Tuesday July 21, 2009 - Ghana's former Foreign minister stands accused in Indian rice deal. Sierra Leone roped in similar deal described a scam. How much was known about the rice from India in Sierra Leone?

The authorities in Ghana on Tuesday July 21 arrested and charged the country's former Foreign minister Akwasi Osei-Adjei on a one-count charge of "causing financial loss to the state". He had been under investigation over rice imports from India earlier this year. The former minister has denied any wrongdoing and in a BBC interview hinted that it could well be a part of a witch hunt by the new regime. It has now emerged from at least one source in India that Ghana was not the only country involved in what has been described in some circles as a scam. In an article headlined "Whose Name On A Grain Of Rice?" the Outlook has this comment on the Ghana case.

If this deal was shocking, the deal with Sierra Leone was even more curious. The country sought nearly 40,000 MT of rice on a preferential payment basis from India in early 2008. But instead of a letter of credit coming from its government, it came from an international soft commodities trading company, Novel Commodities, with their offices in 1227 Carouge, Switzerland. As in the Ghana case, Sierra Leone also demanded that the rice be shipped through a Delhi-based rice exporting company, M/s Shivnath Rai Harnarain India Ltd. Sierra Leone sought another consignment in May ’09 through Amira.

Over to the Ernest Bai Koroma set-up for an explanation to the people. Who benefited from this deal? Could this be the reason why local production of the staple rice has never been encouraged because of the killing to be made using such underhand tactics? And this in a country that can easily produce enough rice for local consumption and export. Time to get rid of the smoke and mirrors Mr President.

Take a good look, a very good look at the picture opposite. It is for the attention of the harbingers and preachers of hate, war and intolerance. It is for those who day in and day out instead of asking the government to try and make life easier for the ordinary Sierra Leonean, have given themselves a new well-paying job from the thing in Freetown which passes for a government headed by AFRC junta apologist Ernest Bai Koroma.

It would seem these days that the best way to drink deep from state coffers is to demonise anyone critical of the Ernest Bai Koroma set-up - a thing which instead of concentrating on lifting Sierra Leoneans from their misery are so hell-bent on getting a second term come 2012 that its operatives have lost any vision, if they had any, that would have improved the lot of the ordinary Sierra Leonean and in the process in just under two years have made the uncaring, corrupt and arrogant SLPP more of an angel that they ought to be.

The opposition dare not hold any meeting and it becomes treasonable...it becomes a plot to remove the government by illegal means.

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Friday May 22, 2009 - Rwandan genocide accused is found guilty by Canadian court

In what has been seen as a landmark verdict and a first in the legal books, a court in Canada has today found a man accused of being a part of the death machine in Rwanda that claimed a million lives guilty of war crimes. Desire Munyaneza 42, is the first man to have been convicted under a new law, Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act enacted to deal with just such cases and even though the failed asylum seeker is allowed to appeal to the Canadian Supreme Court, his guilty verdict is aimed at sending a clear message to all within the borders of Canada that the country would never be a haven for alleged war criminals. The Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail has noted

In a landmark decision, Désiré Munyaneza was convicted on two counts of genocide, two counts of crimes against humanity and three counts of war crimes for his part in the 1994 mass slaughter. Quebec Superior Court Justice André Denis delivered the verdict in a brief statement summarizing his 560-page judgment.

This thing called justice.

Tuesday May 12, 2009 - Nazi war crimes suspect prepares to face the music - this thing called justice.

Update - The Daily Mirror tracks down the most wanted 10 of Hitler's henchmen

Alleged Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk is in jail in Munich, facing charges of being an accessory to the deaths of 29,000 Jews in World War II. The BBC reports - The frail 89-year-old arrived in Germany on Tuesday morning after being deported from the US. He is now in Stadelheim prison, say prosecutors, where he will undergo a medical check and then have his pages-long arrest warrant read out to him. He denies accusations that he worked as a guard in the Sobibor Nazi death camp. Demjanjuk, a retired autoworker lived in suburban Cleveland and when he was first arrested was let off the hook because he pleaded that he could have been a victim of mistaken identity. That proved, it would seem a breathing space as prosecutors dug deeper to make their case water-tight. Pleas by him and those interested that he should be allowed to die quietly in the United States because of his age fell on ears that were keen on ensuring that this alleged former Nazi have his day again in court. This thing called justice - the wheels could appear to move slowly, too slowly sometimes to create frustrations but in the end, they will always get to the destination. This is a warning to to all those who gave the oxygen of respectability to the AFRC/RUF junta as atrocities were being perpetrated against the hostage population in the mother country during those trying times. Be warned that whatever you do to cover up your tracks, one fine day justice will catch up with you as the mask you now wear gets ripped off to reveal your true role in the rape and sacking of Sierra Leone.

Two articles in the Standard Times online news outlet seen today Friday May 8, 2009 and we are informed also replicated in the hard version in the mother country would have any reader feel uneasy, if not extremely agitated and apprehensive given what the country has had to go through in the decade of war, deprivation, murder, rape and outright rule of the beasts in human form. And so to read the two articles published by the Standard Times (never mind the absence of a by-line) raising the spectre of war and insurrection by no group other than the main opposition SLPP - a party that gave way to the then and now ruling opposition party APC to have its leader occupy the top seat and hence become President of the Republic. One item sets the scene, purporting to have evidence of communication within the opposition preparing for war by whatever means against the government while the commentary is a goading to the Ernest Bai Koroma set-up that the government should arrest and hang the opposition to silence them forever. It could have worked during the Stevens and Momoh tenure, but not this time we hope. The items by Standard Times call for a thorough investigation not only by the authorities, but by a committee that should include representatives of the international community. The Sierra Herald would want to alert each and every member of the international community with representatives in Sierra Leone as well as other governments more so those in the West to take a particular note of this, lest the country gets dragged into another quagmire by a government which has increasingly shown contempt for any form of opposition. Sierra Leoneans forced to leave home, friends, community and the land that they love yearn to go back to a country that has paid a dear price for peace.

Sometimes in the heat of the moment, like the confirmation of how certain Ernest Bai Koroma paid praise singers are being rewarded with tax payers money and resources, it is so easy to let really good news slip easily under the radar. And the slip is because the re-opening of the Njala branch of the bank was not performed by His Excellency, the Dr, the Insurance Broker and AFRC apologist Ernest Bai Koroma and so was not there in person to do the usual. The Sierra Herald is happy to note that not all newspapers believe that the antics of the President is the only newsworthy item within the borders of Sierra Leone. AWOKO carried this good news story as it should be done by all development-oriented news outlets. The re-opening of this branch will not only ease transactions for students, but also for business people from places like Taiama, Bo and Kenema, not to talk about residents of Njala itself. We say welcome back Sierra Leone Commercial Bank. Welcome.

As hundreds in London demonstrate today for the legal right to stay in the United Kingdom, out there in Laos a pregnant Briton goes on trial today Monday May 4, 2009. According to press reports a last-ditch attempt was being made by British diplomats and legal campaigners to save a four-month pregnant British woman who faces death by firing squad in Laos if she is convicted of smuggling heroin. She is Samantha Orobator, 20, from south London, who has been held for nine months in the notorious Phonthong jail in the Laotian capital, Vientiane, apparently without any access to a lawyer. Nigerian-born Orobator was arrested last August at Vientiane's Wattay Airport where she was allegedly caught with 680g of heroin. Smuggling anything more than 500g carries a mandatory death sentence in Laos. She is now due in court, either today or tomorrow, for what the renowned human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith describes as a "show trial".

It is reported from the mother country that one Ernest Bai Koroma ostensibly the President and father of the nation, but in reality an apologist for the brutal and human rights-abusing AFRC/RUF led by Johnny Paul Koroma, has requested the people of Sierra Leone to pray and fast. That's how they start, mocking the Good Lord by pretending they really believe in HIM while at the same time engaged in acts that are best left in the dark. Here is a man who is so God-fearing with what looks like a belated faith in fasting that he had the temerity, the gumption to tell the nation on April 21 to fast and pray for a period that was already in progress. What manner of man is this? President Ernest Bai Koroma is advised to go through the history of this God-fearing country so he can have an idea of what is meant by "God is not mocked" and the fate that awaited all those who used the name of the Good Lord in vain. According to a press release from the new AFRC/RUF set-up (AFRC MK2), the people were called to this prayer even after it had started....a fateful afterthought? Be careful Ernest. Be very careful.

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Today is April 19 and it is a wonder that the streets of the capital and elsewhere are not decorated with an assorted splash of red and white of APC party "comrades". Or have they failed to tell their sons and daughters, grandsons and daughters and those who did not know that this date was forced down the throats of Sierra Leoneans as the day to be celebrated as the country's national day? Go on, ET and others - tell those who were unborn how Siaka Stevens ably assisted by "men who should have known better" tried to rewrite the country's history. The day Sierra Leone achieved independence, freedom from colonial rule - April 27 - was relegated to the dustbins of history as April 19 Siaka Stevens' Republic Day became the national day.

Footpath to another round of chaos as the army becomes a political tool?

The great convention of the great party, the one and only APC has now ended. The party posts have been filled using whatever method that is most convenient for the party bigwigs but through it all could be seen the dark clouds of what should never again be seen in the mother country. Using a national institution like the army in a public display of political affiliation, going as far as having the military band play the so-called APC party song does not only cross the line but calls for a censure of President Koroma. It is such unbridled display of the lack of the spirit of the constitution that led the country on the path we would never want to tread again. Never again.

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Former Liberian President Charles Taylor’s son, Charles "Chuckie" Taylor Jnr, is to stand trial in the United States for torture and other acts committed in Liberia when his father was at the helm of affairs. It was a time when he and close associates of his friends reigned terror, murder and fear on all those thought to be against them and what they stood for. It was a time when the feared Anti Terrorist Unit, the ATU delivered death with no accountability whatsoever. According to one US source

UK Anti Corruption Police get their first man - a warning to crooked government officials

Monday September 22 - History was made at a court in London today when a Ugandan official was sentenced to a jail term of 12 months after he'd admitted to and pleaded guilty to accepting corrupt payments. Ananais Gweinho Tumukunde, 31, is stated to have received payments totalling more than fifty thousand pounds (£50,000). Today's case is a landmark being the first successful outcome of investigations by the newly-formed City of London Police's Overseas Anti-Corruption Unit, the OACU. The Sierra Herald hopes that with this victory over a corrupt official such as this, the authorities in her Majesty's Realm will now give ear to the cries of Sierra Leoneans who would want to see government officials in the past and present governments of Sierra Leone scrutinised in relation to properties, acquisitions and bank accounts that could be used in laundering the proceeds of crimes against the people of the rich but poor country, Sierra Leone.

Reports reaching the Sierra Herald speak of heavy downpours in the capital, Freetown with a number of areas inundated with the attendant threats to life, property and both human and vehicular traffic. According to the online "AWOKO" newspaper low-lying areas were the worst hit with Kroo Bay and the Fourah Bay areas badly affected. The news outlet adds

...market stalls were destroyed and in some areas the overflowing water entered in to some shops and houses. Pedestrians like the vehicles missed their paths having got misled by the overflowing water which covers the entire surface not revealing what is underneath.
Such torrential rain yesterday was not expected in the month of September and unlike other torrential rains that are accompanied with wind destroying houses, yesterday’s rain was probably the heaviest down pour since the start of the rains.Men, women and children ran helter-skelter to save their personal effects from the flood.

This is a warning to all about the effects of land degradation and the continued removal of the forest covers on the hills overlooking the capital where land grabbers and house builders of every description and temerity have been making nonsense of the national laws relating to the environment. Indeed the records show that the NGO Green Scenery's spokesman Joseph Rahall had been warning about this for a very long time with no action taken by the government. This is a warning that must be heeded and now!!!!!

In a rather unique experiment, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and a rights organisation V-Day are organizing two one-day events as part of their joint campaign in the DRC: “Stop Raping Our Greatest Resource: Power to Women and Girls in DRC”.  The events are entitled “Women Breaking the Silence”, which for the first time will feature women survivors telling their stories of rape and sexual violence to a public audience.  Each woman will end her story with a statement, with the 20 statements collectively serving as a call to the world to act now to stop the raping of Congolese women and girls. These spokeswomen will be supported to go on and become community activists on sexual and gender based violence as part of the broader campaign.

However in Sierra Leone so far, nothing tangible has been done to help the victims as they try to cope with the trauma of what they had to put up with in a society that spurns them with a contempt that is as incomprehensible as it is attitudinally primordial. And yet despite all this, a number of known and suspected perpetrators now live off the sweat, tears and blood of the dead and survivors as President Ernest Koroma rewards suspected war criminals in his "new" APC fiefdom that he's made of the mother country. Resources that should have been used to lessen the burden of victims are instead channelled as salaries and other emoluments to Ernest Bai Koroma's "bodyguards"/"protection force" and "Task Force" members.

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It seems that certain sections of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Sierra Leone report has become a mantra for President Ernest Bai Koroma focusing on those areas that reward the evil while ignoring the plight of other sections of the Sierra Leone community. The victims of rape and other sexual abuses in the TRC are never mentioned in his mantra. All he's interested in is restoring the ill-gotten gains of his former bosses who in a 24-year rape of the country nearly succeeded in bringing Sierra Leone to her knees.

President Ernest Bai Koroma, now the protector and god-father of the junta operatives being shielded under his wings actually believes that amnesty granted his "new" operatives under the Lome or whatever accord absolves the perpetrators from any form of punishment. President Koroma would be well advised to look at all of these accords aimed at bringing the peace to war-ravaged Sierra Leone and here we would ask that he enlists the help of Serry Kamal so he can understand the Disclaimers and Reservations by the UN and other Human Rights groups.

There can be no amnesty for serious breaches of international humanitarian law and for human rights abuses which may amount to crimes against humanity. The duty to prosecute or extradite people responsible for crimes against humanity and grave violations of human rights, such as extrajudicial execution, forced disappearance, torture and violence against women, means that national amnesties and pardons which prevent the emergence of the truth and accountability for such violations are inconsistent with the duty to bring to justice those responsible for such violations and the rights of victims to justice

He will then understand that his chief operatives like suspected war criminal Idrissa Kamara aka "Leatherboot" can be arrested and prosecuted by any state outside the borders of Sierra Leone. Justice has a way of catching up with the wicked.

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Eleven years ago today, the world witnessed the extent to which evil can go in drawing attention to itself and its capabilities if left unchecked. As the saying goes, if the good fail or refuse to act, evil will always triumph resulting in the murder, mayhem and chaos of the September 11 attacks that targeted non-military sites, civilian areas and aircraft with a view to create the maximum loss of lives, limbs and property. The disappearance of the twin towers from the US skyline is a grim reminder of what is to be expected if the good sit back and say - "that is not happening in my backyard. Let them perish". The September 11 attacks show quite clearly the global nature of terror and how sometimes innocuous activities in one part of the globe can result in whole-scale murder in another part. We are now each our brother's keeper.

As the US and the world remember the horrors of that day, the prayer is that good men and women do not shirk their responsibility in identifying sources of malevolence and doing all in their power to nip any such activity in the bud before it explodes.

And in the mother country, Sierra Leone, this is also a reminder to all those who knew about the movements of the AFRC/RUF rebels when they infiltrated the capital Freetown before the January 6 assault on the capital. There were those, some now enjoying the benefits of democracy and good governance in the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries who knew just how much Freetown had been infiltrated and the plans afoot for massive murder and mayhem.

To these facilitators of evil, the Sierra Herald commits them to their conscience, if they have any, and to God's reward. Amen.

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State radio the SLBS had been building up anti-Nigeria/n feelings after the Mabaylla massacre in the early hours of September 4. The junta having put the Mabaylla murders on ECOMOG now made it clear that Nigerian civilians were legitimate targets as plans were finalised for a march on the ECOMOG base at Jui, some thirteen miles from Freetown. The junta message was that it was going to be  a peaceful march and had been urging everyone to come out "in their thousands" to protect the "territorial sovereignty of Sierra Leone".

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Eleven years ago today and on a Thursday too all hell was let loose on innocent civilians of Mabaylla in eastern Freetown as junta operatives slaughtered many in a calculated murderous operation that was meant to put pressure on the Nigerian ECOMOG peace keeping mission. The junta "Trojan Horse" was meant to get the troops out of Sierra Leone so that the junta could "really go to town" and teach a lesson to a civilian population that refused to recognise the murderous human rights abusing AFRC/RUF outfit. Cracks began to appear even before the blame was put on ECOMOG Nigerians as victims shown on junta-controlled TV clearly had bullet wounds!!! Those who visited the scene patrolled by wild-eyed junta gunmen advised themselves not to question the tell-tale marks left by bullets and Rocket Propelled Grenade explosions. And it was on this day, eleven years ago that one Victor Sylver reporting for the BBC from Freetown became the subject of a massive manhunt...and his crime? Well dare to ask Gibril Gbanabome Koroma and Ibrahim Seaga Shaw, the junta apologists who even today continue to deny junta abuses despite them enjoying the benefits of good governance and the rule of law in Western countries.

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The fight against corruption in the mother country received a massive boost recently with President Koroma giving his nod of approval to the new Anti Corruption Act that would help Sierra Leone put the brakes on the evil that has bedevilled a rich yet poor country for decades. This one act by President Ernest Bai Koroma will go down in Sierra Leone's history books as a noble and worthy venture and the President must be praised for this bold move. It is the hope that the words in that Act will be interpreted for the good of the country and te people and that the spirit and intentions contained will not be soiled by the likes of Serry Kamal who, it appears runs with the hares as well as the hounds. For those who thrive on hearsay and would like to get away from it all, Peter Andersen has been kind enough to make this new Act available on his website. Please read, read and read again and feel the good intentions in this document. Well done President Ernest Bai Koroma!!!!!

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THAT RECENT STATE HOUSE ATTACK ON JOURNALISTS - NOT THAT STRANGE UNDER JUNTA RULE IN 1997.....SO LIKE AFRC LIKE THE ERNEST KOROMA ADMINISTRATION? WE HOPE NOT....

Quite a lot has been said and written about the police attack on journalists at State House who went to cover one event. It was sad, very sad and unfortunate, but then if you were to analyse all the operatives of the Ernest Koroma government, you would notice that what is posing as a democratic government is in reality, the AFRC/RUF beasts of no nation minus its RUF component. Be so good as to ask one survivor, Kelvin Lewis, Editor of the AWOKO newspaper how he was detained, harassed and threatened when he went to cover an event at State House during junta rule. He could well have disappeared, but for the timely intervention of the late A K Sesay who had been a respected member of the Njala University College fraternity during his college days. So like the junta in 1997, so would this Ernest Koroma thing evolve into another lawless, vile and anti-people set-up if the people fail to check the excesses of the present administration. And do not believe any apologist who claims that Ernest Koroma is not aware of these cases of violence and intimidation. You can bet your bottom dollar that he is a part and parcel of all that goes on under his watch!!!!

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The murder last evening of prominent Somali journalist Nasteh Dahir Farah in his own home country Somalia highlights once more the dangers faced by journalists who brave all odds to report events on the ground as they unfold and as witnessed by them. Nasteh Dahir Farah who is also Vice President of the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) and in his mid-thirties was reportedly shot at close range by so far unidentified gunmen. The Press rights group, the International Federation of Journalists is among many such that has unreservedly condemned this latest murder of a journalist for going about his lawful duties. According to IFJ, the NUSOJ has not only condemned the murder of its Vice President but was of the considered view that "he was the victim of a targeted assassination as he returned to his home. He was attacked by an armed gang who shot him several times in the stomach and chest. Nasteh, who worked for the BBC Somali Service, the Associated Press, AP as well as for Reuters died within minutes of being admitted to hospital.

“Once again a leading journalist has been struck down in appalling circumstances,” said Jim Boumelha, IFJ President. “It’s time for action not words from governments to address the crisis in Somalia and to protect our people.”

Like Freetown during junta days?

And the constitution according to the Ibrahim Seaga Shaw and Gibril Koroma Expo Times during junta rule