Nearly a year after the signing of a
white sepulcre and much cosmetic peace accord with loudations
from the western world the political impasse in Sierra Leone has increased
with daily new dimension.
In that accord ranks and duties
were shared among elephants that rock horns. Sankoh is
made vice president of Republic of Sierra Leone; he is answerable to no
one but president Kabbah himself. He is made chairman of the strategic
mineral resources,this gives him right over eighty percent of the
country`s revenue; he is also a chieftain to the ruling council. While
Jonny Paul Koroma, the man who first made Kabbah say aufwiedersehen
to Hill Station (Sierra Leone president`s official residence) in a coup
d’etat in 1996,and latter a rebel leader of the Armed Forces Revolutionary
Council (AFRC) and now a good boy to Kabbah’s octopus government is now
in charge of the so called Rehabilitation and consolidation committee.
His office sees to it the payment of bonuses to the disarmed soldiers.
The trio have pitched tents of loudations
and sycophancy among Sierra Leoneans and friends; who see them as
president par excellent, rock of the nation, redeemers, and revolutionaries.The
Times Concord newspaper of Sierra Leone, a sycophant of Kabbah has
taken to be addressing Kabbah as ‘’papa’’,`gray hair and wisdom’’; while
the rebels and government`s oppositions are seen as personae non gratiae
, treacherous persons or anti-patria elements by the
media organs in Sierra Leone that pretend to be liberal in much of
government controlled and sponsored news.In a country where one`s
weltanschauung has to be in pari-passum to that of the rulers and the political
hotshots; an orthodoxy and a cankerworm that has eaten deep into
the very fibre of the nation`s socio-political culture, a brain-watching
machine for the masses of the state by the dictators since the days
of Siaka Steven.Whose government of Mobutuism brought great woes,
far lagging behind in development to a solid mineral
riched country; yet Sierra Leoneans saw him as an incarnate of Bai Bureh
or Nyugua. (Bureh was a Sierra-leonean who fought against the introdution
of hut tax by the British colonial masters in Sierra- leone. Bai Bureh
honour is the highest mediale for gallantry.) Kabbah was in last
year addressed as Bai Bureh traditional rurers in the north province.
On the other hand ,Elder Collins,an image-maker
of the RUF has asked Sierra Leoneans to fall prostrate with the cry of
hossanna before Foday Sankoh on his triumphant entry into Freetown
from kono; because he Sankoh has brought salvation with it`s
ingredients-peace,equity,equality,freedom and justice to the country.He
has in march this year addressed Sankoh as the Bai Bureh of the new millennium;
declaring that come political election anyone who fails to vote in
the RUF party ‘’is living in bondage and sin’’and ‘’an anti-sierra
leone``;then one may ask, wo gibt’s der freiheit, frieden und gerechtigkeit
? He has described students of Bo Teacher`s Training College`s
action against Sankoh as `´ unfortunate and unpatrotic`´and
promised the students a hellfire gift after the election.The students of
Bo have rejected Sankoh`s gift of some bags of rice calling it a
bloody offer from looting and illicit diamond mine. Collins is also
waging a big war with the Freetown landlords who he has accused of
sabotaging against the RUF effort to win the next political party
election.No landlord wanted his house to be used as political party
office by the RUF even when the RUF offered to pay triple the rent.
Then, it become absolutely
necessary for one to ask, wo gibt`s der freiheit, frieden und gerechtigkeit
which the RUF supposed to be campaigning for?
So,live the shackles of brutal war that
ended with justice denied on the real victims of war.It remains an
indelieble mark in mental,spirit and body of a Sierra-leonean.
Sierra-leoneans were in Lome, Togo denied of justice and a new weltanschauung
of Machiavellism taught by Kabbah and Sankoh. For it reddens mind, and
Sierra-leoneans find it hard to believe how Kabbah offered
a blanket amnesty to Sankoh and the post of vice-president,chairman
of the strategic mineral resources ; and his satanic movement of
Revolutionary United Front (RUF) which went on inflicting hardship
of sexual rape,maim,slavery ,abduction and killing of civilians both
sucklings in the name of revolution turned and be registered
as a political party .Sankoh a persona non gratia to Sierra-leoneans
is now a political playmate of Kabbah and a big brother to
parliamentarians in Freetown, whom(the Freetown political class,
the bourgeoisie) he had vowed to eliminate when he started 1991 his
campaign``no slave,no master``. Kabbah has been called a homo
perfidia because ,by that act of favour on Sankoh to
the detriment of justice and the state he has lost confidence the
citizens mighty have had on him; It is a great cheat and rape on the people
since he did this power sharing with Sankoh inorder for him
to remain in power.He did the will of the RUF and it´s Liberian,
Burkinabe, Libya n and Western diamond merchants (Belgium) supporters.
(see Quo Vadis Sierra-leonia) and never the will of the citizens of Sierra-leone
who long for justice.
I have tried several times to see
reason to support the action of Kabbah as means of bringing
peace and normancy into the political impasse state but at every
end something keep on asking me `´what would Anne, a
three week old baby whose two limbs were amputatad,Abu Sesay,a one month
old baby whose hand and leg were amputated, Tessy,a five year old
girl who was raped and forced to watch her parents battered to death
by the dischanted armed opposittion group, N`Damba a six year amputee,who
keep on asking her mother if her hand could grow again(cf JM Jones, poem,
Echoe from the Forst,1999), Cynthia who was raped several times (cf.
Radio Netherlands, 06, march 2000), think of the society and life seeing
the man who destroyed them offered the post of the vice president and possibly
future president. They will surely grow up and see RUF as a political party.Is
it not more than draging someone to golgotha .Do we think they would
accept Kabbah`s kangaroo peace accord or how does think these children
would look at the society in which they were born ? I think these
children would seek a revenge and this will create a catena of unrest
and anarchy in the state.
Every blame goes to Kabbah because he failed
to know that punishment is an essential ingridient to bringing sane into
a culprite. It serves as a derttering measure to others,act as a guide
to the observance of law.`` Rewards and Punishments are two sides of an
absract coin, normative prescriptions for order in a state`` cf Poiltical
Order by Uriel Rosenthal, ph.D, Erasmus University Rotherdams,The Netherland
``. ``Government new offer to Foday Sankoh will encourage the youths
to do evil and it is a big problem to the disarment``--Lisa Speiser.
Kabbah`s request on the Sierra leoneans to forgive is an impossible act;
because, a sanguine mea culpa is a conditio sinequa non to any forgiveness.
We can never aufwiedersehen this fact.
Now that Sankoh is the vice president
and chairman of solid mineral resources ,do we think the child soldier
who has been in drug ,rape maim, killing, looting will abandon his
new life which Kabbah and Sankoh has taught him. He finds it hard to understand
the words ``disarm,rehabilitation,or whatever that which is contrary
to the life of gun which he the child was forced to choose. Sankoh
will first say aufwiedersehen to his quest for diamonds and
power before his boys would lay down their AK47guns. Sankoh has only
been rewarded by the President Ahmed Kabbah government.
It is necessary and very urgent for international world
crime tribunal be set up to try and punish any crimme against humanity
which is committed within or outside Sierra Leone by Sierra
Leoneans or supporters since the beginning of the war in 1992.
***A good leader speaks not from himself/herself
but from his /her people, not even from the bougeoisie but from the peasants;
that is vox populi and not vox caesae.
(Sierra leone celebrates her 39th
year freedom of Britain today, 27th April.)
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