INFORMATION MINISTER IBRAHIM BEN KARGBO TRIES TO CLEAR THE AIR OVER THOSE MILITARY ARMS IMPORTATION FOR THE POLICE AND SUCCEEDS IN RAISING MORE QUESTIONS

On Thursday 5th April 2012, Sierra Leone's Information Minister Ibrahim Ben Kargbo spoke to the BBC's Focus on Africa programme during which he tried to clear the air over the importation of the military hardware imported for use by armed wing of the police - the OSD. Below a transcript of that interview as broadcast by the BBC Focus on Africa programme.

Announcer:

The importation of arms by countries in Africa is never popular. People and activists tend to question the authorities' priorities in spending money on such things when poverty and unemployment is so prevalent. That what certainly the case in Sierra Leone recently when a large cache of arms was imported destined, it was said, for the police. What was causing most alarm was that many alleged the police were planning on using the weapons from China to clamp down on the opposition ahead of elections due in November - allegations which the police denied. Well, now the government has responded to the controversy. Ibrahim Ben Kargbo is Sierra Leone's Information minister. I spoke to him on the line to Freetown.

Information minister Ibrahim Ben Kargbo:

May I preface my response by stating that the government saw no controversy in the importation of the arms in the first instance. What the government intended to do through the police was to replace the old arms and ammunition and this process started as far back as 2009, but of course once the arms arrived in the country, we started receiving some complaints and the President said could we look at this complaints if they are legitimate complaints. We held quite a number of meetings with the experts and we also spoke to the international community and the President came to the conclusion that we should listen to the experts and once we listened to the experts, it was decided that some of the arms which could be better used by the military should be handed over to the military should be handed over to the military and those that can be used or should be used by the police for security purposes will remain with the police.

Announcer:

And what arms were these that were better for the military rather that the police?

Information minister Ibrahim Ben Kargbo:

Well can we say that they were generally described as heavy arms. We had to rely heavily on the information given to us by the experts so we decided that - yes - those that have been described by the experts as heavy arms could be handed over to the military. Dont forget that we also are involved in peace keeping activities and the President said could we hand them over to the military. So this is the situation and some of the arms which according to the experts could better be used for internal security activities were left with the police.

Announcer:

Who exactly are these experts?

Information minister Ibrahim Ben Kargbo:

Well we spoke to the IMATT people here - this is a group of people - technical co-operation team - yes of course they are very knowledgeable in this area. We also spoke to our own military people, we also spoke to some of the members of the diplomatic community and we all jointly agreed that some of the equipment could be handed over to the military.

Announcer:

But was it a mistake - I'm just wondering how it came about that somebody would import very heavy weapons including machine guns and grenade launchers for a police force in a country?

Information minister Ibrahim Ben Kargbo:

It was not a mistake at all. If you look at the list of the old equipment you'll discover that all the police attempted to do was to replace the old equipment and that included the heavy weapons. So may I say that for a change we are now going to remove heavy weapons as part of the arsenal of the police.

Announcer:

But what guarantee now do people have that such weapons and ammunition would not be used against the opposition or against opposition party supporters during the elections this year?

Information minister Ibrahim Ben Kargbo:

We really did not need arms and ammunition to administer to police the electoral process and I can only continue to give assurances that we discovered that there was an error here and there - it was not deliberate and we have corrected it.

Announcer:

And that was the Information minister of Sierra Leone Ibrahim Ben Kargbo.