''All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing'' - Edmund Burke

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S I E R R A  H E R A L D

Vol 8 No 6

The tendency sometimes to protect perpetrators for the sake of peace...doesn't help society. Impunity should not be allowed to stand. - Kofi Annan on Waki report

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PART OF GIBRIL GBANABOM KOROMA'S ACCOUNT WHEN QUESTIONS WERE RAISED OVER HIS CRONY IBRAHIM SEAGA SHAW IN 2001

 ...Victor Sylver studied Agriculture at university but ended up stringing for the BBC after a jail sentence at the hellish Government Information Services. He is the perfect intellectual slave the BBC likes to recruit in Africa - somebody who can sacrifice THE TRUTH for a few miserable British pounds.

Victor has always been close to the powers that be and he used to be very proud of his close association with ministers, directors, permanent secretaries and presidents. He was particularly very close to Kabbah and the SLPP. When the latter was overthrown in 1997, Victor took it as a personal affront, which gravely affected his reporting to the BBC. He never reported anything good about the junta, which angered a lot of people and the BBC lapped up anything he faxed or sent by telephone.

But he got into real trouble when he deliberately falsified a story on the ECOMOG bombing of the Mabayla slum in central Freetown. At that time everybody was glued to a radio and the slum dwellers heard Victor's report while their loved ones laid in pools of blood. With a loud cry of rage they went on the streets with stones and sticks looking for him. It had nothing to do with EXPO TIMES. WE ONLY REPORTED THE INCIDENT AS CORRESPONDENT OF REPORTERS SANS FRONTIERES IN FREETOWN AT THE TIME. I EVEN INFORMED PARIS ABOUT IT AND WROTE A COMMENTARY IN EXPO TIMES CALLING ON THE PUBLIC TO STAY CALM. THE RECORDS ARE THERE....

AND HIS BOSS AT PRO-JUNTA "EXPO TIMES" IBRAHIM SEAGA SHAW WROTE THIS GIVING WHAT HE STATED WAS "A RIGHT OF REPLY" TO WHAT HE WROTE WAY BACK IN 1997 WHEN THE HUNT WAS ON FOR VICTOR SYLVER

.... I remember publishing a letter from one frustrated civilian whose relative was among those killed by the Nigerian bombs. The reader merely vented his anger at Victor in the letter. I published that letter in keeping with my paper's policy of allowing members of the public to vent out their feelings in the LETTERS column on matters affecting their lives in the spirit of free speech and there was absolutely no malice intended against the person of Victor Sylver, who in any case had, and still has, the right of reply.....

...The truth of the matter is when Seaga Shaw and his colleagues were busy exposing the atrocities committed by both the junta rebels and the Nigerian led ECOMOG troops, as well as pro-Kabbah militias, Victor Sylver was telling the world in his despatches to the BBC Focus on Africa that all the atrocities against innocent civilians in Sierra Leone during the period under review were committed by the rebel junta soldiers. For Victor Silver, the atrocities committed by ECOMOG troops against civilians in broad daylight were not human right abuses because they sought to restore the so-called democratically elected government.

Victor was among those few journalists who helped the western media to misinform the world that all the atrocities committed in Sierra Leone were the handiwork of rebels. Thanks to the Sorious Samoura CRY FREETOWN award winning footage, which at least helped to change that perception a little by telling the world that, after all, both sides of the conflict committed violations. At least it's on record that a journalist was shot to death in broad aye light by an ECOMOG soldier acting under the advice of a local militia was merely trying to settle old scores with the journalist.

I thought Victor could have been bold enough to include in his letter what finally forced him into exile during the AFRC junta rule. I'm sure he would not want the Freedom Forum and others to know that he was hounded by angry civilians who felt betrayed and frustrated over his report to the world that some 20 coffins, containing people (including their relatives) killed by missiles thrown from ECOMOG's base in Lungi and displayed at the National Stadium, had no corpses in them but stones.

Those civilians would find it difficult to forgive Victor Sylver for been so heartless as to allow his sentiments to come into naked play into his career as a journalist whose duty it's to tell it as it is and not as he wants it even when it's a big terrible lie.....

 

UPDATE - Friday September 3, 2010

The BBC reporter went into hiding on Thursday September 4, 1997 and never reported from Freetown again.

The funerals for the victims were held on Friday, September 5, 1997 - when the hunt was on and Victor Sylver had gone into hiding to escape his tormentors in the AFRC who were bent on murdering him and his family.

So where is the truth in this claim by junta journalist Ibrahim Seaga Shaw when his benefactors were still hunting for Victor Sylver?

I thought Victor could have been bold enough to include in his letter what finally forced him into exile during the AFRC junta rule. I'm sure he would not want the Freedom Forum and others to know that he was hounded by angry civilians who felt betrayed and frustrated over his report to the world that some 20 coffins, containing people (including their relatives) killed by missiles thrown from ECOMOG's base in Lungi and displayed at the National Stadium, had no corpses in them but stones.

Surprised?

You will not be after reading this Expo Times editorial written in August 1997

 

 

 

 

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