The Vultures - devouring again with bloodied beaks and talons in full view?

Some time back, the Sierra Herald drew attention to how "mining companies" of all kinds, colours and descriptions had descended like the vultures they are, on poor Sierra Leone offering anything from "heaven on earth" to "a new and fair deal for the country". These companies never failed to drum up the "investments" they were pouring into the country, never mind the fact that residents of areas bearing the much-sought after gems were moved without their consent from areas they had lived for ages. Stories of blasts affecting them even after they had been moved to "safe areas" abound. That was under the directions of the Tejan Kabbah set-up. That has now been replaced by an even voracious, insatiable, greedy, self-seeking shameless cabal of "revenge-seekers" wanting to compensate themselves and their cortege after fifteen years in the cold, not daring to tell their sons and daughters and grandsons and daughters that once upon a time there was a real place to live called Sierra Leone where the poor and unconnected were given equal opportunities for education and professional advancement and where holding a party card was a private affair and not one that added points to a candidate vying for a job. Will 2010 become ever more trying for the poor and unconnected?

Guinea update - UN gives the all-clear for investigations into the murder of civilians as the ICC considers crimes related to grave violations

UN Chief Ban Ki Moon has announced members of the UN fact-finding commission that will be visiting Guinea to look into the circumstances that led to the September 28 murders of at least 150 people (according to rights groups) and the sexual rape and violence perpetrated against women. Beyond the deaths and injuries that resulted from the crackdown in Conakry, the presidential statement read out by Ambassador Le Luong Minh of Viet Nam, which holds this month’s presidency, cited “other blatant violations of human rights including numerous rapes and sexual crimes against women, as well as the arbitrary arrest of peaceful demonstrators and opposition party leaders.”

While the commission carries out its duty, with the expected cooperation of the Dadis Camara junta, the International Criminal Court, the ICC has also got its eyes firmly fixed on those behind what Human Rights Watch has called "planned and deliberate acts" of massive human rights abuses against the peaceful demonstrators. And this in their own God-given country!!!

Legal history has been made in Canada as a Montreal court sentenced a Rwandan genocide suspect Desire Munyaneza for crimes committed in his original home country, Rwanda. According to the "Windsor Star" Munyaneza, who came to Canada in 1997 to claim refugee status, is the first man to be tried and convicted under the new Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes Act, and was given a life sentence with no eligibility for parole for 25 years. Under this new Act, being granted citizenship is no protection as there are provisions for those who could have deceived the authorities.

The Citizenship Act:

• provides for the revocation of citizenship of persons who have obtained citizenship by fraud or misrepresentation;
• deems that persons who gained admission to Canada by fraud or misrepresentation and subsequently obtained Canadian citizenship are considered to have gained citizenship by fraud or misrepresentation; and,
• provides that citizenship shall not be granted where the person is under investigation by the CBSA, the RCMP, the Minister of Justice, or the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

The news outlet also quoted observers who want to see more of the genocide suspects living in the country hauled before the courts to answer for what they did in Rwanda during that country's 1994 genocide.

The rights group, Human Rights Watch has just released the findings of investigations which among others, claim that the September 28 attack on innocent, unarmed and defenceless citizens by the "government" of Dadis Camara in neighbouring Guinea was deliberate and that abuses against the weak, especially the rape of women in broad daylight should not only be condemned, but that all those who gave the orders as well as the perpetrators must be brought to book. The Sierra Herald is particularly concerned given that a certain ethnic group in Guinea, the Peuhle (Sierra Leoneans call them Foulahs. They were also persecuted under the late Ahmad Sekou Toure) were deliberately targeted as armed junta thugs emptied clip after clip of automatic weapon magazines into peaceful demonstrators as part of a murderous campaign to "teach the Peuhle a lesson". And this report goes to the heart of what the Sierra Herald has been asking - what happened to the bodies of those murdered? Watchers give a figure of more than 157 killed. The murderers say "only 57 died". Where are the rest of the bodies? Echoes of Mabaylla in Sierra Leone in September 1997? Yes!!!!!

Human Rights Watch Report

Friday October 2, 2009 - ECOWAS gives Blaise Campaore a mediating role in Guinea even as Guineans bury their dead. Is this organisation losing the plot?

Burkinabe President Blaise Campaore has been asked to mediate in the Guinea crisis and many who know the violent history of the sub-region would be asking why the regional body could dare to choose the man who's been linked to gun-running and destabilisation of the sub-region should be given such a serious responsibility. Burkina Faso's Blaise had been linked to the supply of arms to Charles Taylor, the RUF in Sierra Leone as well as actually committing regular Burkinabe troops when the war started in Sierra Leone in March 1991. The tags of those killed were with the Sierra Leone army commanders at the time and when these were displayed at one ECOWAS meeting the matter was hushed up. So why has Nigeria, the rotating leader of ECOWAS thought it fit to have Blaise Campaore as mediator even though the killers in Guinea are reported to have requested "a wise and experienced" African leader?

MORE

It is now clear that the military head of Guinea, Capt Dadis Camara is bent on making himself the de jure Head of State of the neighbouring Republic of Guinea at all cost. The recent unleashing of violence on unarmed civilians at a stadium with troops firing directly into defiant crowds who were protesting against his attempts to stand in the January elections now stands as clear testimony that the beast next door, if not tamed now, arrested and tried for crimes against his own people has the potential to create another round of extreme violence across the sub-region. Now is the time to take the necessary action lest countries of the Mano River Union get sucked into another devastating scenario. What happened in Guinea at that stadium is what could have been the fate of Sierra Leone during junta rule but for the presence of ECOMOG. Now you know why the beasts of the AFRC/RUF coalition of evil led by Johnny Paul Koroma wanted to have the mainly Nigerian-led ECOMOG removed from Sierra Leone. So that a similar, if not more heinous orgy of murder and rape could have been carried out against a defiant unarmed civilian population who wanted them out.

PEOPLE POWER FORCES ANTI_GRAFT BOSS IN KENYA PACKING. An example for us in Sierra Leone that there should be a clear line between the three arms of governance.

He thought he enjoyed the confidence of President Kibaki and what can be more reassuring than to be reappointed by the Head of State himself!!! Justice Aaron Ringera, the boss of the largely ineffective anti-graft body could well have believed that his association with State House and the use of Bible quotes should be enough to show Kenyans that he was the man for the job. And so even though civil society groups and a large part of the enlightened Kenya public saw him as an obstacle to fighting corruption, he still refused to budge even though he knew that a large percentage of Parliamentarians were not pleased with the way he was appointed. He could have been reassured that what the President does cannot be questioned quite forgetting that in Kenya, there is a separation of power and that should the President overstep his powers, then he gets put into place. The Sierra Herald hopes that the Anti Corruption Commission and Parliamentarians are reading this piece. The Sierra Herald hopes that President Ernest Bai Koroma had taken a second look at the country's constitution which separates the three arms of governance - the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary!!!!

MADAM MARIE "NERICA" KAMARA - A WOMAN OF REAL SUBSTANCE SHOWING THE WAY TO FOOD PRODUCTION - just what the country needs as opposed to rhetoric.

Another woman farmer has set an example in how Sierra Leone can become self-sufficient in the production of the staple, rice. Sierra Leone, we continue to point out, has all what is needed to produce enough of the staple not only for national consumption, but for export too. Sierra Leone is blessed with experienced nationals in the field of agro-production and there are volumes of valuable materials lying about to make the country a rice haven. Nerica, (New Rice for Africa) by the way is a variety of rice that has been tried and tested in the country with the potential for high yields that would feed the country. This is not the "Ben Kanu rice" story where PL 480 US rice meant for sale and development projects became the empire of one of the APC corrupt politicians, one Ben Kanu of Freetown West 2!!!!. Just as the APC of old discouraged rice production because of the ill-gotten gains to be accrued, so is the "new" APC where Ernest Koroma's brother has become the new rice czar stashing away blood money ripped from the backs of the poor and starving population.

The AWOKO story

Wednesday September 16, 2009 - There's more to journalism than political bandwagons and bootlicking

While a number of pro and anti-Ernest Bai Koroma outlets have been crisscrossing the ether painting pictures as the writers (some real journalists) would want you to believe, a quiet revolution has been going on. This revolution targets the non-Freetown parts of a larger country and landmass called Sierra Leone highlighting areas that need the attention of the government. A revolution which focuses on the plight of many outside the corridors of power, a revolution which, by putting the spotlight on vital areas affecting the lives of the ordinary Sierra Leonean should send a message to the gang passing off as journalists bent on getting their share of the national cake by whatever means. Congratulations AWOKO for your brilliant and beautiful pictures accompanying articles that take us back home. What wouldn't many Agric-Gen graduates do just to touch, feel and reminisce about those Farm Practice sessions and getting a feel of the earth and nature's gift to Sierra Leone. Thank you AWOKO. Please keep up your "On Assignment" features. Green Revolution? Tell the government to smell the coffee and know that there's more to food production than tractors that eventually end up on mining sites!!!

In the heat and emotions following the murder of more than a hundred Guineans in their own God-given country by troops feeding on the people's wealth, something very serious seemed to have gone under the radar of public scrutiny. Reports seemed to have been focused on the loss of lives (quite rightly), but this has the effect of putting an even more heinous crime in the back burner - the rape and violation of women in broad daylight. No one knows just how many women have been sexually violated in the dark of the night when curfew orders give the oppressing troops a field day to carry out murders, robberies and rapes.

The threat of rape and sexual violence on vulnerable groups, mainly women must not go unpunished and that is why the Sierra Herald is calling on the international community to demand that the government of Ernest Bai Koroma hold to account all those who had been linked to the violence including those of a sexual nature on opposition members caught up in the invasion of their party office. This is not the first time that the threat of rape had been used in recent political campaigns. It will be recalled that when some women candidates, denied party symbols decided to stand as independent candidates, they were threatened with rape and sexual abuse and were forced to withdraw from the race. The Sierra Herald therefore joins all those concerned with justice for the oppressed and vulnerable to fully investigate the rape allegations against operatives of the ruling APC led by Ernest Bai Koroma as well as the Dadis Camara junta in neighbouring Guinea. RAPE used as a political and war weapon is a very heinous and serious crime and we urge the international community to ensure that impunity of the past is not revived in a sub-region that is trying to come to terms with the horrors of the past. Mass rape carried out with impunity and enjoying the nod of those in power (implicitly or otherwise) constitutes an international crime and such allegations have to be taken seriously.