zimbabwe’s president, Robert Mugabe.

The big difference is that even Mugabe’s bitterest enemies would admit that he is an intelligent man. I don’t think any of Fred Carew’s closest friends would say the same of him.

lecture

On Monday, February 14, 2005, I sat in Carew’s office listening to him lecture me on “objective journalism”.

“Who told you President Kabbah said Okere-Adams (Marine minister) isn’t going? Did he tell you that personally? Don’t write inflaminatory (sic.)headlines just because you want to sell newspapers! As long as I am Attorney-General we will uphold the rule of law here! You have the right tO your opinion but must respect the rights of others… blah, blah, blah”.

horse-radish

I had already been muzzled by SLAJ President I.B. Kargbo and told not to respond to Carew’s horse-radish.
Carew himself had angrily barked at me when I took out my reporter’s notebook and pen to record his buffoonery for posterity.

So I was forced to sit there while the Honourable (??) Attorney-General droned on about our article of February 11 (Kabbah Says Okere Stays).

I had already spent about 66 hours in custody, some in a stinking Central Police station cell, because Carew claimed the article was inciting.On Monday morning I’d been finger printed and was ready to go to court on charges of seditious libel; just one step down from TREASON.

There was nothing remotely libellous about that article (which we reproduce
elsewhere).

press release

It was based on a press release from the Office Of The President (not his Information minister or that other buffoon, his presidential spokesman) arguing that Marine minister Okere-Adams had not been dismissed yet
because, in essence, ‘a man is innocent until proven guilty’.
innocent till found…

Fine point; but what about Harry Will who was sacked in 2000 upon an Anti-Corruption Commission indictment (even before the ACC had proper offices)?

Wasn’t he “innocent until proven guilty”? And, by the way, wasn’t the sacked Agriculture minister found not guilty on the ACC charges (though in controversial circumstances)?

In 2001, Momoh Pujeh got the axe and was dropped from his post as Transport and Communications minister within nano-seconds of being arrested on corruption charges.

Some argue that this was not technically an Anti-Corruption Commission case, since he was held for contravention of the Mines and Minerals Act.But that’s simply quibbling; the point is Pujeh was sacked…presumption of innocence or not.

Under our constitution an appointment to Cabinet is the President’s prerogative. He can  hire and fire at will.

corrupt

The mystery for me isn’t why President Kabbah hasn’t yet fired the indicted Marine minister, but why he hired him in the first place.Okere Adams has a long history of corruption stretching back to his days as catering manager at Njala University College in the 1980s.

The ACC seems to have a strong case against him. If the case is allowed to go on without political interference From Above (more on this later), I’d bet that Okere-Adams will soon be doing jail-time.

north against south?

But let’s move on…Carew’s argument was that the article was ‘inciting’ because I described Okere Adams as a “strong northern ally” of Solomon Berewa as the 2007 transition approaches.

Here is Okere-Adams himself speaking in Bo on Saturday January 8, 2005 while addressing a meeting of the SLPP Young Generation. (Democrat newspaper January 14, 2005).

“We in the North have no other candidate, we have endorsed the V.P a long time ago. So I repeat, if the South does not rise up to the task, the North will seize Berewa!”

Okere-Adams, the SLPP’s Organizing (??) Secretary had earlier said that “we in the SLPP in the North have long ago identified our vice president as a man with character determination and capacity after our president, Alhaji
Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, bows out”.

what’s seditious?

So what’s seditious about my describing Okere-Adams as a “strong northern ally” of Solomon Berewa? I tried, very hard, to ask Fred Carew this question.I’d been ‘invited’ by the CID on Friday, February 11, 2004 at about 2 pm ? just as I was getting ready to attend the funeral o f my comrade Cleo
Hanciles.”Enting we nor get tae eh? I get for go berrin”. I asked Ibrahim Koroma, 3rd in-command at CID who led a 4 man team to ‘invite’ me.

invitation or arrest?

I was reassured that the meeting with the CID director would be a brief one: “he has a message from the Attorney-General for you”.About twenty minutes later, after a brief stop-over at the CID to pick up Director Bockarie Lappia, we were in waiting room of Attorney-General Carew’s 4th floor offices in the Guma Building.

He kept me waiting about 15 minutes while he conferred with the CID director and third-in-command.Ibrahim Koirma (the man who ‘invited’ me and promised that I wouldn’t miss the funeral).

The Great Man…

Finally I was ushered into the presence of The Great Man;whom I quickly discovered was a blithering idiot.

“What is your name?” Carew asked me, fixing me with his tiny, piggish eyes.”Excuse me, you sent for ME didn’t you? You must have some idea of who I am” I replied.

“What is your name?” the Great Blithering Idiot of an Attorney-General repeated monotonously I just stared into space, trying to control my mounting irritation.

Finally I decided it was childish not to answer him and told him my name…which he promptly forget (sic.)…

“Ojukwu, (editor of The Pool newspaper with whom Carew had had an earlier row and who he’d threatened to ‘lock-up’), you cannot intimidate me in my office! I am Attorney-General and this is my office. You will be civil and courteous to me in my office!”

I only interrupted the Attorney-General’s hostile ranting once, to point out that my name wasn’t ‘Ojukwu’. A Blithering Idiot with a power-complex… I was thinking…at the same time wondering whether I could still make Cleo’s funeral at Murraytown.

legal liability

“Did you write this article?” Carew than (sic.) asked me, pointing to Friday’s lead story in Peep!: ‘Kabbah Says Okere Stays!’ This man is really found of stupid questions I thought…ignoring him the first two times he asked me before patiently explaining that since he was a lawyer, (presumably), he should be aware that it wasn’t relevant. I was editor of a registered newspaper, my name was on the imprint and I was legally liable for anything contained therein; whether I wrote it or not. I also explained to the Attorney General as patiently as I could, that if he
had a complaint about the article he should tell me: (he’d already wasted enough of my time and I had a funeral to attend I thought, but did not say).

incitement

“This is incitement!” he said pointing to the aforementioned last paragraph about Okere, “Berewa’s strong northern ally”.

Carew then motioned to the Director of CID and the CID Crime director,who’d sat there like obedient school-boys while this exchange was going on. “I want you to put him (apparently he’d forgotten my name again!) under your care until you investigate this story. Then we’ll decide what to do.You can go now”.

weak case

More amused than annoyed I looked at Carew and asked him ? “this is your case?”. “That’s not incitement ? you don’t have a case! Thank you for wasting my afternoon!” I said as I followed the CID crack squad out of the door. Still technically ‘under invitation’ ? not arrest by the CID, I was then whisked down to their headquarters again to make a statement.

TO BE CONTINUED

First_Name:  Hashim
Last_Name:  Daboh
Email_Address:  [email protected]
Address:  714 Market Street
City:  Philadelphia
State:  PA
Zip_Code:  19106
Comments:  My dear Kabs,

Well I’am one of your readers who is astounded and bemused by your December 20.Editorial on Kabba’s call for “change of attitude” toward the misappropiation of public funds by his political appointees.

It’s never a plus when people of your kind decides to sway from the norms of good reporting and editorial writing . I therefore find it quiet disturbibing that you can hail Tejan and lamblast his lieutenants whom he hired and can only continue the loot (he himself referred to at Aureol  a ) at his discretion.

Who else do you expect the world to take blame for the massive plundering of the state’s coffer by Ministers and Directors -the Police . I say the police because in disenchanted Sierra Leone the police force is always stigmatized with finacial corruption even though the average police officer doaen’t issue or sign a check.

Have you lately asked yourself how the OAU housing deals ended,or how are Ministers funding their  Construction projects ,support their kids in Schools abroad. Kabbah knows that his men are absolutely corrupt and he is aware  that his VP moved the govt. central bidding office to his Tower hill office without proper debate. And guess how has govt. contractss being awarded and please tell TJ to tell all of us the performance  of those Berewa give-a-friend contracts especially the School constructions and equiping.
Simple and clear,from the unset Tjhas been corupt and will always be a corrupt man till death do us part.
Only 40% of all reconstruction funds got to destination; the rest ended up in housing for the Kabbahs. Just compare the NPRC at total war without any UN robust military support and the Kabbah no-more war term preformance.

Every good thing that the NPRC accomplished has been reversed. In his first term we who voted him in asked our opponents to give him a chance as the war was a difficult atmosphere for any concrete development. But now the war is gone and nothing to veil his ineptitude and lack of vision,he is now crying  what his ministers have been engaged in for the past two terms.

Corrution is so pervasive in the country that even democratic architects and primary financial backers like Britain and the United States are baffeled if not disillusioned with the guy and his performance. I hope you have been reading reports about statements on corruption and the general fustrarion of donors over the blantant misuse of public funds by politicians,but it seems no one is listening.

Hey! kabs tell TJ to have an  comprehensive introspective diagnosis of his service to the people,but who cares if Paul Kamara can languish in jail for raising  such issues as the Bekous Betts reports.
Kabbah is corrupt so are his apponitees and nothing less. Why do you think he brought in Ngor JBDo teach him more of the Eku-tay tactics of ill management. Let TJ shut up and repent for his bad governance. So that editorial is wrong ,misleading and illadvised.
Merry christmas nad a better New year to come.

Hashim

From: Hilton E. Fyle

Woodbridge, Virginia.

October 20, 2004

Dear John Leigh,

This is my reply to your recent statement about me on the Sierra Leone Web.

First let me sympathize with you for the recent upheavals in your life, especially your dismissal as Sierra Leone’s ambassador to the USA. To suffer such a “stroke” after banging the drum with jungle enthusiasm for so long must have been traumatic, but I’m sure President Kabbah had his reasons for doing so. Remember also that during the AFRC crisis you were overtly and nauseatingly undiplomatic. Some of your Press Releases carried the type of brutality that was unfit for broadcast. You also set the American authorities in pursuit of certain embassy officials who continued working under the AFRC to feed their families. You reclassified their work as criminal and terrorist-related, ruined their lives and seriously disrupted their family equilibrium. One of those persons is crying each day in prayer for God’s justice on you. Perhaps God is  beginning to answer.

Second. Thank you for giving publicity to my book o Sierra Leone entitled,” The Fighter From Death Row”, published online by UPublish.com. I am surprised that you criticize it. But where is the book you have written on Sierra Leone, on mice, on anything? Can you write books? No, certainly not on Sierra Leone politics, because you were never there. You are American. That you were appointed ambassador is meaningless in this case. In a crisis the ambassador is merely a spokesperson. He says what he is told to say. President Kabbah could have got his driver, cleaned him up, given him the position and enjoyed compliance. Being an ambassador  is not always synonymous with knowledge about  your country. I am sure the President did in fact realize that after all you were just another empty bucket  making a useless, deafening noise. So he gave you the boot.

Third. You talk about my crimes under the AFRC. Here is a suggestion. List those crimes in detail on this website as soon as possible for everyone to see. Remember to be specific. Then send the information and all the evidence you have to the International War Crimes Court in Freetown. Tell them I live in Woodbridge, Virginia, and order them to come and get me. You only appeared once in court during my Treason Trial with a swollen Zaki stomach and an ill-fitting jacket with pants that did not even match. If you had been there each day you would,as an American, have denounced my case as a travesty of justice. I was only accused of talking. In a democracy free _expression is one of the  fundamental hallmarks. It is a right.

Fourth. I throw this challenge at you. Don’t keep on pumping out all that hot air facelessly from behind the Internet. Come out and let us debate Sierra Leone face to face, in front of an audience and an independent American moderator. Bring two of your disciples with you. I shall be alone. But I warn you. The heavenly power that delivered me from Death Row will be on my side.

Finally, you sound as though you love Sierra Leone and support President Tejan Kabbah. That is good. So what are you still doing in the USA? Why are you not there to help him grapple with the multifarious problems that follow a devastating civil war? Here is the answer. You have nothing constructive to offer. Sierra Leone is in healing now, albeit a slow process. Whats needed now are fat brains, pregnant with ideas for improving our peoples lives, not mentally bankrupt windbags whose hobby is to raise the temperature from  a safe, comfortable distance.

I hope the world now knows the real John Leigh.

Goodbye John Windbag Leigh. May God save Sierra Leone from mercenaric opportunists like you.

Hilton E. Fyle

Do you Yahoo!?

Amended copy

FYLE FLASIFIES THE RECORD OF THE FIRST SLPP ADMINISTRATION

By

John Leigh

I read in Cocorioko the other day, the untrue accusations contained in numerous inaccurate statements by Mr. Hilton Fyle (“Fyle”), a well-known Sierra Leonean Broadcast journalist, against the first SLPP Administration of President Kabbah at a recent event in Somerset, New Jersey, USA and posted on the web.

As is common knowledge, the first SLPP Administration came into power on March 31, 1996, through democratic elections after a second round of voting.  It was then overthrown in a violent coup on May 25, 1997 by renegade elements of the Sierra Leone Army.  In February 1998, ECOMOG restored the first SLPP Administration in 30 years, together with our then five-party parliament, to its rightful place of authority under the Constitution of Sierra Leone.

It was the same government whose term ended in May 2002 when the SLPP, again with President Kabbah as its leader, was re-elected with a substantially increased majority.

A.  SUMMARY OF HILTON FYLE’S ACCUSATIONS AND ALLEGATIONS

According to Cocorioko, Mr. Fyle made a speech at a Fundraising and Awards Dinner in New Jersey on September 25.  Certain US-based officers and supporters of the All Peoples Congress are said to have organized the event in honor of His Worship the Mayor of Freetown, Mr. WinStanley Johnson, who was supposed to be present at the event but wasn’t.   During the said speech, Fyle said that:

1.  He returned to Sierra Leone after retirement at BBC because he trusted and believed the pledge of the SLPP Government to the world to restore multi-party democracy in Sierra Leone after the SLPP came to power in 1996 since the SLPP Government was composed of many qualified individuals.

2.  He decided to return home to use the knowledge and experience he had gained overseas for the benefit of Sierra Leone.

3.  Everything he broadcast on his radio or wrote in his newspaper was designed to promote the spirit of democracy, which he believed had been revived in Sierra Leone under President Kabbah.  But he soon realized that the SLPP Government’s promises to revive and promote democracy were false and that SLPP under Kabbah had no intention whatsoever to make democracy work in Sierra Leone.

4.  Instead of promoting democracy, the SLPP Government was more inclined in perpetuating retrogressive Afro-leadership mentality; i.e. that one single individual – the chief – is always right all the time and only he has the correct answers to any and all of the nation’s ills and that any expression of free speech by any other individual is deemed a threat to his personal power.

5.    President Kabbah came to dislike him for the truths he broadcast or wrote and that President Kabbah hated him because he spoke the truth about the exiled government’s plan to use foreign troops and mercenaries to invade the country and restore the lawfully elected SLPP government.

6.  He opposed the use of force to restore the exiled government because he claimed violence was unnecessary as the soldiers (i.e. coupligans) had signed an accord with the government and faithfully promised to hand power back to President Kabbah in six months.   He said he was sure the AFRC/RUF junta would hand power back to the duly elected SLPP Government because the international community and the people of Sierra Leone had put the junta under tremendous pressure to vacate the power that they had unlawfully confiscated by force and violence from the duly elected government.

7.  His opposition to the use of foreign troops and mercenaries was based on his fears that thousands of innocent people would be killed and heavy damage inflicted on the country and that it was best for the exiled SLPP Government to have waited patiently for the six month period (provided for under the Conakry Accords) to expire before taking any action to reclaim power.  However, according to Fyle, President Kabbah was so greedy for power he was too impatient to use peaceful means and anyone who opposed the use of violence to return the SLPP Government to power became his enemy.

8.  Upon the return of the exile government, he was arrested, badly beaten and cast into prison where he and numerous others were charged with treason, tried, found guilty and sentence to death by hanging.  He said President Kabbah would have had all of them executed but that God answered their fervent prayers when RUF/ARFC rebels captured the capital, burst open the prison doors and freed all of them.   They then escaped into the bush with the retreating rebels suffering horrible deprivations but survived through the grace of God.

9.   He has forgiven President Kabbah and his SLPP Government and that he has been admonishing others similarly treated by the government to forgive and forget because Fyle said that he believes that there would be no peace and progress at home if we Sierra Leoneans did not practice the virtue of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Fyle concluded by calling on all Sierra Leoneans not to leave the destiny of Sierra Leone in the hands of the corrupt and uncommitted politicians.  He advised his audience to make their voices heard for the good of our country.

B.  FYLE’S FALSITIES POSTED IN THE INTERNET

I was supposed to have been at the New Jersey function at which Fyle delivered his keynote speech but I had a family function elsewhere that same evening that I attended.  So, I never showed up in New Jersey but mailed my contribution anyway to help our new Mayor get started.

Early the following week, a friend telephoned to tell me about the outrageous lying statements Fyle’s made at the function.  Mr. Cecil Samba attended the fundraiser as the invited representative of the SLPP-North America.  According to Cecil, only 50 people attended the event and Fyle spoke a lot of trash that offended several of the other guests.

A few days later, Mr. Moijueh Kaikai, an Executive Council member of the SLPP UK Branch, called to tell me that the same abusive Fyle speech Cecil complained about has been reported at the Cocorioko website and that I need to take a look at it and respond because too many damaging untruths about SLPP, arising out of Fyle’s speech, were circulating over the internet.

When I finally opened the Cocorioko web page later last week, I was repulsed by Fyle’s numerous outright lies.   In retrospect, I was delighted that I stayed away from the New Jersey event for I would surely have wasted my time listening to Fyle’s lies.

C.  ESCAPED FROM DEATH ROW

Years ago, I read the crudely written, poorly edited (if edited at all) and primitively bound first edition of Fyle’s book.  I forgot the title of Fyle’s book, a book I had long ago given away.  But it was something like “Escape From Death Row“, or “My Escape From Death Row” or something similar.

Fyle wrote about his months of incarceration on death row at the Pademba Road Prison and his extremely lucky escape from the hangman’s gallows.  Earlier, Fyle had been found guilty of treason and was awaiting execution when the AFRC/RUF insurgents, re-entered Freetown in January 6, 1999, broke open Pademba Road prison and let the prisoners out, including Fyle.

Fyle then fled to the bush in the company of retreating rebels and eventually made his way to the United States where he received political asylum in May 2004 from the US Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.

In his book, Fyle made the shocking and childish statement that he did not believe that the AFRC/RUF junta was an illegal regime because as far as he was concerned “all governments came from God.”  When I came across this passage, I knew the author was nuts, a real wacko, because even unschooled people know that governments are man-made and that the AFRC/RUF junta came from the barrel of the guns of renegade soldiers while the SLPP was voted into office by the citizens of Sierra Leone.

Fyle knew, or should have known that the junta had no heavenly origin for he was present on the ground in Freetown when the bloody and satanic coup occurred.  Fyle also knew that the AFRC/RUF had no heavenly authority for he personally ingratiated himself with the coupligans directly rather than through any supernatural medium, by aiding and abetting their criminal activities here on earth via his abuse of the airwaves; in his unholy attempts to gain their favor and ascend in power and influence by crooked shortcuts.

Given his professional success with BBC’s Network Africa program, Fyle will not be able to present himself as a moron who truly believed that the AFRC/RUF regime was God’s creation.  Fyle knew what he was doing.  He was a deliberate conniver for his own profit and a lying scoundrel after the fact.

D.  FYLE’S ESCAPE WAS GOOD NEWS TO CIVIL LIBERTARIANS

Although I strongly disapproved of Fyle’s role during the violent regime of the coupligans, I was relieved at his escape and that of several others from prison for I firmly believe that incarceration in deplorable Pademba Road Prison and the death penalty are cruel and inhuman punishments, especially in light of our post-independence history of malfeasant political and military leadership and the other numerous notorious governance vices that have kept Sierra Leone at the bottom of the UN Human Development Index.

Corrupt and evil politicians and military tyrants who have committed worse crimes than Hilton Fyle were never arrested, let alone brutally beaten up, charged with treason, tried, convicted and sentenced to death.  Moreover, the habit of beating and abusively manhandling those arrested is uncivilized and unlawful and such barbaric practices must cease in our country if we are serious about joining the community of civilized nations.

Even so, the amnesty that Fyle and other coup perpetrators and collaborators benefited from under the Lome Agreement disturbed me greatly, but it is a necessary bitter pill that many people believe we all had to swallow if we wanted an end to the terrible war.

Presently, I am opposed to the grant of political asylum to Hilton File by the United States because Fyle clearly aided and abetted the persecution of innocent civilians during his offensive alliance with the AFRC/RUF coupligans.

E.  FYLE IS A LIAR.

Having said all this, I can tell you again that much of what Fyle alleged against President Kabbah’s first SLPP Administration are lies, wholly lacking any factual basis.  Fyle has now struck me as a lowlife, lying liar; lying licentious lies liberally to hide his treasonous conduct.  Fyle’s treason was ingratiating himself with brutal, illegal coup regimes in Sierra Leone as a shortcut, in my view, to gain the benefits and advantages that he returned to Sierra Leone to aggrandize for himself, regardless of the suffering of the innocent people he willfully trampled upon on his way to cozying-up with the junta.

After benefiting from a blanket amnesty under Lome and after having obtained asylum in the United States, Fyle has no reason to lie anymore.  Instead of publicizing outrageous lies about the first SLPP administration, Fyle should have apologized to the people of Sierra Leone for aiding and abetting the AFRC/RUF junta as well as the military junta before that, the NPRC.   He should also apologize to President Kabbah for the despicable threats he made against him during the interregnum as disclosed below.

F.  FYLE HAS NOT FORGIVEN ANYONE

Despite his claims to the contrary, Fyle’s persistent lies during the APC New Jersey fundraiser and before, demonstrate beyond every shadow of a doubt that he has not forgiven anyone or forgotten anything for if he were a true forgiver he would first recognize the plain truth and apologize.  Fyle, on the other hand, is still in a state of denial for his outrageous lies show that he does not accept the fact obvious to millions of people that his collaboration with the blood-spilling, gang-raping, looting, maiming and violent junta constituted heinous crimes against humanity.

G.   FYLE IS FULL OF FALSITIES

1.       Fyle Returned Home For His Own Purposes

Fyle lied when he asserted that he returned home because he was lured by Kabbah’s promises and that everything he broadcast or wrote was designed to promote the spirit of democracy and to benefit the people.

First, Fyle did not retire from the BBC and return home because of anything the SLPP or Tejan Kabbah did or said.  Nor did the composition of Tejan Kabbah’s first SLPP administration have any thing to do with Fyle’s decision to return home.  Moreover, Fyle did not return home to put his communications expertise into use for the benefit of Sierra Leone, nor did his actions show that he sought to promote democracy.

Fyle had returned home way before the 1996 elections and had established his radio station and published a newspaper that was not successful.  The radio he used as an active political weapon.  Thus, Fyle returned home to try his hand in business and politics.  His broadcasting and newspaper businesses were not charitable organizations. They were for-profit entities and Fyle ran those businesses for his own benefit, not that of the people of Sierra Leone.  He used his assets to promote his political career, not help the country.

2.  Alleged Conflict Of Interest With BBC

Long before the first SLPP government and Kabbah assumed office in early 1996, Fyle had ingratiated himself with the military boys.  In 1992, Hilton Fyle Productions had produced a 100-minute video in praise of the NPRC junta of junior officers that overthrew President Momoh of the APC.  The Video, entitled “Nightmare in Paradise”, was clearly propaganda and portions were in very poor taste.

For example, most of the interview portion consisted of imbecilic, spoon-fed questions to clearly underdeveloped coup people and who then spewed simplistic answers, backed by heavy but unwarranted praises from the narrator.  Guess who narrated? Hilton Fyle.

In the segment showing the funeral of a young military officer killed at the war front, Captain Benjamin, Mrs. Valentine Strasser was proudly shown in a hot pink dress arriving at the Church for the service.  Now, no sensible or genuine mourner or professional film director would want to be associated with such flamboyant dress by the ?First Lady’ at as solemn a ceremony as a funeral of a young man cut down by savage killers while in the service of his beloved country.

Incidentally, it was Fyle’s involvement with the NPRC boys that was widely rumored as having created the conflict of interest with the BBC that led to his retirement.

3.  Mouthpiece For The ?Peace-Before-Elections’ Group

After Strasser was deposed in a palace coup, Fyle soon became a mouthpiece for the NPRC2-instigated anti-democratic ?Peace Before Elections‘ campaign.  Many people believed that this campaign was nothing but a ruse, a trick, a ploy, a subterfuge to prolong the incumbency of the NPRC2 military regime along with Fyle’s influence.  Fyle’s broadcasting skills were at the forefront on the side of NPRC2 in the propaganda war in that hotly contested issue of when to reinstate democracy.  Eventually, massive street demonstrations led by Sierra Leone’s women and youth groups, brought the Hon. Dame Chalker, UK’s then Overseas Development Minister, to Freetown to read the Riot Act to the junior officers’ junta.

Dame Chalker told the NPRC2 junta leaders that they either agree to permit elections forthwith with international assistance or else “UK will come and get you”.   To make the junta’s demise palatable, the United States, through Ambassador John Hirsch, put some honey in the deal by offering leading junta members US visas, college scholarships, and generous pocket money.  Dame Chalker supported the American sugarcoating by including in the deal, UK visas and colleges as well.

Parliamentary and Presidential elections came in February and March 1996.  The SLPP presidential candidate Tejan Kabbah won.  Kabbah’s SLPP Government left Hilton Fyle alone.  Fyle went about his daily business with absolutely no one bothering him at all.

4.   Wake-up Telephone Call From Banjul

On or about 4:30 AM on Sunday May 26, 1997, I received an urgent telephone call at the dilapidated Sierra Leone ambassador’s residence in Washington, DC from my brother-in-law in Banjul, Dr. Ulric Jones, saying that the first SLPP Government in 30 years had been overthrown in a most violent coup and that he had no information about the whereabouts of the president and members of his government and was very worried.  The situation in Freetown, Ulric told me, was reported to him as very desperate as killings and widespread looting were on-going, and with people trembling in fear in their homes and foregoing Church services that day.

Ulric was very worried about the fate of the new SLPP Government because members of the Jones family have a deep interest in the success of the SLPP.  Ulric’s late uncle, the Rev. Eldridge Jones alias Lamina Sankoh, a progressive Creole, had been a co-founder of the SLPP along with the Dr. Milton Margai, Bai Farama Tass II, Dr. John Kerefa-Smart and others.   Ulric was also very concerned about the on-going violence and looting.

I thanked him for the information and went to work from that point on forward, entirely on my own initiative to reverse the coup in its entirety, something that had never been done before by an African ambassador.

Shortly thereafter, Radio Hilton Fyle was in the air again condemning Tejan Kabbah and the SLPP and praising the AFRC junta notwithstanding the junta’s horrific impositions upon a resisting population and the powerful presence in the junta of the RUF rebels led by Maskita.  At the time, the RUF was well known nationally and internationally for its accumulated trail of blood, maimed flesh, looting and its spread of deadly infectious diseases transmitted during violent gang rapes – from grandmothers to babies and from one end of the country to the other.

5.  Fyle’s Nickname was: “Ah Go Cut You Off O”.

During this period of great calamity for many people – men, women and children, Fyle operated a call-in talk show program on current affairs in Radio Hilton Fyle.  His tactic was quite notorious and well known to many people that suffered untold pains and deprivations under the crushing power of AFRC/RUF’s brutality and intolerance.

Fyle would solicit listeners to telephone him live during the show and air their opinions about current events.   Listeners would then call to state their honest opinions about how they viewed the coup situation in the country.

Fyle would listen.  If the caller appeared sympathetic to the AFRC/RUF gang of murderers and criminals, Fyle would allow the caller to speak as long as the caller chooses, while Fyle would assist such callers with helpful and very favorable interjections throughout the callers’ time on the air.  Fyle’s interjections include praises for junta leaders, the RUF and heaping heavy abuse on, in addition to Tejan Kabbah, Dr. Julius Spencer and Ali Bangura, Dr. James Jonah, Desmond Luke, me and others.

But let a caller begin to say anything positive about Tejan Kabbah, the SLPP or democracy and Fyle would instantly get huffy, puffy, inpatient and then outright rude and threatening.  If the pro-democracy or pro-SLPP caller continued, Fyle would threaten to cut off the caller off the air – and he frequently did so.  Soon people began referring to Fyle behind his back with a new nickname, i.e.  “Ah Go Cut You Off O “.

Junta forces later killed or gang-raped some of the pro-democracy callers and demonstrators who took part in the Fyle call-in talk show.

When the AFRC/RUF junta sentenced Chief Justice Desmond Luke, Ambassador Dr. James Jonah and me to death for opposing the coup regime, Fyle announced the decision over his radio with sadistic glee and directed his listeners to the billboard behind the old Paramount Hotel by Soldier Street where our ?Wanted Poster’ was mounted.

H.   THE CONAKRY AGREEMENT

Hilton Fyle’s next set of lies misstates the parties to, and misapplies the terms of, the Conakry Agreement.

1.  SLPP Government was Not A Party To The Conakry Agreement

First, Fyle’s claim that the first SLPP Government of Tejan Kabbah had an agreement with the AFRC/RUF junta that permitted the AFRC/RUF junta to continue in power for six months is absolutely false.  The Conakry Agreement that Fyle was referring to was between ECOWAS and the AFRC/RUF junta.  The exiled first SLPP Tejan Kabbah Administration was not a party to that agreement and took no part whatsoever in the negotiations with the delegation representing the leader of the coup-mongers, Major Johnny Paul Koroma. President Kabbah was in fact not consulted during the negotiations.

One thing I remember about the junta leader during this period was that Koroma was in the ludicrous situation of not being able to correctly pronounce the name of the country that he purportedly was the head of state.  So, instead of saying ?Sierra Leone’, Koroma would instead struggled with Sherh-sherh-sherh-Lyeon.  Fyle glossed over this hilarity!

Second, the Conakry Agreement laid out ECOWAS’ Six-Month Peace Plan For Sierra Leone that was agreed to by the AFRC/RUF junta.  Fyle in his above-described speech sought to leave the false impression that the agreement gave Johnny Paul Koroma the carter blanc authority to govern Sierra Leone as he pleased for six months (said to be enough time for the criminal gang to steal a bundle of money each and cause as much damage as possible before fleeing) and only then was he required to hand over power to Tejan Kabbah.   That was not the agreement at all.

2.       The CPP Was A Step-by-Step Peace Plan Rather Than A One Shot Deal

The Conakry Agreement contained a detailed schedule of implementation under which certain actions had to be taken by specific dates beginning with the very date of the agreement, i.e. October 23, 1997 and continuing through November and December, etc. before terminating with the restoration of the elected government and a general amnesty to the junta and its collaborators in six months time, i.e. May 22, 1998.

For example, the Conakry Peace Plan (“CPP”) called for the immediate establishment of a “monitoring and verification mechanism” to take charge of the “Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration of Combatants” between December 1 and 31, 1997.

3.  The AFRC/RUF Junta Acted In Bad Faith, Not Faithfully

When the then ECOWAS Commander in Sierra Leone, Major-General Victor Malu, sought the AFRC/RUF junta’s cooperation in implementing the very first requirement as mandated in the schedule of implementation shortly after the signing ceremony, the ARFC/RUF junta began behaving in a recalcitrant manner, clearly exhibiting their intention to hinder, delay, frustrate and abandon the implementation of the CPP so they could entrench their hold on Power by unlawful means in breach of the CPP.

(a)   The Junta Used Extraneous Issues To Derail The Conakry Peace Plan

First, the junta decided not to deal with Gen. Malu or do anything to implement the CPP until Foday Sankoh, the RUF leader, was released from Nigerian detention.  This sudden AFRC/RUF ploy was staged even though Sankoh’s situation was never brought up by the coupligans during the Conakry negotiations and was never a part of the ECOWAS Six- Month Peace Plan For Sierra Leone, and which plan was agreed to by the AFRC/RUF.

Next, the junta arrogantly claimed they could not be disarmed because they constituted the Sierra Leone National Army.  This claim was contrary to the expressed provision of the CPP.

The junta refused to recognize the plain fact that the genuine Sierra Leone Army, led by Brigadier Carew and Col. Robert Koroma, was still defending the national constitution and thus Sierra Leone’s elected president and parliament.  The SL Army of loyalists was the group ECOWAS exempted from disarming and demobilization, not the renegade ARFC coup group under Koroma that had by then allied itself with the RUF.
(b) The Junta Violated Expressed Provisions of The Conakry Peace Plan

Meanwhile, not only did the AFRC/RUF junta refuse to cooperate and began erecting further obstacles to prevent the implementation of the CPP, they were also busy arming themselves, increasing recruiting and violating the embargo imposed on shipping in breach of the CPP.  The junta was committing crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone, contrary to the CPP command to terminate all “hostilities throughout Sierra Leone” as well as the command to respect the internationally embargo imposed on the junta.

The AFRC/RUF maneuvers to frustrate the implementation of the CPP were so glaring that the junta’s Foreign Minister, Paolo Bangura, resigned at one point.

For Fyle to ignore all of the above tricks by his criminal colleagues during his New Jersey speech against the SLPP is testimony to his guilt of lying about his complicity in the infliction of intolerable suffering upon innocent people for his own political gain.

4.  Fyle Was In His Element Threatening The President With Physical Harm

During this period, Hilton Fyle was having a field day on the airwaves.  He refused to listen to relatives and friends who begged him to desist from his incomprehensible pro-junta activities.  His relatives advised him repeatedly that the AFRC/RUF coupligans were not the types of people someone like Fyle should be associating with.  Fyle couldn’t care less.  He ignored his relatives.  He turned against his friends and told then that the only way to gain power in Sierra Leone and have a say in governing his country was via a coup.  Therefore, he was going to stay ?with the government (i.e. the junta) all the way’.

Fyle was continually in the forefront telling his listeners that Tejan Kabbah will never be allowed to return to Sierra Leone.   But should Kabbah dare to return to Sierra Leone, Fyle himself would personally welcome Kabbah by doing certain unprintable things to the president’s anatomy.  This kind of savage threat was very common with Fyle and his colleagues under the atmosphere of fear and barbarism pervading the air in Freetown.

5.  Fyle May Be A Congenital Liar

It was my view that Fyle and his coup colleagues were determined to retain power for their personal gratification by whatever foul means at their disposal.  Fyle is the same individual who is now saying in public that the AFRC/RUF junta was faithful in its pledge to surrender power to the duly elected SLPP government of Tejan Kabbah at the time set forth in the Conakry Peace Plan.   Fyle clearly lied to his APC audience about the CPP and the use of his expertise to promote the spirit of democracy.  Fyle must be a born liar incapable of speaking the truth even when he has no reason to lie.

For the convenience of readers, I have attached the full text of the ECOWAS Six Month Peace Plan (i.e. the CPP), which was negotiated and signed in Conakry by the AFRC.

I.    FYLE’S REPORTED FEAR OF FOREIGN TROOPS WAS A RUSE

Fyle’s fear of “foreign” troops causing damage has more to do with his fear of loosing his own crooked power and status in society under the AFRC/RUF junta than for any concern for any collateral damage to the population or to the country’s infrastructure as he falsely claimed.  Fyle was certain that the arrival of ECOMOG meant the end of the junta and the freeing of people suffering under their abusive regime.

If Fyle were concerned about any harm to the population and infrastructure, he would have long ago opposed the killings, raping, looting, maiming, burning and abuse of the population by the AFRC, RUF and their cooperating criminals.  Fyle was not only silent about the atrocities committed by the junta, he praised them; he also threatened President Kabbah and other public personalities associated with the first SLPP Administration for the sole purpose of prolonging and strengthening the junta’s hold on power so he could continue to enjoy his personal benefits under the rogue coupligan regime.

Besides, the so-called foreign troops were none other than ECOMOG troops already in the country at the authority of the duly elected government to fight the RUF and restore legitimate authority.  They were not foreign.  They are African and belonging to a group – ECOWAS – of which Sierra Leone was and is a full-fledged Member State.

J.  IT WAS THE AFRC, NOT KABBAH, THAT WAS GREEDY FOR POWER

Fyle claimed that ECOMOG’S used military force to prematurely evict the AFRC/RUF junta from power in violation of the CPP because Kabbah was too greedy for power.  Again, Fyle is completely wrong.  As set forth above, ECOMOG’S action in February 1998 was the logical consequence of the junta refusing to comply with the terms of the CPP that they themselves negotiated, thus rendering the CPP null and void. As we have seen, the junta repeatedly sought to sabotage it by seeking to nullify the embargo on weapons, shipping and hostilities, as well as insisting on the release of RUF Foday Sankoh so he could join them in the junta as their Vice Chairman.

Kabbah was not greedy for power any more than an individual seeking that which is his lawful due, can be considered greedy.  He was the one who was elected President of Sierra Leone for a 5-year term in broad daylight in elections considered free and fair by the whole world.  Barely 13 months into his term, junta members at the dead of night used guns, intended for the defense of our country, to steal from him the authority to govern Sierra Leone.  What Kabbah did was what any reasonable person would do under the same or similar circumstances: fight back to gain what was unlawfully stolen from him at the dead of night.

K.   FYLE MAY NOT HAVE OBTAINED US ASYLUM LEGITIMATEY

As stated above, during May this year, the US Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, approved Fyle’s application for asylum.  After reading the Cocorioko report of Fyle’s speech at the APC fundraiser on September 25, 2004, I am inclined to believe that Fyle’s obtained his asylum grant probably because he failed to truthfully disclose his true role during the interregnum, contrary to US law.

I know from my understanding of US Immigration Laws that an application for asylum cannot succeed if it is established that the applicant took part in the persecution of others or assisted, incited, aided or abetted those engaged in the persecution of others.  When I was ambassador in Washington, I successfully used that law to keep Dr. Philip Sesay, the coupligan Chief of State Protocol, out of the United States because the AFRC/RUF was deemed by the United States as a violent criminal organization harming the people of Sierra Leone.

Question 3, Part C of the US Asylum Application form requires a “Yes” or “No” answer to the following question:

“Have you, your spouse, or child(ren) ever ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in causing harm or suffering to any person because of his race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular group or belief in a particular political opinion?”

Clearly, File was anti-democratic and pro-junta.  Yet, I suspect that Fyle answered “No” when he should have answered “Yes”; and so far he has gotten away with his lie.  Under  US Law, however, a grant of asylum may be revoked if it is proved that it was obtained fraudulently through lies, deceit, deception, etc.

L.  CONCLUSION

Fyle was prosecuted not because Kabbah or the SLPP hated him but because he was a proven collaborator in the crimes committed by the AFRC/RUF junta.  Although I have major problems with the governance system in Sierra Leone, the credible evidence presented against Fyle during his trial was overwhelming.   He was convicted of treason because Fyle actually did the things he was accused of doing.

Fyle clearly incited, aided and abetted grave crimes against our people.  He also encouraged and helped the junta members to prolong the life of their brutal regime at the expense of ordinary people while he enjoyed his benefits.  But whether such warranted the death penalty is an altogether different matter.

Further, the seeds of democracy have been planted in our country.  It is a very young democracy full of imperfections.   Hopefully, in time genuine democrats will emerge to improve and strengthen the system and make Sierra Leone into a proud nation of genuine justice, prosperity and permanent peace.  We all have to work at it but encouraging a former wrongdoer, such as Hilton Fyle, to lie in public about his role against an overthrown government that was duly elected by the people is not a proper approach.

If the APC wants to be taken seriously by the people of Sierra Leone – at home and abroad – it must do far better than encouraging toying with the record.

And Fyle should now watch out.  He is, of course, free to speak out but he must stop his lies forthwith for there is abundant evidence that proves beyond any doubt that he was on the side of the AFRC/RUF junta for his own benefit and against the people’s democratic yearnings.  This disqualifies him for asylum in the United States.

Thank you for your attention.

APPENDIX, October 12, 2004

ABOUT FREEDOM OF THE PRESS IN SIERRA LEONE

By Sheka Tarawalie in London

I’ve just read the story written about me in the COCORIOCO website of Rev. Kabs-Kanu. And I’ve just responded with alacrity to confirm to the publisher that indeed the story is true. I did so because I discovered that Reverend Kanu did not have the opportunity of reaching me or cross-checking the report before going to press – but indeed by publishing it he was demonstrating that he was a respecter of freedom of _expression and at the same time lending credibility to the source.

It concerns me at the moment, but the story did not start with me and definitely will not end with me. It is not a personal matter – it is a phenomenon that should be seen in the wider perspective of nurturing a democratic spirit, especially freedom of _expression and of the press, in building the structures on which succeeding generations of Sierra Leoneans will live up their dreams.

COCORIOCO takes a swipe at the Minister of Information, Prof. Septimus Kai Kai, by stating that if indeed the allegations about threats to my life and safety are true, then it means the freedom of expressions that he proclaims to be abound in Sierra Leone is definitely absent. But that is not the issue at all, because it will appear as if freedom of the press has been existent all this while until my issue came up.

The reality is that, since the government of President Alhaji Tejan Kabbah came to power, journalists – I mean journalists – have never slept with their two eyes closed. It has been an unending tale of imprisonments, beatings, threats, death sentences, and actual deaths for journalists. When the history of our nation shall be re-written, of course Kabbah’s government will get the unenviable chapter of being the one under which the highest number of journalists have been killed (despite the majority meeting their fate at the hands of villainous rebels, but defintely due to lack of insight and the creation of a false sense of security by the government). In the history of Sierra Leonean journalism, Kabbah’s reign should be referred to as ‘the dark era’.

Apart from the dead, tell me where Edison Yonghai of ‘The Point’ is, tell me the whereabouts of Hilton Fyle and his ‘1-2-3’ newspaper/ ‘We-Believe-In-God’ radio, or if Seaga Shaw and Gibril Koroma of ‘Expo Times’ are in Sierra Leone. Many journalists – who fought tooth and nail with the military government of the NPRC to usher in democracy – have had cause to currently be in the disapora because the democracy they fought for turned out to be something else. Amid machinations and downright intrigues, journalists have been bearing the brunt of a political establishment which is most allergic to any form of criticism from the media. What the government wants and tolerates and proclaims as a pluralistic press is the existence of pliant newspaers and radio stations which if critically investigated are in fact owned by members of the very estabishment. Those that try to go against that tide in the midst of the storm are systematically dehumanised and impoverished, using a very compliant judicial system. Could you tell me why Paul Kamara’s ‘For Di People’ newspaper’s furniture and equipment have all been taken away by court bailliffs? Could you tell me why he and his lawyer were jailed severally before even a final verdict was reached? Could you tell me why he is currently standing trial for a story that everybody knows is as true as daylight?

Don’t tell me about freedom of the press in Sierra Leone. Treason charges on journalists I want to hear about. Jonathan Leigh of ‘Independent Observer’, Sulaiman Momodu of ‘Concord Times’, Ojukutu Macauley of the BBC, and many others (not to mention IB Kargbo, Oliver Mensah, Dennis Smith, William J. Smith and co who were actually charged with treason and sentenced to death)  all at one time or the other had to answer questions pertaining to treason charges, for no other reason than to have performed their duties as journalists. Should I tell you how many have been beaten up? Well I need not delve into history, beacuse the recent beatings of Umar Fofanah of Unamsil’s Information department by the president’s own bodyguards, the beating up of Awoko newspaper jourmalists by state security personnel, and the beating up of Mamadu Jalloh (DJ Base) of UNAMSIL Radio by police officers are still fresh on our minds. And parliament adds insult to injury by also recently jailing Abdul Kuyateh of Standard Times for one hour – thank God he was not taken to Pademba Road like me when Kutubu was Speaker.

I’ve never seen a governemnet so jittery and contradictory in its freedom agenda. It’s trump card is having a bundle of ‘internationally known’ men – and women – who could be believed for their word. But, as DJ Base himself likes playing on radio, “the truth will (in fact, must) reveal”. No matter how hard they try, the light of day cannot be hidden. As for me, now that I have known the schemes and the plans and the plots, my friend you bit me twice, now I’m hundredth shy. As the American wrestling champion, John Cenna, would say, “You can’t see me.”  But still, I’m praying for my brothers and sisters who have been caught up in a profession that has been blacklisted by a power-hungry status quo.

ANGRY SIERRA LEONEAN CONDEMNS FORMER ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER AND OPPOSITION APC

First_Name:  Theopilus
Last_Name:  Coker
Email_Address:  [email protected]
Address:  13  Rue de Lennick
City:  Brussels
Zip_Code:  1040
Comments:  You are doing a great service to our countrymen and women in the diaspora by linking us to events in our homeland.I want to use this medium to ask as to what is so patroitic about Eugene Davies’s resignation? Have you all forgotten that he was part of a rotten civil or better still evil service that wrecked that country?When did he know that conditions of service for public servants were so bad as to use it as part of an excuse to resign?As former Permanent Secretary, what was his medical allowance?Ask what learned professors and Medics are getting. He knows. Why did he announce the Koya election results? Will that single result change the situation for APC? Are we not making progress that we can now conduct elections free from fear? No thugs, no SSD’s,no youths league, no Agba satani, no nationwide unoppossed etc. The APC has no moral right to talk about democracy let alone free and fair elections. What they should concentrate on is try to learn from current developments as to how democracy works, how not to run a country on ethnic lines,how violence can breed violence and above all repent to the people of Sierra Leone for the irreparable damage caused. SLPP may not be giving us the best but in comparative terms they are far ahead of   APC in bringing about national cohesion. For us in the diaspora, we should be talking more about what we can do in concrete terms to move forward our country, rather than spending time lambasting people for things we ourselves can do were we to find ourselves in the same situation.So lets rather have a more forward looking debate that will pool minds together rather than dwell on things that will drive a wedge between and among us. We are a small country and we should be seen as one family with different oulooks.
Thanks Rev. for your patroitic service. We love you.

BEREWA JUBILATES WHILE PEOPLE LIVE IN MISERY

By

JOHN LEIGH

“Misery loves company”, so the cliché warns us. Kabbah’s heir apparent to the presidency on or before May 2007, however, does not appear to believe that this PHD (Pull Him Down) warning of the hardship-inflicting powers of our daily miseries is enough. Rather, Vice President Berewa seems to be saying that the numerous miseries experienced in the daily lives of ordinary Sierra Leoneans under the Kabbah-Berewa Administration are all the more reason why we should jubilate.

FAILURE IS NO REASON TO JUBILATE

Mr. Abu Bakarr Kargbo and Mr. Tanu Jalloh, writing in recent editions of the Standard Times and the Concord Times, respectively, tell us that Berewa is imploring Sierra Leoneans to jubilate because Sierra Leone has scored a key point by our last place finish on the 2004 UN Human Development Index. Our position of absolute misery means that help should be on the way from donor nations since these donor nations are duty-bound to help develop Sierra Leone to be “like London and New York”. Further, Berewa expects Britain and the United States to lift us up to their standards because those two countries, too, have gone through bitter challenges like Sierra Leone.

Mr. Tanu Jalloh is particularly puzzled about Berewa’s joyous attitude of jubilation and questions possible future aid arrangements lacking in accountability and transparency.

SIERRA LEONE CHOICES DEFFER FROM THOSE OF THE UK & THE US

For the general information of readers, please note that of all the countries of the world, Britain and the United States are the two nations with the longest and closest continuous relations with Sierra Leone. As we all know, Sierra Leoneans systematically and repeatedly sold their people to British slave traders beginning in the mid-to-late 16^th Century.

British slave traders transported our freeborn people to America and sold them there as slaves shortly after the colonies were established in the early 1600. Americans then used our doomed people and their offspring as slave labor to develop their country until circa 1865 when those ex-slaves became low-paid laborers and deliberately overburdened with discriminatory laws and practices.

THE UK & THE US SUCCEEDED IN BUILDING GREAT NATIONS

Britain and the United States used their profits from the slave trade to invest in agriculture, education, justice, infrastructure, commerce, finance, good governance, research and development in technology, defense, medicine, etc. and so built mighty nations. Those two nations have continuously occupied top-tier positions in the UN Human Development Index since its inception. On the other hand, our Sierra Leoneans squandered their own profits from centuries of the same slave trade through frivolous expenditures and unproductive practices favoring personal consumption and instant gratification – just as many of our people still do today.

Over time, the civil rights revolution in the US brought equal rights to African-Americans. As time unfolded, the older generations of the British and Americans bequeathed good productive cultures and practices to succeeding generations. So those two nations continue to be on top of the world, countries to which millions of people flock and where knowledge is discovered or products are invented every single day.

POOR LEADERSHIP KEEPS COUNTRY BEHIND

On the other hand again, Sierra Leone still remains in the grip of failed practices such as PHD; Monkey woke Babu eat; tribalism, nepotism, cronyism, despotism, marginalization of people, kleptocracy, arbitrary decision-making, officials lying to the public and lacking in public spiritedness, etc. – practices that guarantee everlasting failure and hardship in our country no matter the amount of international help we may receive.

The RUF/AFRC war indeed showed how deeply engrained and widespread is our destructive mindset. After we had notoriously corrupted our post-independence governments and invited war, some of our own very people went on and corrupted the war for their private benefit. International interlopers soon seized control of the rebel war to rip off at least one of our bountiful natural resources. The expanded war helped ruined our country and worsen the desperate plight of people.

Berewa’s supposition that Britain and the United States had nation-building experiences similar to Sierra Leone’s is completely wrong.

Today, our country is still a dependent nation on the dole, begging from Britain, the United States and other nations on a systematic basis. We are still the poorest country on earth – of those countries surveyed by the UN – as evidenced by our last place position on the UN Human development Index for seven years in a row.

Should we now jubilate for this miserable situation, as proposed by Berewa? Will massive help come our way so as to lift our country to the place where Britain and America occupy on the UN Human Development Index? Or should we change our ways and adopt new policies and programs.

LACKS ECONOMICS AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS TRAINING

Berewa’s attitude regarding the development of our country is most discouraging. His reasoning as to how a country like Sierra Leone is going to develop reminds me of someone not schooled or experienced in either economics or international affairs but who has, instead, been isolated in a cultural wasteland for much too long. Yet, this same misguided individual is been touted in certain quarters as the next president of Sierra Leone!

How can such an individual, lacking in understanding of how nations become developed, ever hope to successfully construct social and economic institutions that would help our country advance from last place position and make Sierra Leone into a place like Britain and the United States?

It is clear that Berewa’s announced strategy for Sierra Leone’s development, as reported by Messrs. Kargbo and Jalloh, will not work. His shallow and naive thinking is not likely to ever help the people of Sierra Leone improve the quality of their daily lives, let alone build a mighty nation whose standard of living would equal that of London and New York.

In fact, the mentality underpinning Berewa’s poor thinking is part of the very reason why Sierra Leone remains a place of extreme hardship for millions of people while a few are enriched from holding public office. We must take stock of our country’s performance to date and accept the fact that endless takings from others without giving something of commensurate value in return is not a sustainable development strategy at all.

HUMANITARIAN AID LATITUDE

Before a country’s last place position on the UN Human Development Index can ever invite the generosity of donor nations, those donor nations must first understand the reasons behind that country’s predicament. If the last place position is the result of a just-ended war, proven to have been instigated from the outside, as we were in until 2000, aid would be justified – provided the leaders of that country convince the world that they would use the aid received with reasonable efficiency and effectiveness.

Even if the leaders of a deserving nation fail to so convince the international donor community, we must understand that there are humanitarian aspects to international charity. Humanitarian aid will flow into hardship countries whether or not the national government is good or bad, able or inept, honest or corrupt.

Hence under detested regimes led by the likes of Charles Taylor, Idi Amin and Moi, humanitarian aid reached Liberians, Ugandans and Kenyans, respectively. Such was the situation with the Kabbah Administration as early as in 1996. When I served in Washington, I lobbied heavily, extensively and successfully for humanitarian aid for Sierra Leone and military aid for ECOMOG (Operation Focus Relief).

Further, if the notorious AFRC and/or the RUF had won the war, humanitarian aid would still have flowed into Sierra Leone. Additionally, a country like the United Kingdom would have even helped a victorious rebel regime to rebuild our country under certain conditions such as genuinely seeking to cleanse a corrupt and undemocratic system. But the rebels did not win and their greed and brutality disqualified them.

AUDITS & INSPECTIONS WILL BE DEMANDED

Jubilating people vying for national leadership, such as Berewa, should understand that international generosity is not limitless. At some point, donors will want an accounting of how a regime expends aid funds. Where, year after year, bilateral and multilateral humanitarian aid have been provided but the recipient country continues to retain its last place position on the UN Human Development Index; donor-nations will not necessarily automatically extend larger grants and loans just because the country retains its last place position, as Berewa seems to be rejoicing about.

Nor would donor countries continue their existing level of aid indefinitely to last-place Sierra Leone – let alone go beyond humanitarian aid and help to forthwith lift our country to the standards of the West merely because we are last place again, as Berewa prophesied in July.

What is going to happen instead is that the leaders of the international donor community and the leading lending multilateral institutions would first want to know why retrograde conditions continue to persist, fester and even flourish in last place, aid-dependent Sierra Leone. Donors would further want to find out what the regime has been doing with their aid and what action the regime has taken and/or is planning to take to address problems and better the lives of the inhabitants. I can tell you one thing, in such circumstances, donors would not be anxious to donate more funds to that regime.

AID MODIFICATION AND CANCELLATIONS

If the leaders of the local regime lack credibility in the eyes of the donor community, audits and inspections of funded projects are likely to be demanded. If audits and/or inspections indicate aid abuse; or if the regime continues to scores low with Transparency International; or if the International Crisis Group continues to issue negative assessment reports of a recipient regime’s stewardship, etc., aid could be suspended, reduced, cancelled outright or channeled though the donors’ own organizations bypassing regime agents – as the United States is currently doing in Sierra Leone.

Other donors might prefer a gentler approach, like first sending their top aid officials to encourage regime leaders to shape up and start managing aid professionally – as the British have done three or four times already during the last two years alone. Only when repeated warnings fail to produce effective reforms will donor nations take drastic action to terminate or re-direct aid or modify their local aid arrangements.

As for donor nations assuming the prime responsibility for uplifting our country to the high and envious standards of the British in London and the Americans in New York because we are in last place, Berewa and his succession group should understand that he is engaging in idle, wishful thinking. It is not going to happen. Period. No nation will allow itself to be blackmailed into furnishing continuous large-scale aid to a people and government who have failed or refused to permit improvements in their own condition.

Our leaders should understand that International aid is not a frivolous lollipop for them.

Taxpayers abroad are paying mightily for foreign Aid to our country. Some of them are already complaining bitterly about the abuse of their hard-earned tax money. We must shape up and encourage our leaders to handle aid with a most responsible attitude.

THE PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY FOR OUR OWN DEVELOPMENT IS OURS

To gain development aid, a government needs to demonstrate to donors that it is doing its very best to internally deploy existing aid and other resources in a manner that is beneficial to all its people and not just to regime insiders, their sycophants, relatives, friends and henchmen. Moreover, the government must further demonstrate that it has a record of deploying aid effectively and that the people by their active voice in public affairs are the type of people who can benefit from further investments in aid.

No nation or groups of nations will assume the heavy burden of uplifting a poorly managed nation to the highest international standards even if substantial developmental potentials are demonstrated to exist in-country. The government and people themselves must bear the greatest burden and take the initiative in uplifting themselves.

Accordingly, we Sierra Leoneans must take the lead and assume the lion share of the work that must be accomplished if we want our country to occupy a top place position on the UN Human Development Index. Such advancement is quite possible but far from easy, especially in light of the many examples of our destructive mentality.

Our government must stop its retrograde policy of dependence on taking and taking and taking from other nations without giving back something of commensurate value in return. We must work to put an end to our nation’s beggar’s mentality by making the most valuable use of the aid we are now receiving. But alas, Berewa and his group seem still not to have got the message that aid aggrandizement is not the answer to our future.

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF IN SIERRA LEONE

Some of us worked, tirelessly and skillfully, over several years to usher in an elected government, peace, development and justice in order to remake our failed republic into a better country for we the people. Peace came. Aid flowed in, at first in trickles but later, massively. Now, I am told we are back to square one in reference to corruption, lies, ineptness, nepotism, sycophancy and the marginalization of the bulk of the population and those deemed political “enemies”. I even have personal experiences with party despotism.

In today’s Sierra Leone, it appears that certain officials have little respect for the bulk of the population and lie to them on issues of public importance such as what’s behind the inflated prices of daily necessities. And a ?dangerous enemy’ may be merely someone with a different point of view on, maybe, only one specific issue and who dared to express his/her thoughts truthfully. It could also be someone deemed genuinely opposed to the ongoing corruption, etc. because of the damage to the nation’s future.

Such a selfish and narrow-minded approach to governance will help prolong the suffering of the people of Sierra Leone and hold us back from development.

RAMPANT CORRUPTION CONTINUES – Corruption e do so.

If what friends and acquaintances are telling me is correct, it is the insatiable squandering of foreign aid by people in authority that has caused our country to retain its last place position in the UN Human Development Index of 2004 despite the massive infusion of aid. And it is ineffectual leadership that has encouraged ineptness and/or kleptocratic dependencies in aid abusers and which have begun to alarmed donor nations and starting to generate rumors of donor fatigue.

I am told that Work Bank officials are perplexed by the scarcity of electricity in Sierra Leone today because of the large sums the World Bank has advanced to improve the supply and delivery of electricity to consumers. Instead, all we get is persistent wu-teh-teh blackouts.

In my experience, when the financial security of public officials depends on easy pickings from aid donated to war-damaged people, such public officials are unlikely to work hard, intelligently and creditably to advance the public interest. Rather, aid abusers are likely to prefer tactical approaches that would maximize their private interests while keeping the bulk of the population in deep poverty.

By keeping country folks and the urban poleritariat very poor and dependent, regime leaders are said to be better able to enrich themselves and perpetuate their rule. Because regime leaders gain by keeping people down, our country will remain in last place.

Berewa’s reliance on encouraging national jubilation in recognition of Sierra Leone’s last place, as a way of building a further case for more and more aid may very well be a ploy to enrich and strengthen the corrupt classes and their loyal sycophants, relatives, friends and henchmen, with only crumbs reaching the people. If such is the case, (and I am by no means certain it is), the result may well be to prolong their regime’s stranglehold over our country while indefinitely keeping the people of Sierra Leone within the lowest rungs of the UN Human Development Index. All this, of course, would have been financed by key donor nations and institutions such as the World Bank, etc.

Clearly, this is not the correct path to take to improve our lives.

MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE FUND

After over ten years in government, Berewa should by now understand that the trend in international development is to encourage the emergence of Good Governance in poor societies by aiding progressive regimes truly deserving of help, rather than spoon feed beggar and/or corrupt regimes.

Successful government leaders understand that to qualify for development aid, a poor country’s regime must meet certain standards of good governance. For example, following the 2002 Monterrey, Mexico conference on aiding the development of poor countries, a conference in which Sierra Leone was represented, the United States established the $5 billion-a-year Millennium Challenge Fund to provide financing to the World’s poorest countries whose regimes were genuinely helping their people.

To qualify for participation in the Millennium Fund, a poor country’s regime must score quality good governance points about their stewardship in governing their own people. Criteria evaluated include the people’s Political Rights; their Civil Liberties; the regime’s Control of Corruption; the Effectiveness of Government in providing essential services; the administration of the Rule of Law; as well as the Voice of the People in governing their countries and the Accountability and transparency of the regime.

The money appropriated for the first year is $1 billion. The Fund’s appropriation will be increased to $2.5 Billion next year and thereafter to $5 billion in 2006.

In May this year, the Board of the Fund, headed by US Secretary of State Colin Powell, named six African regimes eligible to share in this year’s $1 billion appropriation. They are: Ghana, Senegal, Cape Verde Islands, Lesotho, Mauritius, and Mozambique. Sierra Leone did not come even close. I noticed that the Sierra Leone government did not bother to issue a statement on the matter and, further, I am told that there was no local press coverage of the awards.

If Berewa is genuinely serious about Good Governance, he should encourage his colleagues in the Kabbah Administration and in the SLPP to shape up; aim high and do a series of right things for our people so that next year and henceforth, Sierra Leone will qualify to share in the rich Millennium Fund for developing Sierra Leone.

Jubilating in begging and taking aid without commensurate results is thus not the answer to a bright future for our country. The path of hard and skillful work, integrity and fairness to all is the correct path to take. Will Berewa and his colleagues listen?

A 5-POINT PLAN TO UPLIFT SIERRA LEONEANS

The correct way to uplift Sierra Leoneans out of our last place and into the top levels of the UN Human Development Index clearly requires that we do several things, some of which I will address below in closing.

FIRST, we must develop a realistic exist strategy to free us from aid dependency. We start here by professionalizing aid management under Sierra Leoneans. In this regard, under no circumstances must aid be used for political gain. Failing that, aid should be managed directly by the donors via organizations of their own choosing and supervision.

SECOND, we must significantly improve the administration of justice in Sierra Leone so that impartial justice can be – and seen to be – obtained speedily, transparently and inexpensively and recorded. It is most important for people to accept that proper justice has been done in each specific case. Without a reliable, objective, speedy, inexpensive and transparent justice system, the type and size of capital inflows that will help uplift the living standards of the people of Sierra Leone will never materialize.

Successful countries like Britain and the US have well respected and smooth functioning justice systems. We should learn from them and put the good things we’ve learned into practice.

THIRD, the national past time of Monkey woke Babu eat must be outlawed and totally discarded in government and in business. In its place we should install an objective merit system. Both Britain and America are where they are today, in part, because of their merit system of administration, business and leadership. Countries where one’s place in society is based on cronyism, nepotism, favoritism, payoffs, tribalism, bloodlines, etc. but not on merit are countries doomed to remain backward.

Without a genuine merit system, talents and resources are unlikely to flow into Sierra Leone in sufficient quantities to make a real difference. Without the adequate inflow of resources, wages, salaries, incomes, profits and other benefits will remain tiny for law-abiding people.

Talented people tend to be law-abiding but they cannot abide by what Mr. Suliaman Momodu, a former journalist, once described as ?a salary not even enough for a grasshopper’. Without talented people, a country cannot make good progress and will remain a place of hardship and suffering.

Britain and the United States are places were talents flourish because the governance system encourages, and the social and economic systems promote the flourishing of talented people. In fact, it was and is talented people that built the greatness of those two countries. A “Monkey woke Babu eat” system drives talents away. If the government is afraid of talented people and avoids them, Sierra Leone’s development will continue to be severely stunted.

FOURTH, we must recognize the primacy of corrupt practices in our society and the damage they have done, and continue to do to our country and people. We must accept the fact that corruption needs to be eradicated by deliberate and lawful means within a democratic framework. Accordingly, the Anti-Corruption Commission must be made into an independent commission with its own independent funding, independent judges as well as independent prosecutors. Prosecuting corruption should never be a tool for corrupt political use.

Unless we bring corruption under control, the future of the bulk of the people of Sierra Leone will not be bright and our country will not be a happy place.

FIFTH, leadership must engage and address all aspects of society’s problems, treating each subject matter exhaustively and vigilantly, leaving nothing to chance. Good leadership also requires evenhandedness and due consideration in dealing with all manner of inhabitants, rather than behaving essentially as a second-class personnel manager practicing nepotism, favoritism and small-mindedness, etc.

FINALLY, we should understand that a fair and responsive political system is the ultimate foundation for a prosperous and peaceful country. We must, therefore, craft a fair, responsible, representative political system based on democratic principles and one that is free from despotism, tribalism, bigotry, nepotism, cronyism, sectionalism, marginalization, sycophancy and the excessive grant of discretion to any public official.

CONCLUSION

Lets hope that VP Berewa will learn from the recent spate of news articles and commentaries about his recent speech at the Bintumani Hotel launching the 2004 UN Human Development Index. If he does, he should never again advice us to jubilate for our last place position in the misguided belief that the more our government fails the people, the more aid the current regime will receive, and that donor nations will thereby have the obligation to help us develop our country like London and New York.

Berewa and his governing colleagues are invited to review their performance in their stewardship of the government of our country and see whether they can adopt better ways to govern and help move our country and people forward into the ranks of the more successful countries. Thank you.

WANTED:  AN INDEPENDENT ANTI-CORRUPTION COMMISSION

By  JOHN LEIGH

I write to salute a courageous MP, the Honorable Haja Afsatu Kabba, for the insight she showed in discussing a key national problem in her recent speech in Parliament while debating the government’s program set forth in the President Address.  Haja Kabba spoke on a number of problems facing our country and highlighted the centrality of the role of rampant corruption in keeping Sierra Leoneans down and behind the rest of the world.

The Haja wants an Independent Anti-Corruption Commission.  Any sensible government committed to advancing the public interest, will not ignore her reasonable proposal.

Haja Kabba pointed out in plain, straightforward language what every intelligent Sierra Leonean, members of the local diplomatic corps, the NGO community and officials of donor countries already know quite well.  Namely, the Anti-Corruption Commission as currently authorized is woefully ineffective in the face of escalating corruption. 

Hon. Haja Kabba then went on to properly set forth the correct reason why our Anti-Corruption Commission has so far failed, and will continue to fail in its fundamental duty. Namely, the Attorney General’s office must first authorize the prosecution of each and every corruption case, before the commission can take its responsibilities to their logical conclusions by prosecuting alleged wrongdoers whose cases the Anti-Corruption Commission already investigated and deemed prosecutable. 

THE DEFECTIVE LEGISLATION MAY HAVE BEEN DELIBERATE

In other words, the Act of Parliament that gave birth to the Anti-Corruption Commission is deeply flawed for it deliberately subjugated the Commission to suffocating political control.  This control, some might convincingly argue, may have been willfully conceived and abusively administered as evidenced by the commission’s ineffectiveness that the Hon. Haja pointed out during her speech in Parliament.  

Some of us have read news reports about a former attorney general boasting about how wide his discretion is under the law and that he is free to exercise such authority without accountability to the people.  It is this political control via the political office of the Attorney General that appears to have effectively emasculated the Anti-Corruption Commission’s work, rather than the ineptness of the commission’s staff.  

CORRUPTION IS NOW SAID TO BE RAMPANT

Honorable Haja Kabbah fully understands this distinction and the immediate consequences upon our body politic.  She knows, as we do, that despite the excellent work of the commission’s staff, corruption has expanded substantially and has become rampant.  So rampant, some would argue, that corruption in Sierra Leone has probably expanded exponentially when compared to the corruption levels existing during the notorious pre-war years.    Thus, even after widespread national and international clamor to address the debilitating problem of corruption in our land, the needed political will to effectively address the problem at all levels of society, is yet to emerge. 

Now, Honorable Haja Kabba has again properly raised the matter and wants the correct action taken.  Haja Kabba has now boldly recommended to Parliament that the Anti-Corruption Commission should be empowered anew, presumably by an Act of Parliament, to directly prosecute its own investigated cases of corruption rather than continue to go nowhere except through the Attorney general’s office and wait there for permission to prosecute – permission that may never be granted.  

The Haja deserves the support of the public and the government on this important matter.  I respectfully urge our government to pay heed to Haja Kabba’s very reasonable request because success in containing corruption will help uplift the lives of our people and insure that peace and social progress permanently reign supreme in our land.   

As an important first step in demonstrating its commitment to the democratic principles of transparency and accountability on this hot issue, why doesn’t the government release to the public those cases already investigated and certified as prosecutable by the commission but rejected for prosecution by the Attorney General, together with the Attorney General’s reasoning for its non-prosecution decision in each relevant case?

HARDSHIPS WIWITHOUT REFORMS DAILY LL PERSIST

The easy but unacceptable alternative is for the government to deliberately ignore

Honorable Haja’s concerns and do nothing about increasing the effectiveness of the Anti-Corruption Commission.   If the authorities decline, fail or refuse to take the appropriate corrective action, the current rampant corruption will continue to fester; while the Attorney General’s office will go on serving as a mortuary for the investigations already concluded by the Anti-Corruption Commission. 

Hon. Haja Kabba and other thoughtful Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad, are not the only people demanding that the authorities stop corrupt practices.  The British Government has already dispatched to Freetown three of its cabinet ministers and at least one top civil servant during the last two years alone to encourage our country’s leadership to do the right thing and genuinely address our massive corruption problem.  

Likewise, in its most recent report about corruption worldwide, Transparency International in Berlin gave our country very low marks on the issue of corrupt practices in our country.  The International Crisis Group in Brussels, Belgium and Human Rights Watch in New York, two respected international NGOs with deep interest in, and credible work internationally on behalf of Sierra Leone, have also reported adversely on the catastrophic state of corruption in Sierra Leone and the obvious lack of progress in containing the problem.  The American Embassy in Freetown issued a statement in recent weeks expressing its concerns about rampant corruption in Sierra Leone and said it intends to deny issuing visas to the United States to public officials it deems corrupt.

CORRUPTION IS THE MAIN REASON BEHIND DAILY HARDSHIPS 

Rampant corruption is at the heart of the multiple miseries endured daily by the masses in Sierra Leone.  If the problem is not genuinely addressed, the people of Sierra Leone will continue to labor under the yoke of extreme hardship because corruption is one of the major reasons why the price level for the everyday necessities of life such as rice, palm oil, petrol, rent, etc. is so high; why salaries are so low; why good-paying jobs are so scarce and why electricity for the masses is so scarce. 

Rampant corruption is behind the degradation in the exchange value of the Leone and behind the high prices of commodities for where rampant corruption is chronic, banks and financial houses heavily discount the external value of that nation’s currency.  This renders imports more expensive.  Rampant corruption discourages foreign investments because international businesses know that where there is rampant corruption, the country cannot be expected to be a stable place where property can be safely protected or where executives can manage their businesses without contending with extortion demands and/or bribe-taking by some in authority.   Lack of foreign investments translates into job scarcity and low or non-existent salaries and wages.

Rampant corruption is behind the spread of HIV/AIDS.  For when prices of daily necessities are high and wages low or non-existent, some people are forced to engage in prostitution or become promiscuous just so they can eat and pay for a roof over their heads; or take care of their families.  As is well known, prostitution and promiscuity spread many terrible diseases, some of which may still be incurable.

Rampant corruption, coupled with our government’s ineffectual anti-corruption mechanism, is behind Sierra Leone’s poverty.  It is a poverty that is so deep, so dense and so widespread that our country has remained in the last place on the UN Human Development Index for the past seven years. 

Accordingly, Sierra Leone is the least safe place on earth for mothers during childbirth.  We have one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world; lowest life expectancies, lowest per capita income; an abundance of diseases, high rates of illiteracy, poorly equipped schools, poorly paid teachers, poorly equipped and poorly funded hospitals, inadequate clean drinking water, inadequate food production, primitive agricultural tools, dangerous roads, substandard and inadequate housing, etc.  Thus, Haja Kabba is right to demand that the Anti-Corruption Commission must be properly empowered to do its job.

AN INDEPENDENT JUDGE IS APPRECIATED BUT NOT ENOUGH

The government may claim that the Anti-Corruption Commission is powerful enough because it has already appointed an independent judge to try corruption cases.  But what use is an independent judge if the most egregious corruption cases never get to see the light of day at all because of politics?  What is urgently needed now is not only an independent judge but so also is an Independent Commission with its own Independent Prosecutor in order to render effective the fight against the impunity of corruption.  Clearly, without an independent prosecutor, the commission cannot be independent.

AN INDEPENDENT PROSECUTOE IS THE ANSWER

Sierra Leone already has an independent Special Court to independently investigate, independently prosecute and independently judge those deemed most responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity in an attempt to address the problem of impunity in the perpetration of violence against civilians during the war.

If the government is truly concerned about corruption, as it proclaims, why not likewise work with donor nations to create a truly independent Anti-Corruption Commission?

Nothing is more criminal and more inhumane in today’s Sierra Leone than for those deemed most corrupt – e.g. people with public aliases such as Mr. Money Man, Gabteh Karkah, Money Nyapu Nyapu – to keep on punishing the suffering citizens of Sierra Leone with the impunity of their rampant corruption while the authorities appear satisfied with ?the toothless bulldog’ Anti-Corruption Commission bestowed with phony powers.

CORRUPTION CAUSED AND PROLONGED THE CIVIL WAR

Let it be remembered that our country’s reputation for rampant corruption was part of the reason why the war lasted so long and why the suffering was so barbaric.  When I was Ambassador in Washington, I discovered that Western nations refused at first to help conclusively defeat the rebels because the rebels initially succeeded in exploiting our country longstanding reputation for rampant corruption.  Even though the rebels had corrupted their own insurgency, sold out to Charles Taylor and embarked on a systematic program of mayhem, Western nations insisted on the RUF’s participation in government.

The rebels had successfully argued for years that they were fighting to end corruption and bring genuine democracy to Sierra Leone and many people in authority in democratic countries believed them because of our pre-war history of corruption and fake democracy.  It took a lot of hard and skillful work, along with the documentation of rebel atrocities before the United States agreed to support a UN Chapter 7 mandate. Today, we are back to Square One with our corruption cancer.  Yet ?waging’ a phony war against it. 

CONCLUSION

To those currently in authority, I say ?please take appropriate action forthwith so that history never repeats itself in Sierra Leone because you failed to heed the sensible advice of the Honorable Haja Afsatu Kabba, MP.  Please create a genuinely independent Anti-Corruption Commission with an independent prosecutor and an independent judge’.

SAMUEL JONJO, SLPP UK CHAIRMAN FIRES BACK AT SIERRA HERALD

 28 Bowater Road,

                                                                              Wembley,

                                                                           Middlesex, HA99FL,

                                                                            6th May, 2004.

                                                                            Tel. 0208908 1395

                                                                           Mobile : 079 89116094

Mr Victor Sylver,

Proprietor and Editor,

SIERRA HERALD Newspaper,

London.

Dear Sir,Re : Your Website Article titled ” BETRAYING THE TRUST OF

THE PEOPLE?DECEIT AND MISREPRESENTATION,

SIERRA LEONE HIGH COMMISSION STYLE.”

I refer to the above article which you published in your online Newspaper, SIERRA HERALD on the 2nd May 2004 in which you made a false and hasty allegation against me and as a result of which you made erroneous assumptions and drew irrational conclusions apparently calculated to misinform your reading public about me as Chairman of the Sierra Leone People’s Party UK & Ireland Branch; about the Sierra Leone High Commission in London and about the SLPP government in Sierra Leone.

I describe your false allegation against me as hasty because after the stated British House of Commons Select Committee hearing at London’s Southwark Town Hall on Monday 26^th April 2004, I tried to explain to you the reasons why I raised my arm in objection to some of the assertions and contributions by the panel of interviewees headed by Mayor Dr Columba Blango. Unfortunately you did not listen and you engaged yourself immediately in busy conversation with someone else standing nearby. Apparently at that time your Paper’s search for a sensational story, even at the risk of damaging other people’s reputation, had already been satisfied. Having published your story the way you deemed fit, I shall now furnish you with written evidence of the background information you refused to listen to, and therefore refused to take cognisance of, in your Newspaper’s coverage of events at Southwark Town Hall on the night in question. You will find undoubtedly why anyone with the background knowledge I had; why anyone with even a modicum of honesty, decency and patriotism and in possession of such background knowledge should have objected to Mayor Blango’s assertions the way I did.

Assuming your commitment to principles of professional journalism, I would therefore request and hope, in the interest of objectivity and fair play as well as patriotic commitment to Sierra Leone, that you publish the information I am giving you now in fair refutation of the erroneous assumptions and conclusions in your article under reference.

1. 1. The Sierra Leone High Commission in the United Kingdom.

It is true that some Sierra Leoneans in the United Kingdom had been complaining rightly or wrongly in the past about their High Commission not being helpful.’ As Chairman of the SLPP UK & Ireland Branch and as part of my policy of Constructive Engagement’ in politics in general as well as with our Sierra Leonean authorities, I was part of an initiative by the High Commissioner to call Sierra Leonean community heads in London and a representative cross-section of the SLPP UK & Ireland Branch to a Family Reconciliation Meeting in which most of the past allegations against the High Commission were thrashed out in courteous, frank and amicable discussions between accusers and accused with elders in attendance as moderators and impartial arbiters.

Amongst the list of invitees to the said Reconciliation Meeting at the High Commission on Sunday 14^th March 2004 were Mrs Agnes Macauley, Mr Tamba Lamina and Mr Steven Swaray, the same three people also being three out of the panel of six interviewees at the Southwark Town Hall Meeting. Mayor Blango was not invited to the meeting at the High Commission because he had informed me earlier that he was bound for Sierra Leone on some official engagement. I should think however that Mayor Blango should have known about the outcome of that meeting from reports at the SLPP’s Official Website or from recounts by his own associates.

My observation and conclusion from deliberations at the High Commission was that while few Sierra Leoneans had genuine reasons to complain against the High Commission, majority of the complaints were either baseless or concocted out of an apparent deliberate ploy to misquote or create a misunderstanding of the High Commissioner and his staff in whatever they say or do. Nonetheless the meeting ended on very positive reconciliatory terms and everyone present unanimously agreed that the Way Forward was one of mutual respect and co-operation in the greater interest of Sierra Leone.I believe therefore that it was a travesty of the truth and an insult to the intelligence of anyone with this background knowledge to hear Mayor Blango and three of his invitees who were also invitees to the Sierra Leone High Commission Meeting ( Mrs Agnes Macauley, Mr Tamba Lamina and Mr Steven Swaray ) to engage in a tirade against their own High Commission in the presence of the Commons Select Committee without reference to these most recent reconciliatory moves by High Commissioner Sulaiman Tejan Jalloh.

Therefore, when Mayor Blango concluded and asserted that the absence of a representative from the Sierra Leone High Commission at the Southwark Town Hall Meeting on the 26^th April was evidence and proof enough of the High Commission’s aloofness to matters Sierra Leonean and disinterestedness in the welfare of Sierra Leoneans in the United Kingdom, I put my hand up in protest and in order to have permission to speak and to clarify this matter for all Sierra Leoneans as well as British politicians present. In an evasive manner and evidently out of fear of being personally contradicted and the truth in this matter revealed, Mayor Blango dismissed my plea for audience on grounds that :

“I cannot speak on behalf of the Sierra Leone High

Commission because I am not employed by the

Sierra Leone High Commission and therefore, that

I may be only impersonating.”

Thus the origins of your overblown, malicious, incorrigible and therefore unreasonable allegation of impersonation against me.

If I was given the opportunity of audience as I requested, I would have exposed the inaccuracies in Mayor Blango’s statements in the same way I have in the past debunked some innocent but erroneous public statements as well as outright capricious lies of a few Sierra Leoneans in the United Kingdom about their own country and about our institutions of State. For example, it takes a man of moral courage as Chairman of the SLPP in the UK to challenge a publicly applauded statement that ?under the All People’s Congress ( APC ) regime in Sierra Leone, there was discrimination against students who were not APC or who were anti-APC for admission to university places in the University of Sierra Leone.’I challenged that statement at another public gathering of Sierra Leoneans not because I am APC or was impersonating either the APC or the University of Sierra Leone but because of my personal commitment to the truth and to justice and fair play in all political matters affecting our country. If we cannot personally and directly help our country and countrymen, let us not by untruthful utterances undermine those very institutions that need empowerment in order to make our country develop. The academic freedom that obtained in the University of Sierra Leone over the years and the professional competence and commitment of a greater majority of its staff was outstanding and I cannot stand by to see someone sacrifice that on the altar of selfish ambition by way of untruthful and negative public statements. I have done these things in public conferences on Sierra Leone in London, Oxford and everywhere I have gone in the United Kingdom. If these amount to impersonating the Sierra Leone High Commission or the University of Sierra Leone or even Tejan Kabbah, so be it. I have no apologies to make.

1. The Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP ) and the SLPP UK & Ireland

Branch.

It would appear to me from your previous publications I have read that you are neither a sympathiser of the SLPP ( which you are not bound to be ), nor even the objective and patriotic journalist you may wish your readers to believe, capable of handling, treating and discussing sensitive political, social and economic issues affecting Sierra Leone with a sense of balance, proportion and maturity.

Contrary to your assertions that the SLPP government ?functions in secret and averse to accounting to the people,’ I can assure you Mr Sylver that for the past 36 years in Sierra Leone no government has been more progressive, more transparent and more accountable to the people of Sierra Leone than the SLPP government under the leadership of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. That there may be few instances of abuse of power or indiscretions of public officers is not strange in any country or government but it is what proactive steps the government takes to counter these anomalies that makes the difference between countries and governments. The activities of the Anti-Corruption Commission, an independent judiciary and free press are all there to speak for themselves as part of the commitment of the SLPP to principles of transparency and accountability.

Let me make it clear that some of the interviewees at the Southwark Town Hall Meeting did make some very critical, incisive and useful statements and comments about Sierra Leone for anyone interested in the development of that country. In relation to the issue of corruption however I shall refer them for a balanced view on this matter within a democratic framework to the words of President Kabbah in a recent interview by the BBC’s Robin White in an article titled : ?Out of the Ashes.’Robin White : “Corruption is said to be creeping back into the system

and Kabbah stands accused of turning a blind eye. I ask

him why he doesn’t lock up the guilty.”

Kabbah : “If I were to do that without hard evidence, I would be

accused of dictatorship.”Robin White : “Some would prefer a little dictatorship to big corruption

because that was the root cause of the anger that Foday

Sankoh and his RUF was so ruthlessly able to exploit.”

I am sending you a photocopy of the whole article and I suggest you take note from it the following three journalistic principles:

1. 1. Facts are sacred while opinions are free.
   2. Give the opportunity of audience with all the subjects of your write-up and present your arguments in a balanced and fair manner to all concerned.
   3. Bear always in mind the overall interest of peace and harmony in society.

Mr Sylver, I can assure you Sir that had you made even a telephone call to the Sierra Leone High Commission before the publication of your article under reference, you would have had enough information that would have made your article something better than that showpiece of yellow journalism which it is.More recently in other shady and shoddy publications like yours I have been referred to as a ?Mike Tyson’?an indication and perhaps a warning to you that you are annoying and engaging a very determined person who is capable of taking on anyone pound for pound if he feels unjustly treated or hurt.

I am fully aware of my responsibilities as Chairman of the SLPP UK & Ireland Branch and the lofty expectations of my general membership?a membership that is in the main highly educated, sensitive and patriotic. While carrying that responsibility and discharging my duties within the confines of my membership’s expectations, I cannot at the same time continue to allow detractors and unfair critics like yourself to continue making unjust attacks at my person or character without robustly defending my self. And this has nothing to do with intolerance, dictatorial tendencies or undemocratic behaviour. As a matter of fact the SLPP is on record as the most democratic political party Sierra Leone has ever had. Even in our present circumstance I am sure it will surprise you if I informed you that all six of the panel of interviewees at the Southwark Town Hall Meeting on the 26^th April including Mayor Blango are all members of the SLPP. Barring a few erroneous statements which definitely needed correction in the pursuit of truth and the scientific discipline, the fact that the interviewees were free to say what they wanted to say to the Parliamentary Select Committee without any recrimination from the SLPP is ample testimony of the freedom of speech obtainable within the SLPP and our commitment as a party to true democracy and its values.3. The law of Perjury and Parliamentary privilege.

I also realised that you were quoting profusely what in your opinion may be sufficient in law to indict me on grounds of breaching Parliamentary privilege or guilt of perjury. I wish to draw your attention to the existence of the principle of “Intention” in apportioning criminal responsibility under the English law. Unlike your own brand of journalism, the judges in the English courts listen carefully to all parties in any case before making their verdicts. I stand by all what I have explained to you so far to state that I had no intention by my action at the Southwark Town Hall to impersonate anyone or to perjure or to do anything prejudicial to the privilege of the House of Commons. 4. Cronyism within the SLPP.

You displayed my picture in your Newspaper along with many other politicians you were accusing of political crimes against the people of Sierra Leone and cynically insinuated the existence of cronyism within the SLPP involving me. That means as a newcomer to the political and journalistic stage in Sierra Leone, “you have not read the minutes of the last meeting.” I am not a crony of either President Kabbah or any of the politicians in Sierra Leone but only a humble and God-fearing Sierra Leonean that loves his country.I do not need to introduce myself to you. All I say for now is that my unblemished and patriotic service in Sierra Leone as a primary teacher; as a student leader at Fourah Bay College incarcerated in the cause of Sierra Leone; as a secondary teacher and vibrant member of the Sierra Leone Teachers Union; as a lecturer at the Milton Margai Teachers College and as a civil servant within the judiciary of Sierra Leone are indestructible in the minds of my countrymen and cannot be destroyed by some piece of yellow or silver trash written by a one-man Newspaper run by a one-man editorial board parading the streets of London in the name of dubious claims to true journalism. A word for the wise has always been sufficient, Mr Sylver. Thanking you Sir.

Yours sincerely,

……….

SAMUEL B. JONJO

THY CAUSE TO DEFEND,  BY REV.ALFRED SAMFORAY

Thursday April 15, 2004

In the weeks leading to the trial in the matter of Prosecutor versus Samuel Hinga Norman and others, we will be posting a series of articles aimed at bringing you any significant developments in the case.  Obviously, our focus will be on the trials of Chief Hinga Norman, Mr. Moinina Fofana and Dr. Alieu Kondewa.  Following is the first part of the proposed series.

Tee Shirt Pandemonium
It has been near pandemonium at Hinga Norman Defence Headquarters the past few days after word spread that tee shirts in support of Special Court indictee, the Hon. Samuel Hinga Norman, had arrived in Freetown.  Although the tee shirts only went on sale two days ago, they had been hotly anticipated for months.  The tee shirts with logos such as: HINGA NORMAN OUR HERO, HINGA NORMAN YOU WILL NEVER WALK ALONE,  are said to be so highly sought after that several dozens have already been sold in Freetown alone.  Dozens more are headed for the regional headquarter towns of Bo, Kenema and Makeni later this week.  This comes on the heels of the recent arrest and vindication of Hinga Norman supporters wearing similar attire during the much ballyhooed grand opening of the yet to be completed court building at New England. Our sources intimate that among the crowds welcoming the tee shirts were uniformed officers of the Sierra Leone Police used by the so-called Special Court to arrest Chief Norman.

The Unfrozen Frozen Bank Account
First it was frozen on the orders of Attorney General, Eke Halloway.   Then it was unfrozen by the Union Trust Bank which argued that the Attorney General had no authority to freeze Mr. Norman’s account.  Then the court’s Deputy Spokesman, Peter Andersen, threatened the bank with a fine and/or imprisonment if they unfroze the account.  The bank refused to be intimidated.  Now comes word from the New Storm Newspaper that J. B. Jenkins-Johnston, Esq.,the Defence lawyer Chief Sam Hinga Norman, has said that other than the high court, the government has no power to freeze the bank account of his client. Reacting to orders given by Justice Bankole Thompson of the Special Court to freeze Norman’s account, Mr. Johnson noted that Hinga Norman has not committed any economic crime or embezzlement of funds and that such an action by the Special Court was a molestation and harassment which he said they are determined to resist.   As things stand, the account is unfrozen and Justice Bankole Thompson is expected to rule on the matter later this week.

When is the Trial?
We are reliably informed that we are finally approaching the end of the much tortured and seemingly endless pre-trial motions and counter-motions.  An announcement of the trial date is expected no later than the end of April, fourteen months after the arrest and detention of Chief Norman.  The announcement of the trial date is probably not unconnected with the recent decision by the UN Fifth Committee (the Budget  Committee) that it has approved $16.7 million dollars to enable the court to stay in operation until December.  Although Chief Norman’s opponents have apparently used the war crimes tribunal to harass and humiliate him in the international community, we look forward to the trial with great expectations.  We believe, to paraphrase Winston Spencer Churchill, that for Mr. Norman and his colleagues this may well be their finest hour.

END OF REPORT

CORRECTION  BY DAILY NEWS-INQUIRER

As Deputy spokesman of the Special Court  , Peter Andersen explained the penalty that was due to any one who unfroze the account unilaterally without the authority of the Special Court. Andersen has said that he did not threaten the bank.

NOTE : READ SAMFORAY’S ARTICLE ON CRANE UNDER THIS PIECE

* * * * * * * * * *

OPEN LETTER TO THE RT. HON. HARRIET HARMAN

Solicitor-General of The United Kingdom

ON THE OCCASION OF HER SIERRA LEONE TOUR

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Welcome to Sierra Leone.  I am sure I speak for a number of my fellow Sierra Leoneans when I say we are pleased that Her Majesty’s Government (“HMG”) has sent to Sierra Leone none other than you, Ms. Harman, so that you may obtain a firsthand assessment of the true situation in our country, especially after years of UK’s generous assistance.

Ms. Harman, we know that you are, probably, the one official in the upper echelons of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s administration most knowledgeable about our country’s plight because of the large numbers of Sierra Leonean refugees in your Southwark constituency, and because of your well-known concern for their welfare.  And Southwark is probably the community with the largest concentration of our people in all of Europe.  

I am also pleased that Dr. Marie Stauton of Plan UK is touring with you.  Dr. Stauton stands for professionalism of the highest order.  Plan UK’s work in Sierra Leone and around the world is commendable.  It is clear to us that UK assistance is effective when channeled through UK-approved NGOs and Sierra Leone Civil Society organizations.  And many concerned people believe that overall, UK Aid for our people can accomplish much more if managed professionally, rather than subjecting it to local political control. 

I will develop this theme later after I deal with the rest of the preliminaries.

SECTION ONE

UK AID MUST BE SEEN TO BE EFFECTIVE TO ALL PARTIES OF INTEREST

Clearly, Ms. Harman, merely pouring large sums of money, etc. through the Sierra Leone political establishment to people impacted by corruption, ineptness and war does not seem like sound public policy, both from the perspective of the UK taxpayer as well as that of the intended beneficiaries.   Such a politicized situation is compounded by the absence of frequent on-the-site donor assessments of your Aid’s effectiveness. 

Accordingly, we Sierra Leoneans are joyous that a distinguished personality such as you is in Sierra Leone today to see for yourself to whom, how, where and why UK’s generous assistance is being deployed and, further, to objectively evaluate its effectiveness.   Your visit is most opportune, given the continued escalation of hardship in our country, amidst the concentration of our country’s feeble economic power under the political control of an elected official who is aspiring to occupy the highest office in our land. 

We trust you will return home better able to enlarge HMG’s understanding of why so many Sierra Leoneans are part of the huge and growing Diaspora in Southwark and in numerous communities around the Globe.

THE THREE S’s OF SIERRA LEONEAN DEMOCRACY:

SUBMIT, SUFFER OR SOUTHWARK

Ms. Harman, please do not be misled by frequent political talk of how democracy is entrenched in post-war Sierra Leone for such is not true.  Our democracy is superficial.  Some forms of democracy are, of course, present in Sierra Leone, but the substance of real democracy is sadly missing.  The plain truth is that our country’s system of governance is deeply flawed.  It is a closed shop, so to speak – just as it was in the pre-RUF days. In fact, for many people “It is Déjà vu all over again”, to borrow a much loved malapropism from a famous American sportsman, the late Yogi Berra, of the New York Yankees, a baseball team that is to America what Manchester United is to UK football.

In my view, the philosophy of the leaders of our country is still based on the following self-defeating doctrine: either one submits wholly to the whims and caprices of the ruling cabal, or resigns herself to suffering substantial deprivations (in silence, of course, or else ..).   If neither of these choices is palatable, you better emigrate and head straight for the Southwarks of the world where you are certain to find a relative or a friend and/or everyday kindness.  In fact, there is a legend among the Diaspora that even in the South Pole, one is bound to find a Sierra Leonean there – be him or her, a teacher, nurse, ex-civil servant, doctor, accountant, etc.

To enforce this doctrine, no genuinely serious effort is made by the elite to create a productive private sector economy where there may be opportunities for our people to grow, prosper and live independent lives.   In fact, outside of the public services, there are very few viable opportunities in our infrastructure-poor country to pursue in order to better our lives.  Our dependence on the government for almost everything needed for our continued existence is, therefore, virtually complete – and fully exploited by the elite.

Further, the insiders use whatever means may be necessary to perpetuate their continued lock on power- but always feigning commitment to democratic principles.  Our leadership chose only likeminded, limited people to succeed them, then shamelessly lavish public resources in grooming their chosen successors.  The elite is also quick to nip in the bud any and all competitive potential aspirants. 

The insiders also carefully distance themselves from a whole lot of achievers and intelligent people because they do not want the public to be exposed to people of superior intellect, integrity and abilities, trembling in fear for possible interference with their fun; or creating alternative choices for voters.   Instead, the insiders surround themselves with parasitic sycophants and yes men who are made to depend on their handlers for their every need, just as a junkie would be made to depend on her drug supplier to insure his further exploitation.  All this, of course, is done with a smile (but with a kick – or worse -if necessary).  

Meantime, taking unscrupulous advantage of our large vulnerable pre-literate population, our politicians routinely feed them untrue or misleading information, rejecting their petitions and treating people with legitimate grievances with contemptuous condescension, as though we are subjects of the government, rather than full-fledged citizens of Sierra Leone.   The end result of all this narrow-minded system is persistent hardship and discouragement of all hopes for a better life for the vast majority of Sierra Leoneans.  This has caused some of our citizens to depend more and more on charity for daily survival; and to flee to the Southwarks of the world at the very first opportunity. 

The above-described factual situation is how our country still functions today, despite huge amounts of post-war international assistance.  It is, therefore, not surprising that the Southwarks of the world are teeming with unending streams of Sierra Leoneans fleeing our homeland and becoming longtime, if not permanent, overseas residents.  

TO BE EFFECTIVE, UK AID ADMINISTRATION

MUST BE DEPOLITICIZED AND PROFESSIONALIZED

Entrusting Aid for poor people to this elite that has revived; strengthened and are managing this narrow-minded, selfish and potentially dangerous system is clearly not going to do the people of Sierra Leone much good.  Therefore, the administration of UK Aid should be removed from local political suzerainty and put under professionals.  

Perhaps, Ms. Harman, you may be aware that President Kabbah (“Kabbah”) is said to have put our Vice President, Mr. Solomon Berewa (“Berewa”), in charge of the oversight of Aid administration in Sierra Leone.  International Aid, as you know, is one of the few sources of economic power in the country today and will be so for some time to come.

Berewa is an avowed presidential candidate and appears eager to succeed to the presidency at the earliest possible opportunity.  He is also meeting stiff resistance in his presidential quest from our people because we know him only too well.  Many concerned citizens thus believe that by Kabbah’s presidential act, Berewa now has carter blanc authority to use Aid as a political weapon to advance his presidential candidacy: both to curry favor and buy support, as well as punish or derail all competitors.  

Whether this viewpoint is true or false is beside the point.  What matters is the persistent popular perception of the recent Aid arrangements.  An ambitious politician, desperate for popular acceptance and equally desperate to shore up his weak support base; and whose reputation may or may not be saintly, should not be seen as being in charge of Aid intended for distribution to desperately poor, vulnerable, traumatized people.  Keep in mind that the intended Aid beneficiaries bore the brunt of the consequences of the RUF war – a war originally provoked by widespread abuses of our people perpetrated by an assortment of corrupt and inept public officials, both military and civilian. 

You will no doubt agree, Ms. Harman, that to be effective, the Aid delivery system must be properly staffed with competent people of integrity.  With an ambitious politician in charge of Aid oversight, there are serious concerns that political profit temptations, nepotism, favoritism and cronyism will help determine the allocation of resources, rather than the needs of the recipients; and the skills, aptitude, competence and the professionalism of those hired to staff the Aid delivery system.

AID DIVERSION

Stories of Aid abuse are common in Sierra Leonean circles at home and around the world and, perhaps, you too Ms. Harman, may have heard some of those stories.   Our people are not happy that your donations of Aid to our vulnerable people’s welfare are routinely siphoned off by some of those in authority.  

Evidence of corruption abound in shoddy work, ostentatious display of wealth, immense pot bellies, conspicuous consumption, all-night loud parties, frequent expensive overseas travel, luxurious homes, coupled with real estate holdings at home and abroad for profit and pleasure; expensive imports, multiple luxury automobiles for personal use, multiple marriages, multiple mistresses and large numbers of babies from multiple partners, etc. 

All this is going on while the vast majority of our people cannot afford to pay, beyond a few days each month, for the minimum daily calorific intake necessary to sustain life on the borderline of health.  Because of the politicization of Aid management, what is happening today is massive corruption and inefficiencies, and with little or no prosecution of the principal wrongdoers who are no doubt using UK’s Aid to shore up their political support to the detriment of suffering people.

To fully understand what I am talking about, may I suggest that during your tour, you kindly include inspection of at least the following:

(i)   One or two compounds newly built for our Paramount Chiefs.

(ii)  Centers for female war victims infested with HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.  

 (iii)  Ex-combatants and the tools/equipment given them for re-integration into civilian society.

  (iv)  Programs for war-affected children, and

(v)   The refugee camp at Aberdeen.

PLEASE CONFER WITH US AMBASSADOR CHAVEAS

Accordingly, I reiterate that UK Aid administration in Sierra Leone should be made completely independent of government control and put into the hands of professionals, both British and Sierra Leoneans.    Perhaps, the highly effective management of United States Aid in Sierra Leone may be instructive.   Little, if any, American Aid intended for the grassroots ever goes directly through the hands of government officials.  Instead, American Aid goes directly to the people of Sierra Leone through NGOs approved by the US Authorities and manned by professionals.  The system is free from politics, it is transparent and accountability cannot be avoided. 

Please note, Ms. Harman, that the US Congress has deliberately and repeatedly refused to provide direct Grants or Aid to the Sierra Leone Government itself for fear of enriching the corrupt powerful.  Should you cross paths with US Ambassador Pete Chaveas during your stay while in Sierra Leone, I urge you to please talk to him about his experiences in getting US Aid work so effectively for Sierra Leoneans.

PLEASE GET PRO-ACTIVE.  A LAISSEZ-FAIRE APPROACH WILL NOT DO

I recommend also, Ms. Harman, that HMG ought to abandon its apparent laissez-faire policy regarding the management of the vast amounts of resources it is steadily pouring into what seems like a bottomless sinkhole, supposedly to help rebuild our country and provide succor to the vulnerable.  A pro-proactive involvement in the management of UK’s Aid to Sierra Leone should reduce the Aid burden on British taxpayers and make assistance to Sierra Leone less burdensome and far more effective for our people.  

Such will be the result because less of your Aid will be diverted from the intended beneficiaries and the management will be professional.  Additionally, HMG is more likely than not to then get the Sierra Leone Government become serious about opening up the country to investors who are more likely to take a long-term view of investment opportunities in our country than the present abundance of fly-by-night operators who are seeking to earn exorbitant short-term rates of return in exchange for, perhaps, bribes and sweetheart deals, like the terrible oil deal done through a commission agent in March ?01.

If this or similar reform is not adopted soonest, it will take our country a very long time to exit from aid dependence because our government has come to rely on the dole and has so far failed or refused to put forth systematic conscientious efforts to build a sustainable private sector in a land teeming with valuable resources; and with her educated people living abroad or idle and/or underutilized at home, while sycophants flourish.  

Finally, taking UK Aid out of Sierra Leone politics makes for a more level political playing field.    A level political playing field should help advance the cause of democracy and economic self-sufficiency in Sierra Leone.   If Aid is left to the exclusive management and control of ambitious government politicians with personal agendas, one can safely conclude that another barbaric war lies somewhere in Sierra Leone’s future. 

It would be most ironic, indeed, if UK Aid meant to assist our suffering people get back on their feet after a most disastrous war, turns out to be a weapon used by the elite to increase their power and perpetuate their incumbency.  If this is so, UK Aid may turn out to be a ticking time bomb, waiting to again severely injure our people, because HMG unwittingly placed Aid administration in the hands of politicians who are seeking ways to feather their own nests and continue to treat poor people as inconvenient subjects upon whom the three S’s of control must be imposed, rather than full fledged citizens.

UK SHOUD UNDERSTAND OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM

Ms. Harman, please do not take our leaders at face value because smart Sierra Leoneans know that they say and do one thing in public, and then turn around and take their profit in secret.  If UK Aid is going to be effective in Sierra Leone so that our country eventually exits from the dole, HMG may wish to consider thoroughly studying our country’s system of governance and, thereafter, help the government and people modernize it.  The United Kingdom should not shy from this task merely because Sierra Leone is a sovereign state and because some politicians might use sovereignty as a shield. 

HMG should start digging beyond the surface because that’s what the people know will be good for them.  UK has the right to study our system of governance, if only to better able make her Aid more effective and also because it is their money.  Be assured that our people would certainly welcome your further intervention.  Again, Ms. Harman, unless our system of governance is substantially upgraded, Sierra Leone’s need for UK Aid, and her dependency on additional international charity will shamefully continue Ad Infinitum.

OUR POLITICAL PARTIES MUST MODERNIZE

Merely attempting to build a sustainable private sector won’t be enough to depopulate the Southwarks of the world of Sierra Leoneans.  Our political system must be modernized.  And if it is not modernized, a sustainable private sector might be impossible to build and, if built, cannot be maintained.  Without economic opportunities for the vast majority of our people, our social advancement will continue to be stunted, again supplying the possible sparks for yet another insurgency that will likely bring UK assistance to naught.

The starting point for rendering your generous assistance effective is our Constitution and the management of our political parties.  Please do not forget, Ms. Harman, that Sierra Leone is supposed to be in a nation-building mode and HMG is already deeply involved but not yet on a cost-effective basis.  In my view, UK’s participation to modernize our political system will amount to classic enlightened self-interest.

ELECTIONS MONOPOLY

Ms. Harman, I would like you to know that Sierra Leone political parties have a unique protection under our current (1991) Constitution.   Thus, only registered political parties can field candidates for elective offices in Sierra Leone.   Independent candidacies are not allowed at all, probably because independent candidates have in the past threatened the tenure of many high-cost, low-productivity politicians.   

OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM IS DANGEROUSLY FLAWED

For your information, our 1991 Constitution is a jaw-breaking, tong-twisting contraption, full of dense legalese and incomprehensible, mile-long sentences.   In a country where, may be, 75% of the people are in a pre-literate situation, this complex document will frustrate the development of genuine democracy in Sierra Leone for most people will never thoroughly understand the fundamental rules upon which our governance system is erected and which is today insatiably taking your money.  

If you want to be really bold when you visit our Parliament on Tower Hill, please inquire discretely from people you meet how many of them have ever seen copies of our current constitution, let alone study it.   A few hypotheticals should do the trick.

In my view, our constitutional arrangements benefit the tiny elite because their complexity and grants of discretionary powers protect the elite most securely.  Take for example, the monopoly power granted to political parties, some controlled by characters moving from party to party based solely on elections prospects.

The above-described elections monopoly of our political parties has given rise to a new breed of pecuniary-motivated politicians who operate some political parties as private property, both as a reliable private income source, as well as for political advancement and security.  Of course, the purpose of political power in Sierra Leone, as we have seen, is not to implement the principles of Self-determination for the greater good.  Rather, political power is vigorously sought after and for mostly pedestrian reasons such as, securing the financial, social and liberty interests of the controlling cabal.  This situation has given rise to the present elite and their well known despotism.

DESPOTISM: “SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN – THIS IS NOT AMERICA”

To party insiders, party constitutions, rules and regulations, are worthless pieces of paper to be ignored at will.  Insiders can substitute their self-serving impromptu rules whenever it is to their advantage to do so.  Party reports are not published.  Annual Accounts are nowhere to be seen for inspection.  The absence of financial accountability is astonishing.  Convention dates are the personal choices of the insiders if they choose to hold any such conventions.  Otherwise, no convention is held and complaints fall on deaf ears. 

If held, convention dates may be frequently changed without notice and without consequences for the manipulators.  Delegates chosen by Party units are routinely disfranchised, with the insiders replacing genuine delegates with bogus replacements. Any opposition is then swiftly crushed with no possibility of effective recourse because the judiciary takes forever to decide.  Besides, the elite controls our judiciary.  

I had a firsthand experience of our politics during the run-up to the 2002 presidential elections – elections widely praised in the West as democratic.  When I tried to point out at the Party’s Nomination Convention in Bo in March 2002 that the individual whose delegates the insiders had chosen to recognize and seat as voting delegates, with him as the lawful head of our Party’s delegation from North America where I was then the ambassador, I was rudely ordered by Kabbah’s men to “shut up and sit down, this is not America!”  

It is the insiders who are free to impose the voting delegates on their own say-so if threatened with the likelihood of defeat – regardless of the rules.  When once the insiders handpick the voting delegates, they control the Party.  If the insiders chose, they may keep confidential until the very last minute the voting delegates’ lists with no recourse.  Further, insiders have been known to refuse legitimate challenges to the credentials of known bogus delegates handpicked by the self-serving insiders, with the wrongdoers protected and even promoted while those with the legitimate complains are penalized. 

It is also the insiders who frequently choose parliamentary candidates to contest under the Party’s banner, regardless of the constituencies’ choices or a candidate’s competency.  Bribery, extortion and corruption are rampant and communicating by phone, fax and mail are frequently a futile exercise because those in authority rarely reply or return calls. 

The leaders who emerged successful out of the above-described despotic system in the present governing Party are the very people charged today with the oversight of UK Aid that is channeled through our government.  

As you go about your inspection and assessment tour, Ms. Harman, our people will tell you that the same people today atop our body politic were once also top officials in some of our pre-war governments.   Our people know that their persistent conduct of greed, capriciousness, ineptness and the deliberate marginalization of productive citizens, etc. metamorphosed into coups and a long, brutal war that produced the very consequences that have now brought you, Dr. Stauton and others to our shores; and for which UK taxpayers are helping to pay to repair the damage.

I sincerely believe, Ms. Harman, that if our above-described politics of political parties is not reformed soonest, HMG’s involvement and the financial burden suffered by your taxpayers might be in vain because this is how the present elite emerged.  Helping us to democratize the management of our political parties will help render effective UK’s Aid to Sierra Leone, and we the people shall be thankful for it.

SECTION TWO

THE SPECIAL COURT FOR SIERRA LEONE

I will now respectfully present to you, Ms. Harman, another matter of public concern that may impact the future development of Sierra Leone.

We the people of Sierra Leone very much appreciate the strong commitment that the international community, led by the United Kingdom, has shown for the future of the administration of justice in our country.  It is early days yet, but it is important to note that a great deal of animosity exists among a significant portion of our population against the Special Court for a variety of valid reasons, only one of which I will present here.

Our people know that many of our public officials have very little respect for the principles of Self-determination.  Of those who do, many have refused or failed to put those principles into practice, even after a most catastrophic war.  It has been general knowledge in Sierra Leone from time immemorial that politicians take it for granted that public office is meant for their private pecuniary gain and other personal benefits as well. 

THE WAWA DOCTRINE AND THE FIGHT AGAINST INPUNITY

So it is quite understandable for a lot of our people to view what they consider the sudden, shocking, unjustifiable abrogation of the general amnesty granted all combatants under Lome, as yet another brazen example of the perfidy of their unscrupulous leaders.  I am talking here about the Civil Defense Forces’ detainees facing trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity, etc.: Chief Sam Hinga Norman, Mr. Moinina Fofana and Mr. Alieu Kondowah. 

Many, many people are convinced that the plight of those gentlemen was engineered by politicians, avaricious for power and for the sole purpose of advancing their political advantage by unscrupulously eliminating democratic but threatening competition, while simultaneously creating the illusion that it is entirely the doings of the international community and has nothing to do with them.  

HUMILIATING NATIONAL HEROES POST-AMNESTY

Aggressively arresting and throwing into long pre-trial detention, with an inferred intent to humiliate, persons deemed by many in our society as national heroes who selflessly defended their communities under horrific conditions; even at times with their bare hands, have not helped matters.  Additionally, the recent sanctions swiftly imposed on Chief Norman by the Court’s Registrar acting unilaterally, not only ex parte, but also combining in his person the functions of the prosecutor, the judge, the jury and the executioner and on skimpy, questionable evidence at that, further increased people’s anger, frustration and suspicions at the Special Court.

A combination of the above factors has reinforced the perception that WAWA continues to operate here in full force in collusion internationals and controls the Court with an invisible hand.

Incidentally, Ms. Harman, WAWA is the acronym for ?West Africa Wins Again’. WAWA is an old unofficial colonial doctrine that posits that all well thought out plane, programs, and projects for advancing the social and/or economic interests of [West] Africans, invariably come to naught.  Or are distorted and the intended public benefit significantly diminished because some powerful crooked ?big man” is certain to use his clout and take personal advantage of whatever the scheme or plan or program, etc. proposes to produce for the public’s benefit, for his own private benefit instead and, secondarily, for others in his cabal.   Consequently, the achievement of planned outcomes for the public benefit would invariably be thwarted.

?West Africa Wins Again’ is thus the euphemism for the chronic situation in West Africa wherein our leaders invariably insure that their selfish intentions will triumph over whatever good deeds the international community implements for our common good.

WAWA examples abound in Sierra Leone and in every ECOWAS nation.  Discussed in Section One above is, in fact, the notion that part of UK Aid intended for the benefit of our grassroots but channeled through the government, is being used instead by higher echelon public officials for the political advantage of the ruling elite, to entrench their hold on power, to enrich cabal beneficiaries and groom successor despots.

Certainly, Sierra Leone’s version of democratic governance, as defined by the three S’s of our elite’s despotism – SUBMIT, SUFFER OR SOUTHWARK – is clearly another WAWA situation.  So is the destruction of Produce Marketing Boards, the abuse of Exchange Control Regulations, the sale of passports to non-citizens, the misuse of diplomatic pouches, etc.

The perception that the Special Court has been wawaed – and donor-nations conned into financing the elimination of the elite’s political opponents – must be addressed, otherwise Sierra Leoneans will end up with distorted notions of Western justice.  And the whole expensive international experience to demonstrate to the wronged people of Sierra Leone how impunity can be contained and then eliminated, under established law and through civilized, peaceful procedures would become worthless.

CONCLUSION

I end this long note by thanking you for your attention to my above concerns.  I also thank you for the unflinching attention and support that you have demonstrated again and again for my fellow Sierra Leoneans searching for refuge in the United Kingdom, especially in your hospitable Southwark Constituency. 

I hope that the decisions Her Majesty’s Government will propound following the conclusion of your assessment tour in Sierra Leone will help improve the overall situation in our country so that the need for our people to flee our country and reside long-term abroad will be substantially reduced in the near-term, and completely eliminated in due course.

Please accept my very best wishes for a most successful stay in Sierra Leone.

Very truly yours,

John E. Leigh  

E-mail address: [email protected]

In the mean time, while Crane’s investigators are investigating Chief Norman, our own investigators are uncovering information about the Supreme Ayatollah himself, Dr. David Crane and his alleged connections with questionable organizations which were directly involved in the conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as in Sierra Leone.  Crane, an African Studies major at Ohio University and a Doctorial of Laws from Syracuse, was an obscure Pentagon lawyer until US Secretary of State, Collin Powell, personally recommended him to be Under Secretary General and Chief Prosecutor for the so-called Special Court for Sierra Leone, is apparently not the Mother Teresa of justice that was sent to Sierra Leone to prosecute President Kabbah’s enemies – real and imaginary.  Of the most concern to us, is Crane’s alleged complicity with President Kagame of Rwanda and Musseveni of Uganda in the Congolese conflict in the mid-1990’s.

What we have uncovered so far is very interesting, to say the least.  People like John L. Musa, the acclaimed Special Apologetic for the so-called Special Court and David Crane, have led us to believe that the case against Norman is a purely legal matter of international justice.  What they have omitted to tell us is who exactly this US military intelligence crony is who is now hell-bent on tormenting our heroes and planting seeds of discord among our people.

Mr. Crane’s life long career with the Defence Intelligence Agency, the military equivalent of the American CIA, is well in the public domain.  What we don’t know much about is Crane’s alleged connections with other dubious organizations on the wrong side of the international criminal justice.  It is highly reasonable to expect that both President Kabbah and UN Scribe, Kofi Annan, were well aware of Crane’s alleged connections with certain mercenary organizations.  If Kabbah failed to share any such information with Parliament before it voted to accept carte blanche Crane’s imposition into the murky waters of our national security system, Kabbah himself needs to have his political head on the platter.

Our investigations are very nascent but very much worth further investigation not just by us but by the international media for the greater public good.  Sierra Leoneans, if they are fair minded people, know that they have nothing for which to fear Hinga Norman or the Kamajors – except for those who plan to bypass the democratic system for government by the bullet.  What they should be concerned about though are wolves in sheep’s clothing, roaming to and from Africa, sponsoring so-called civil wars and acting as though they are knights in shinning armour to save savage Africans from themselves.

Please stay tuned for Part II of these series.

Regards,

A. SamForay,
Hinga Norman-CDF Defence Fund

THE TRANSCRIPT OF THE CONVERSATION CHIEF HINGA NORMAN ALLEGEDLY HAD WITH A MAN THAT WAS CONSTRUED AS INCITEMENT OF CHAOS IN SIERRA LEONE BY THE SPECIAL COURT ( AS RELEASED BY KAMAJOR SPOKESMAN, REV.ALFRED SAMFORAY

The Special Court has yet to release their own transcription ( if at all)

We are pleased to release in its entirety David Crane’s and Robin Vincent’s
version of the alleged conversation between Chief Samuel Norman and an
unidentified man which led to the recent “Decision Prohibiting Communications and
Visits” against Chief Norman. Based on these transcripts, it is highly
regrettable that Mr. Norman and his alleged accomplice(s) were not taken to Lumley
Beach and summarily executed. Be that as it may. it would be highly beneficial to
this community if Prof. P.K. Muana, Toegondo and others of like caliber can
enlighten us on at least one point: What Mende word was translated into Cranish
and Robish English as “Perusal”? At any rate, here is the transcript for
your PERUSAL.  Alfred SamForay

***********************************************

MAN: How are you.?
NORMAN: Thanks be to God
MAN: I have prepared that thing but its 17 and I have ….. 8 (unclear
statement) and I want to deal with the others tomorrow.
NORMAN: That’s not bad. But you should do it quickly so that I can sign it.
Once I sign one of them you can “deal” with the others.
MAN: Did you say I should give them to Alpha?
NORMAN: If you give it to Alpha, he’ll give it to one of my lawyers(the
female lawyer) so she will bring it to me so that I can sign it and she’ll take it
back to him. So you should try to see her in the evening.
MAN: That’s not bad. Whatever the case may be, I would like to send seven or
eight of them tomorrow.
NORMAN: Well, but you should wait for me to sign it. You should send it to
Arthur and others tomorrow for their approval. I’ll try to telephone them this
evening and inform them that you’ll be taking the documents to them this
evening and that they should go through them quickly. You should only send a copy to
them.
MAN: Who? Arthur?
NORMAN: Yes. In Kenema. Send the other copy to Alieu in Bo. Tell them to read
through quickly and give whatever suggestions they have. If they want to
write a different version, let me know but I don’t want them to write it because
they are out there. They could be arrested. I want to write it because I am
already a detainee so I can’t be arrested anymore.
MAN: Okay. You know what I’ll do, I am going to give Mamie two copies so that
she can send them to Bo and Kenema.
NORMAN: Do it quickly and send it to Alpha. Or do you know what to do? Send
two
copies to Upcountry, keep two copies ….. No, the copies that you’ll be
giving to Mamie are the ones she’ll have to send Upcountry. Keep another copy
safely and send the others to me so that I can sign them.
MAN: Okay.
NORMAN: But was it done well?
MAN: Yes.
NORMAN: Are there not any mistakes? Did you check it thoroughly?
MAN: Yes.
NORMAN: Okay, thank you very much.
MAN: In fact, that is why I want to give it to you for your perusal. That
way, you can
make your own suggestions.
NORMAN: It doesn’t matter as long as you have checked it properly. Are you
sure that its okay.
MAN: Yes..
NORMAN. Okay, thank you.
MAN: So tomorrow, I’ll try to speak to the media.
NORMAN: No wait a minute! Wait for me to check it tomorrow. After checking
it, you can send it to where you wish to.
MAN: No, I wanted to speak to the media (BBC)
NORMAN: No. Don’t send it to the media yet.
MAN: No. That’s not what I intend discussing with the media. I just want to
grant them a special interview. Because I’ve already got a journalist willing
to interview me tomorrow.
NORMAN: All right. That’s good. Just tell them that we are asking whether
they want peace or war. We have already asked them this question before but we’ve
not got a response and time is far spent. And we have now been in detention
for bout 11 months. More importantly, there were people who didn’t benefit from
the war and they are waiting for another conflict to compensate for what they
lost.
MAN: Okay. See you later. Bye

• : 

Former Sierra Leone’s Ambassador to the U.S. John Ernest Leigh(second from left) poses with guests during a reception in Washington D.C. Leigh’s record as ambassador is defended below by SLPP Stalwart, Moijueh Kai-Kai. SIERRA LEONE DIPLOMAT INSULTS LONDONERS AS LITTLE SORIE FOFANA IS TAKEN TO THE CLEANERS! By MOIJUEH E. KAIKAI I have been thinking of delivering on my promise being a true SLPP man, to write on little Sorie Fofana?s proclivities in London. Little Sorie for the avoidance of doubt is the government of Sierra Leone?s media man in London. As it turns out, Sorie has decided to adopt the first rule of defence, which is to attack first. From what I can gather from his piece in The New Vision Newspaper, he has clearly become rattled by either my promise or Mr. John Leigh?s forensic rebuttal of the lies Sorie had said about him previously. I like people who do not run away from a battle, or flee into exile at the first sight of their opponents. So I welcome Sorie?s challenge. My only concern is that he is going against what I thought was a gentleman?s agreement- for us to talk about issues and not people?s private lives. I want to make a special appeal to Sorie that we should restrict our discussion away from the personal to national issues. “His allegation of Mr. John Leigh’s ?womanising? is not only baseless and regrettable, but totally beneath contempt.  Let Sorie Fofana check with people in Washington (as he said he would) and elsewhere in North America about Mr. Leigh’s record there.  He will find out for himself and for the benefit of his evil handlers how high in public esteem John Leigh is held to this very day by all manner of Sierra Leoneans and the Americans he laboured with to help our country – from the day he arrived there to the day he left, despite repeated attempts by cabal agents to discredit him over the last two years.  Mr. Leigh is probably the only ambassador or former ambassador of Sierra Leone who never exploited his official position for any form of personal benefit, including womanizing.” “Sorie’s claim that John Leigh is raising money without telling the Party’s National Executive is pure rubbish.  Neither Mr. Leigh nor any other individual has any such obligation.  No one has to tell any National Executive Committee whatever activity he or she is engaged in privately that has nothing to do with that National Executive of the Party.  If Sorie wants to talk about financial proprietary and transparency let them publish the last audited report of the Sierra Leone High Commission, that will show monies collected and how such funds have been spent and by whom. “Finally, before making further unsubstantiated allegations against Mr. Leigh, Sorie should first respond point-for-point to Mr. Leigh’s rebuttal to his shameless lies in his ?Prophet of Doom? article.” I can assure Sorie that I have gathered enough dossiers on his private life, but will deliberately keep them in my back pocket, and will only use them if I have to. Sorie?s reference to me as a ?toilet cleaner for Royal Mail? in London is classic schoolboy prank, and it is a prank that will rebound on him. For the record, I work as a postman for Royal Mail in London with special responsibility for the safe delivery of credit cards, money orders, international and special letters or parcels to their rightful owners. My salary for two weeks is Sorie?s salary for a month and I get paid on time. But even if I was a toilet cleaner, I will never be ashamed or embarrassed to admit as such; because I would have been earning my living honestly without resorting to drugs dealings. I shall deal with the issue of   me being a toilet cleaner for Royal Mail later, but I want little Sorie to address the points I also raised in my last piece, which was that I welcomed his enthusiasm for some form of discipline within the SLPP, and urged him to prevail on the Party to discipline those responsible for the criminal negligence that led to the bloody coup of May 25 1997. I also challenged Sorie to throw light on the drug smuggling scandal at the Sierra Leone High Commission in London as the memo or press release raised more questions than answers. These are far more important issues to address than the personal insults directed at Leigh or me by Sorie, and I sincerely hope he?ll have something to say about the above issues at some time. Sorie made the extraordinary claim that there were ?speculations that certain disgruntled SLPP officials were planning to break away from the original SLPP and form a new SLPP?. This is the sort of sycophantic lies and nonsense that people like Sorie go around peddling to their political masters. Who does this impostor Sorie think he is to even think of suggesting my expulsion. The fact of the matter is that like any other political Party, the SLPP is a broad Church or a broad Mosque (as the case may be), there are those who belong to the ungrateful, selfish and backward SLPP, and there are those who are on the progressive wing of the Party. I belong to the latter; and we do not have to like each other to belong to the same Party. The message to Sorie is that there will be no break away SLPP, those of us on the progressive wing will remain firmly in the Party and fight our corner from within; confident in the knowledge that the current trend is not a long time viable option, and that we will ultimately gain the upper hand. For those of us on the modern progressive wing of the Party, we despair at what is happening to our Party, and genuinely believe that the current leadership have lost touch with the people. We on the other hand haven?t. We will not forget in a hurry those who kept faith with our Country and Party through its darkest hour. For example, we admire the old lady who was shot dead at Krutown Road for rejoicing on hearing the voice of President Kabbah (from exile) for the first time in many months on radio. She rejoiced because she saw in the President the embodiment of our collective democratic hope. She paid the ultimate price for it. We remember the unprecedented civil defiance from Sierra Leoneans in refusing to go to work, making it quite clear to the murderous junta that nothing will be done to lend any form of legitimacy to their actions. It was a civil defiance whose parallel can be drawn only from the resistance of the people of South Africa during the days of Apartheid. We salute the courage of the students who confronted the AFRC/RUF thugs on August 18 1998, armed only with the courage of their conviction that irrespective of whatever amount of guns the killers could muster, they will never riddle with bullets the hopes of a people yearning for democracy and good governance. They also paid the ultimate price in the most gruesome of circumstances. Of course, we will continue to condemn the personal treachery, betrayal and ungrateful of this government that led to disgraceful arrest of Chief Sam Hinga Norman (patriotic citizen no one (1), in disgracing a man who did so much to face down the tyranny that held our Country in fear. Chief Norman?s treatment is the most disgraceful thing done by his government and his cohorts, and it will forever be a stain on his record and conscious. What the above categories of dead and incarcerated have in common is that their sacrifices were for a decent Country that would have the opportunity to finally bid farewell to the vices that ruined our Country. Unfortunately, those vices are creeping back in to our Country. When we point out the mistakes of this current leadership, we are branded by the likes of Sorie Fofana as anti Kabbah, anti this, anti that- we are anti nobody, but we are only pro Sierra Leone. Sorie condemns John Leigh?s choice of words in the Concord Times, describing the ex-diplomat as ?vulgar?. This is clearly the case of the pot calling the kettle black. Sorie?s own choice of words in reply to both John Leigh?s detailed rebuttal of the lies he had put out as well as to my own piece, can hardly be described as refined or decent. Most people believe that the post of Information Attaché is a serious diplomatic post, only Sorie seems to have a contrary opinion. Thus, when he uses phrases such as ?John Leigh?s Tosh?, and describes Leigh as ?mentally disturbed?, he probably thinks he is talking to people in his hovel. It is precisely because the post of Information Attaché is a diplomatic post that necessitated the need for the post holder- in our own unfortunate case Sorie Fofana, that he was assigned a diplomatic quarter in London SCANDAL Not content with his salary as a diplomat and the perks that come with it, and it seem quite oblivious to the scandal surrounding the loss of the High Commission Building at No. 33 Port Land Place, speculation is now that Sorie has decided to turn the diplomatic quarters assigned to him into a money spinning venture. Instead of moving into the quarters, Sorie claimed the property was in a state of disrepair; and demanded that an alternative accommodation be rented for him whilst his official residence was being repaired. Instead of repair works being carried out on the property, Sorie has instead arranged to have his own tenants who are paying rents to him. He is therefore not only defrauding the government and people of Sierra Leone, but that he is also abusing his privileges as a diplomat. The Government of Sierra Leone needs to investigate this matter as a matter of urgency, or people like us will use our own initiative to alert the British government in order to avoid another embarrassing episode involving our High Commission Staff in London. ARROGANT AND INCOMPETENT Little Sorie is rapidly gaining notoriety for the lies he peddles about people. As some one who claims to have been an Editor of a newspaper, this is highly disturbing. He is without doubt one of those who turned a noble profession that is Journalism into a black art in Sierra Leone. How sad. His reference to me as a toilet cleaner for Royal Mail reveals the condescending attitude he holds for thousands of Sierra Leoneans abroad who are doing odd jobs to earn their living. His comments only reveal the bankruptcy of a man charged with the responsibility of holding a very senior position at one of our most senior diplomatic postings abroad. A quick glance at developing countries will show the extent to which remittances to those countries primarily from their nationals doing odd jobs such has toilet cleaning, continues to contribute to the economies of those countries. The Philippines relies heavily on monies sent by its nationals working in the oil rich Gulf States, The economy of Haiti, the western Hemisphere?s poorest nation, is kept afloat mainly by the remittances from Haitian immigrants in the Americas and Canada. Sorie must know that it is taxes from our odd jobs that go as aid to Sierra Leone and payment of the salaries. Of course, in Sierra Leone with record level unemployment and the Country permanently stuck it seems at the bottom of the UN world Development index, only monies sent by people abroad, the majority of whom are doing odd jobs, can our people expect a decent daily living, never mind the rhetoric about people not going to bed hungry after 2007. As a Sierra Leonean, I am expressing my democratic right in asking President Kabbah to send a qualified personnel for this all important job and Sorie is not up to the job. The demand is not based on malice, but on the simple fact that he?s not doing the work of Information Attaché, for which he is being paid. Instead of wasting tax payer?s money writing about people planning to break away from the SLPP, or raising money and printing T-shirts, Sorie should be explaining the policies of his government to the public. There was for example a story in THE INDEPENDENT of London the other day about the problem of the Aids pandemic with specific reference to Sierra Leone. As always in the western Press, stories are inevitably slanted on racist lines; Sorie should have seized the opportunity to counter some of the inaccuracies contained in the story, by explaining the policy of the Sierra Leone government on the Aids epidemic. Sorie should be making forays into press reports that are increasingly portraying Sierra Leone as a corrupt society. He doesn?t, instead he lingers around the High Commission counter productively, and instead chooses to kongosa people to the President. Is it not strange that whilst Little Sorie is in Freetown there is a government delegation in London promoting our country’s interest? The question therefore is: who pays SORIE?s salary -Sierra Leone or New Vision Newspaper? If the President still feels he want to keep Sorie in a job, then he could be assigned to the Lodge and given an elegant title such as ?Media Adviser to the President?. I will end this piece with a quotation from a British politician, since Sorie is fond of quoting British people. The London Mayor Ken Livingston, recently readmitted to the ruling Labour Party at the behest of  Prime Minister Tony Blair, was asked about loyalty to the Party, he said ?The only honest way one can show loyalty to his/her Party is by telling the leadership the truth?. My next piece: the role played by yours truly before, during and after the May 25 coup. It   will contain explosive details of how our own NERO was sleeping whilst our country was burning. Sorie must know that I am a TORKPOI member with conviction and will continue to be a member forever and ever even after President Kabba lives office in 2007 The sad news for Sorie is this is just a preamble the real battle has not yet started. _________________________________________________________________ Sign-up for a FREE BT Broadband connection today! http://www.msn.co.uk/specials/btbroadband