Wednesday September 3, 1997: On this day, the ruling junta, the AFRC/RUF coalition of evil otherwise known as the beasts met at State House in the very heart of the capital Freetown. As usual, since they occupied that building, roads around were closed to motorised and human traffic with both sectors forced to use Fort Street and other diversions to get to their destinations. It was an unusually long meeting as residents affected will later tell, but whatever was on the agenda was not made public..

...it was on this night that Sierra Leoneans came to terms with what a desperate, illegal and unrecognised junta of rogue soldiers and rebels of the RUF showed just how far they could go in their plan to have Nigerian ECOMOG troops removed from the country. 12 years on we await an international probe into the massacre of defenceless and innocent civilians in the east of the city. 12 years on with the perpetrators and their supporters in "democratic" attire now in power under the protection of the Ernest Bai Koroma set-up, we ask for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Who planned the murders? Who were the armed men who carried out the attacks? Where are they now? Are the present crop of so-called "Presidential Protection Unit" hand-picked by Ernest Bai Koroma the chief perpetrators? Why is President Koroma protecting beasts with known track records of massive human rights abuses? Was Ernest Bai Koroma a part of the AFRC/RUF junta "sleeping agents" made up then of key APC activists who saw the AFRC/RUF junta as the way to power when the junta leaves after their proposed 4-year stay in power? Answers please AFRC/RUF junta spokesman Allieu Kamara, the Seaga Shaw and Gibril Gbanabome Koroma junta-loving Expo Times that damned the Amnesty International report of October 20,1997 condemning the junta excesses as well as the cohort of apologists.

This deliberate planning and execution of civilians at Mabaylla on the night of September 3 and 4 1997 and the use of civilians as human shield in the June 2 1997 junta move towards the ECOMOG positions at the Mammy Yoko hotel qualifies for an international investigation into whether war crimes have been committed. Those who planned and executed the murders must be brought to justice.

Recommendations from a human rights group on AFRC human rights abuses

• investigations into the human rights violations committed during the period of AFRC rule should continue to be undertaken in order to bring those responsible to justice and to provide compensation to the victims of human rights violations;

• assistance for documenting the human rights violations which occurred during this period should be provided by the international community.

August 24, 2009 - Remember this day - August 24?

Yes, it was the official birthday of the man at whose doors, wherever he could now be, the woes of the mother country should be squarely laid. Siaka Probyn Stevens, a man who brooked no opposition, brutalised, imprisoned and executed as well as forced into exile all those who stood in his way. Contrary to what the history manipulators might attempt, it was under Siaka Stevens, that the right of appeal then enshrined in Courts Martial proceedings was ripped from the books. Even the dead were not forgiven as the relations of the first Sierra Leonean Director of Radio Sierra Leone (Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service - SLBS) and the first Director of the country's internationally-acclaimed and award-winning National Dance Troupe and diplomat John Akar discovered when they attempted to bring his body back home for burial. It was John Akar who composed the music to the country's National Anthem and it behoves the deniers to tell their children and grand and great grand children of how one man (Siaka Stevens) in his quest for absolute power played god. And as for those women and youths of the APC Youth League who demonstrated in support of the first political execution in post-independence Sierra Leone as Brigadier John Amadu Bangura was hanged, don't be surprised should they continue to deny in public. Their action on that grey skies over Freetown day will always haunt them.

August 23, 2009 - As the world reflects on a great evil this year's International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition should focus on modern forms of a system that, at least on paper, should have been abolished more than 200 years ago.

It's August 23 again and a time to reflect on man's inhumanity to his/her fellow sojourner on Planet Earth and vow that never again can the world sit idly by and allow such evil to permeate modern society. It is in this respect that the Sierra Herald would plead with all governments and human rights organisations to do all in their power to end the new and insidious trends in modern slavery where people traffickers and profit-making companies and organisations exploit the weak and vulnerable. As we all observe and reflect on this day, set aside by the United Nations, the Sierra Herald would urge the authorities in Sierra Leone to take a second look at the BBC report on those girls kept out of school and forced to work on rocks to earn school fees parents and guardians can hardly afford. We urge the Ernest Koroma government to take a look at reports in the local media like AWOKO to help focus on the problem rather than engaging in smoke and mirrors to wish the problem away. It is also a time to take a good look at the plight of women and girls who during the country's troubles were abducted, raped and forced to become the "wives" of thugs, rapists and murderers calling themselves rebels of the RUF and their allies in the national army, the sobels. These are the sex slaves still living in Sierra Leone while their former tormentors get a pat on the back from those claiming to be in authority. We urge our readers to use the links provide to learn more about slavery and also how this evil manifests itself in modern society.

Human Rights Education Association - Slavery and Forced Labour

The BBC Abolition Pages - With many articles on slavery and it's abolition more than 200 years ago as well as modern form of the evil as well as this link with people telling their stories across Africa

Kindly also use this link for some useful information and a quote attributed to the late Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie - Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.

August 19, 2009 - As the Taliban go all out to intimidate voters, echoes of Sierra Leone elections 1996

The Taliban have vowed that they would disrupt elections in Afghanistan scheduled for Thursday August 20 and with series of bomb blasts and suicide bombs going off, the question on the minds of observers surely would be - can people feel safe enough to vote? Sierra Leone had elections in 1996 which the Foday Sankoh-led RUF vowed to disrupt with amputations, abductions and the rape of civilians caught in their web of evil. At the time, it had been established by ever-vigilant civilians, that elements within the national army, the sobels, were actively collaborating with the RUF either in joint operations or as rogue units on "special missions" wearing the colours of the national army.

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And just as in Sierra Leone in 1996 and as predicted, Afghans went to the polls to vote for a candidate of their choice. Taliban or no Taliban, threats or no threats - just as in Sierra Leone people power conquered evil. And just as in Sierra Leone good men, women and children stood up to evil and won!!!

August 18, 2009 - Twelve years ago today in 1997, all hell was let loose on students by the AFRC/RUF coalition of evil otherwise known as the beasts as their operatives tried to brutally suppress a demonstration by students fed up with the atrocities being perpetuated on a hostage civilian population. It was a day that saw wave after wave of drugged and murderous armed thugs, some wearing the colours of the national army shooting students as well as other unarmed civilians dead, abducting and raping female students and creating hell on earth for all those believed to be in opposition to junta rule. It was during this atmosphere of terror, mayhem, murder, rape, brutality and looting that a spokesman for the junta told the BBC that the junta was right in its murderous and other human rights abusing activities. He told this international broadcaster that students had been found with weapons. That spokesman is now a kingpin in Ernest Bai Koroma's administration. Allieu Kamara of "Territorial Integrity" infamy. Another notorious junta operative Idrissa Kamara (Leatherboot) is now President Koroma's chief buddy. It was a day that witnessed the junta's contempt for human rights, the rule of law and the integrity of the individual in their own God-given country. It was a day journalists deemed anti-junta, Kelvin Lewis and Winston Ojukutu-Macauley will never forget. And so today August 18, we remember the fallen, the traumatised and all those who suffered at the hands of the junta. The case of Sulaiman Banja-Tejansie, a human rights activist who was brutalised and kept at the cells for the condemned at the central prison is well documented.

President of the Civil Liberties Congress Soulaiman Banja Tejan-Sie was arrested on August 18 and beaten with military helmets and gun butts. His arms were tied with rope, and he was put in the truck of a car belonging to an AFRC leader. After several hours in the car, he was taken to Cockerill Military Headquarters where he was interrogated and beaten. He was later transferred to Pademba Road prison's death row and was denied washing and sanitary facilities. He was denied food for the first 3 days that he was detained. The AFRC released Tejan-Sie on August 28, but kept him under close surveillance until he fled the country in early October. 

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Sunday August 16, 2009 - The SLBC Bill - Courage, Mr President courage...and do the right thing...

The Bill that should have transformed the SLBS into a new and independent national broadcaster clearly shows a desperate clique wanting to subvert the spirit of the original drafters that should have freed the SLCB from government control. The insertion of a provision that gives the President the power to appoint the Director-General leaves much to be desired and makes a mockery of what the Bill itself states -

(b) ensure the independence of the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation as an independent service provider;

Tuesday August 11, 2009 - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls for the punishment of rapists in the DRC, condemns impunity as she pledges 17 million US dollars to fight the evil.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has demanded an end to widespread sexual abuse in war-ravaged eastern DR Congo. Mrs Clinton was speaking during a tour of a refugee camp in Goma. According to the BBC's Will Ross - "perpetrators go unpunished and that sexual attacks have increased since January, when a government offensive was launched against rebels linked to Rwanda's genocide". Mrs Clinton said that perpetrators should be brought to book promising US help in the setting up of the appropriate structures that would not only end impunity, but would protect the civilian population from continuing torment.

"We believe there should be no impunity for the sexual and gender-based violence committed by so many — that there must be arrests and prosecutions and punishment," she said during a press conference with the DRC Foreign Minister. In the face of such evil, people of goodwill everywhere must respond," said Clinton.

Meanwhile the Justice Thompson Commission of Inquiry investigating allegations of rape against supporters of the main opposition party, the SLPP by alleged government and ruling party operatives as well as the recent cases of violence involving the two parties is reported to have begun sittings. The Freetown-based AWOKO newspaper today reported the appearance before the Commission of one Idrissa Hamid Kamara aka ‘Leather Boot’ yesterday. The interest of the Sierra Herald was transfixed, not because of his denial of the allegations of rape against him, but of something which could not easily escape the eye of anyone interested in law and order in a country trying to recover from a savage war.

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Sunday August 9, 2009 - The Nazis aka Anti-democracy aka AFRC Mk2 have done it again. Smoke and Mirrors administration push through mock bill setting up the SLBC.

In a move reminiscent of how the country landed itself with the first 1991 multiparty Constitution after the original Peter Tucker proposals had been ravaged and savaged by the Momoh regime, a new and dangerous scenario has again reared its head. The draft bill that makes for the setting up of the national broadcaster, the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation has received such a mauling that it leaves no doubt in the mind that the Ernest Bai Koroma majority in Parliament have not learnt anything from the past, chief among the lessons - the importance of democrats, democratic practices and the value of good governance. And what is even more worrying is that during the debates, assuming there were some, not a word of this was leaked to the press. Or was it only made known to the Ernest Bai Koroma praise singers? What is also worrying is that these debates on the bill, if any, could have been attended by Eddie Turay who knows what the Peter Tucker proposals went through. Eddie Turay knows that the original Peter Tucker document, an amalgam of Westminster and US experiences was so watered down by eager beavers of the APC then that he took upon himself to challenge certain sections that would have made Sierra Leone a multiparty country only in name.

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Obligations of the mass media.

11. The press, radio and television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this Constitution and highlight the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the people - The Constitution of Sierra Leone.

Saturday August 8, 2009 - A woman in search of justice succeeds. Her former tormentor, an official of the "Red Terror" campaign is exposed, loses US citizenship and is deported to Ethiopia to serve a life sentence.

It seems like something from a movie script. An official during the rule of the Derge orders the arrest of a female teenager he believed opposed his regime, tortures her but as fate would have it survives it all and eventually lands in Canada. This is the story of how her former tormentor was recognised in the United States by another of his victims.This is the story of Hirut Abebe-Jiri who when a teenager in 1977 was tortured for some three months in horrific circumstances. She recalls "....finally they started putting water on me - then after that when they hit you, your skin starts cracking, and the blood starts coming out. That was the painful time, and I was in and out of consciousness" Their tormentor Kelbessa Negewo who when confronted by the women turned on them instead and started making all manner of wild accusations, denying his role in the repressive regime in Ethiopia. The US authorities were not fooled and eventually they succeeded in serving Kelbessa Negewo former official of the regime of "the Butcher of Addis Ababa" Haile Mengistu Mariam his just desserts.

This thing called justice. And to hear the story of Hirut Abebe-Jiri, the BBC programme "Perspective" is the site to be. The audio will be there for a week.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has told an open session of the United Nations Security Council on "Peace, Security and Women" that the world body needs to take tougher action against perpetrators of sexual violence. He told the Security Council that "...parties to armed conflict continue to use sexual violence with efficient brutality,.....like a grenade or a gun, sexual violence is part of their arsenal to pursue military, political, social and economic aims" adding "In Burundi, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the fighting may have ended but sexual violence persists on a very serious scale"
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice told the Council that efforts must be stepped up "to ensure that rapists and other perpetrators of sexual violence are identified and punished" and said the United States will support domestic, international, or hybrid bodies that investigate and prosecute these crimes...Efforts to combat sexual violence must be placed squarely on the political agenda as well when countries are searching for lasting stability and peace". Today's meeting is part of the world body's effort to concretise measures contained in UN Security Council Resolution 1820 of 2008 aimed at ending rape and other forms of sexual violence in conflict and post conflict zones.

Sunday August 2, 2009 - Sierra Leone's "Smoke and Mirrors" President Koroma in a fix as UK tax payers demand accountability

Reports reaching us indicate that hit with the first sign of stark reality, President Ernest Koroma and his chief actors now appear to be in confusion, if not trepidation over how to respond to a BBC report which did not only remind the government of the dangers of unbridled corruption but which made it quite clear that UK tax payers will now want to know to what use UK aid is being put. UK tax payers now want to know if projects on paper for the people of Sierra Leone get transformed into services for the benefit of the ordinary Sierra Leonean instead of the cruel smoke and mirrors the government has been ever so willing to employ in it's cover-up tactics. It should be recalled that the misuse and outright theft of aid resources poured into the country is not an Ernest Bai Koroma unique stamp. This issue was raised during the President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah period with former International Development ministers Clare Short and Hillary Benn warning that government to get it's act together. The Tejan Kabbah government did not heed the message and the UK government did nothing to show that it meant business except for token moves like the suspension of funding to the Anti Corruption Commission under Val Collier. Any wonder why Ernest Bai Koroma should be bothered? So if former President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah did not blink an eyelid to appoint J B Dauda as Finance minister, what's to stop Ernest Bai Koroma having a person like Abdul Karim Koroma as the country's envoy to China? The website of DFID Sierra Leone states that total UK aid sent to Sierra Leone for the period 2007/2008 is £57.7 million.

Friday July 17, 2009 - SLPP Chairman addresses party faithful in London and says - "unite and help us fight the grave threat to democracy in Sierra Leone"

The leader of Sierra Leone's largest opposition party, the SLPP Mr John Benjamin has appealed for unity within the party ranks (UK and Ireland branch) both within and outside the country to fight against what he says is a slide towards anarchy and chaos as good governance procedures are disregarded by the ruling APC party led by Ernest Bai Koroma. Addressing a cross-section of party members and other Sierra Leoneans at the Walworth Road Methodist Church hall in south London Mr Benjamin said that what the country needs at the moment is what he called "an effective opposition and a government that delivers on its promises". Mr Benjamin urged his audience to get interested in the political landscape of Sierra Leone with the cry - "Don't say you are not interested in politics. If you say you are not, then politics is interested in you. So join the fight against what is clearly a breakdown of all the structures the SLPP had put in place for good governance and which is now being dismantled by the Ernest Bai Koroma government" The SLPP Chairman roundly condemned the Ernest Bai Koroma government for unlawfully manipulating key aspects of governance in Sierra Leone including President Koroma's refusal to separate the office of the Attorney-General from that of the Minister of Justice. For those who want to join the APC, please do so if only to remind President Koroma of his party's manifesto and to tell him where he's going wrong. "This man said he would run the country as a business and everyone can see that his first business, the supply of constant electricity to Freetown has collapsed".

PICTURES OF FRIDAY'S EVENT

Saturday July 11, 2009 - He came, he stated it forcefully and got corrupt leaders quaking in their boots but will Obama deliver?

The long-expected visit has finally been made. President Hussein Barack Obama has visited Ghana addressed that country's top government and political leaders, civil society groups and other stake holders invited to the ceremony at the Accra Conference Centre. The visiting Head of State used the opportunity to send a clear message to Africa's "leaders" that they should be committed to the welfare of the people saying

"No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves - or if police can be bought off by drug traffickers. No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top or the head of the Port Authority is corrupt. No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy, that is tyranny, even if occasionally you sprinkle an election in there. And now is the time for that style of governance to end."

This no-nonsense speech, punctuated by loud and long waves of applause where he touched on the raw nerve of Africa's tyrants and human rights abusers that pass themselves off as leaders is bound to get them very worried and so the question is - despite this nice speech, will the United States led by President Obama deliver to Africa?

But what America will do is increase assistance for responsible individuals and responsible institutions, with a focus on supporting good governance -- on parliaments, which check abuses of power and ensure that opposition voices are heard; on the rule of law, which ensures the equal administration of justice; on civic participation, so that young people get involved; and on concrete solutions to corruption like forensic accounting and automating services strengthening hotlines, protecting whistle-blowers to advance transparency and accountability.

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May 31, 2009 - Welcome and let us celebrate Pentecost with hearts of gold, let us put aside all evil thoughts and deliberate lies for personal gains. Rejoice in the faith O ye who profess to be Christians and let your acts reflect the faith so that your friends and acquaintances may marvel at the change in you. Celebrate Pentecost we say and for all those who profess, who want others to believe that they are truly members of the Body of Christ, let us see the true grit of the Christian in you. Stop your evil acts that see you speaking in tongues that are far removed from what happened on this great day of Pentecost. Stop changing names on the internet as you hoodwink people while professing to belong to the Body of Christ. Stop speaking with a forked tongue using the cloak of the priest to engage in the work of the Devil in pursuit of earthly personal gains. And for President Ernest Bai Koroma, remember what your late father told you about the power of God and what your mum Aunty Alice has always hammered in your ear. Listen son, listen and repent as you make good your ways. The Good Lord is not mocked. And that piece of great advice also goes to former Trade and now Works Minister Alimamy P. Koroma. Allow the fire of Pentecost to burn in you so that all around you will see God's beauty in you and your actions. Read the thoughts of Leonard Akehurst on this who in part states

"Pentecost is the culmination of an experience in order to be the beginning of another. It was for the apostles; it should be so for us. We should celebrate, on this day, the coming of the Holy Spirit in our lives, his definitive presence within us from our baptism, and his constant coming upon us, time after time, as we call on him and open ourselves in faith to receive him. The apostles’ mission is also our mission"

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May 25, 2009 - How a good and noble day was turned upside down by the beasts in Sierra Leone

Today May 25, 2009 is a public holiday here in the United Kingdom - called Spring Bank Holiday as residents within the borders of the United Kingdom say goodbye to those dwindling daylight hours and the cold of the winter months. Students of African politics welcome May 25 as African Liberation Day - a day set aside by the continent to honour all those who struggled for freedom of African countries from the yoke of colonialism. And sadly, it was this day that was chosen by certain elements within the Sierra Leone army, a minority bent on mayhem, murder, looting and rape to deny the people of Sierra Leone their choice of a democratically-elected government. Residents of the capital Freetown will never forget that day as would the rest of the country as the Johnny Paul renegades invited their co-murderers and rapists in the RUF to join them and make the country as ungovernable as they could. They however met their match in the civilian population who had vowed at the Bintumani 1 and 2 conference halls that never again would they allow the khaki boys to rule the country. NEVER AGAIN. And so as we observe this day, let us all as Sierra Leoneans and friends of Sierra Leone remember all those who perished, who suffered the trauma of rape and the dispossession of limb and property that they may be comforted and that the Good Lord in His infinite mercy will provide the appropriate balm. AMEN.

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The Freetown-based AWOKO newspaper has reported another of the government's good intentions - setting up committees to investigate allegations of rape and assault carried out on women holed up at the opposition SLPP office in Freetown as well as another to look generally into cases of violence against Sierra Leoneans in their own God-given land. The terms of the 3-man commission into the rape allegations include according to the newspaper

".....will have such powers, rights and privileges vested in the High Court especially when enforcing attendance of witness, compelling the production of documents and to examine witnesses even from abroad....To achieve their objectives, the commission will have free and unhindered access to all places and buildings that has to do with the allegation. They will also have unhindered freedom to all persons including security officers, to documents, information and materials."

A nice piece of legal instrument there that would help rope in any who would have used the interim to leave the country. The Head of the Commission charged with the responsibility of looking into the rape allegations is no stranger to Sierra Leone. Justice Bankole Thompson is a Sierra Leonean whose prowess in the legal field is well-respected and court room lovers would no doubt have been given an insight into his legal mind at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Nice move, we say nice move.

A report in the Freetown-based AWOKO newspaper has once more thrown the spotlight on areas that need to be addressed by the authorities in Freetown - the provision of basics like potable water for residents. Had priority been assigned to such vital areas, Aminata would be alive today and continuing her education despite all the hardships faced by parents and relations wishing to improve the lot of not only the girl-child, but children everywhere in Sierra Leone. The lack of respect for the environment as the land-grabbing and private construction frenzy by mainly politicians in first the uncaring SLPP and now the neo-Nazi APC of Ernest Bai Koroma does not augur well for the country. We would urge all concerned to take a step back and remember that at the end of the day, it is the duty of care that would bring them the vote in Sierra Leone's fledgling democracy - never mind former Trade and now Works Minister Alimamy Koroma's boast that come 2012, they would swamp INEC, the electoral body with unopposed candidates!!!! May the Good Lord in His infinite mercy grant our grand daughter, daughter, sister and relation Aminata Kamara the rest and peace that only He can provide. Amen

12 years ago today, a reminder of the intolerance of the beasts

Had it not been for the vigilance of the then much-hated and maligned pro-democrats during the terror campaign of the AFRC/RUF coalition of evil, Sierra Leone would have become another Cambodia as apologists of that vile thing (including its journalists now pretending to be law-abiding while enjoying the fruits of democracy in Western countries) tried to foist a "peoples court" to administer their kind of justice. Here's President Ernest Bai Koroma's hero Johnny Paul Koroma, chief of the beasts, rapists, looters and murderers as he bellowed out the virtues of their kind of justice.

"These People's Revolutionary Courts shall not be kangaroo courts but shall be presided over by a panel of five assessors including paramount chief. One of the five shall, at any one time and in rotation, serve as the chairman of the panel of assessors.....Their powers to impose fines and sentences of imprisonment shall be identical to those of the high courts.....An appeal against the judgment of the People's Revolutionary Court shall be to the Court of Appeal on point of law. A decree to this effect shall be promulgated shortly".

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And even today the paw prints of the beasts can be seen all over as perpetrators are compensated under the Ernest Bai Koroma set-up (AFRC Bank Governor and Kemoh Fadika are now our great country's "envoys") where Alieu Kamara of territorial integrity fame is now the voice of AFRC Mark 2 under the dubious and self-serving gibberish-sounding slogan "Attitudinal....something".

And talking about "smoke and mirrors" where lies are embellished with half truths to give a different picture (the art of the magician) whatever happened to Expo Times online? It was up briefly with scurrilous articles as Ibrahim Seaga Shaw tried to explain his way out of questions over his moral fibre (if any) to lead a campaign to set up a safe house for persecuted journalists in the UK. Can you imagine that? The man who used his paper during junta rule to see no wrong in the AFRC and helped in the persecution of those journalists considered anti-junta? The man who in one article implicitly recognised the junta as a legitimate government despite the contrary by the majority of Sierra Leoneans as well as the international community. And to think that he did not set up a safe house for journalists persecuted by his AFRC bosses in Sierra Leone during junta rule?