Thanx for sharing Karim. Very informative. Haruna.


In a message dated 6/19/2009 8:49:05 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

Sierra Leone: Wave of violence or wake-up call?
Lisa Denney
2009-06-18, Issue _438_ (http://www.pambazuka.org/en/issue/438)
_http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/57073_
(http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/57073)
 (http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250)
_Printer friendly version_
(http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/57073/print)

cc _Radio Nederland  Wereldomroep_
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/rnw/3019483452/) Recent rioting and violence in Freetown and the  east of Sierra Leone
has brought into focus the fragility of the post-conflict  peace, held in
place since 2002, writes Lisa Denney. At first glance, says  Denney, it
points to a new breed of trouble in the West African nation, a  harbinger of the
party political and ethnic violence that some predict will be  the next
great challenge faced by the country. Not just the work of criminal  elements,
the riots belie the potential for a new wave of violence that  requires
serious prevention efforts, Denney cautions. But events since the  violence have
taken a surprising turn, with inter-party tensions prompting  youth
cooperation, rather than escalating conflict. Thus a seemingly low-point  in party
politics may prove to be a necessary wake up call that quells rising
tensions, rather than fuelling them, Denney suggests.
On Friday 13 March  2009, the newly-painted clock tower at Eastern Police,
in central Freetown,  was unveiled by the city mayor and officials of the
_All People’s Congress  (APC)_ (http://apcparty.org/) , the party which has
held national power since 2007. The main  opposition party, the _Sierra Leone
People’s Party (SLPP)_ (http://www.slpp.ws/)  (in  government from 1996 –
2007) reportedly taunted and verbally abused the mayor  and his APC
supporters, with some allegations that they also threw rocks and  other missiles in
an attempt to disrupt the unveiling ceremony. The SLPP have  been
increasingly sidelined from decision-making, with the APC holding power  at both the
national and Freetown City Council level. They were allegedly not  consulted
about the repainting of the clock tower and its unveiling provided  an
opportunity for mounting frustrations to be publicly aired.

In  response, APC supporters torched two cars, one belonging to the
national  secretary-general of the SLPP. Rioting ensued and the supporters, led by
elements of the APC’s youth wing, set fire to the SLPP national
headquarters  in the central business district. Police were eventually able to disperse
the  rioters and calm was restored over the weekend. On Monday16 March
2009,  however, APC rioters reconvened and blockaded the already-damaged SLPP
headquarters. Police attempts to keep the rioters at bay proved futile, with
some suggestions that these attempts were purposefully feeble, due to
political influence within the Sierra Leone police. APC supporters were thus
able to storm the opposition headquarters, allegedly raping six women and
injuring others.

Over the same weekend, this party-political violence  also took hold in the
provinces, during a ward by-election in Soro-Gbema  chiefdom, Pujehun
district, Eastern Sierra Leone. Here, elections were  underway following the
death of the SLPP councillor. APC supporters attacked  SLPP supporters, wounding
the wife of the SLPP chiefdom chairman. Clashes  between supports of both
parties ensued and the election was called off, and  was been rescheduled for
28 March 2009, when it peacefully took place, but  with low voter turnout.

Two weeks later, on 6 April 2009, the inspector  general of police, Brima
Acha Kamara, announced that no charges would be  pressed regarding the
alleged rapes in the Freetown riots, as medical reports  indicated no such crimes
had occurred and no witnesses came forward to support  the claims. This
announcement prompted public outcry that the Inspector  General is a puppet for
the ruling APC, attempting to cover up these vile  acts, and that the Sierra
Leone police remain politicised, despite over a  decade of UK-sponsored
reforms. The situation appeared dire – with tensions  between the major
political parties high and public confidence in the police  weakened. That same
week, however, a coalition was formed between the youth  wings of several
political parties, including the SLPP and APC. President  Ernest Bai Koroma may
be credited with making the first conciliatory move –  attending the
opposition headquarters to make a speech calling for calm and  non-violence. Since
then, the youth coalition have been rotating joint  meetings between party
offices to move discussions on to the future, rather  than dwelling on
attributing blame for the recent violence.

The  resurgence of violence and its potential implication of the police
bring to  the fore several key concerns that need monitoring over the coming
years. The  first relates, clearly, to increasing frictions between the two
main political  parties. The APC claims that the SLPP has not accepted their
defeat at the  2007 national elections and continue to interfere with the APC’
s attempts to  get on with governance. They assert that the SLPP was
responsible for ongoing  government corruption, and have made efforts to address
this one of their  central policy platforms. Acting on this, they have sacked
several government  ministers and civil servants, replacing them along
ostensibly more  meritocratic principles. The SLPP, conversely, argue that the
APC is thuggish,  authoritarian and has stacked the government with its own
supporters. APC  appointments are not, from this perspective, based on merit,
but rather  predominantly derive from the Temne ethnic group of northern
Sierra Leone.  This leads to the second key concern, which to date has lain
dormant in Sierra  Leonean politics – the prospect of ethnically motivated
political violence.

The APC and SLPP unfortunately derive their central support from the  two
largest ethnic groups in Sierra Leone respectively. The SLPP’s support  base
lies with the predominantly Christian Mende of the south, and the APC’s
with the principally Muslim Temne of the north. Thus, whilst the violence thus
far has been along political, rather than ethnic lines, the demographics of
 the political divides threaten to fracture also along ethnic lines. This
would  complicate conflict further, potentially entrenching political
differences by  co-opting the rhetoric of tribalism, cultural and religious
differences, and  ethnic conflict. Despite popular explanations of conflict in
Africa, Sierra  Leone’s 11-year civil war was never an ethnic conflict. This
dimension is new  and requires thought as to how the post-conflict peace might
be better crafted  to ensure ethnic, if not political, harmony.

A third key concern  relates to how political rivalries might co-opt the
security forces into party  politics. Claims against the inspector general of
police do not appear  well-founded, given the lack of evidence to support
the rape claims. However,  the public’s perception of the police remains just
as important as the  veracity of his claims. Politicisation of the police
and armed forces was  endemic prior to and during Sierra Leone’s civil war.
Rebuilding public  confidence in these essential security institutions has
been a key goal of the  post-conflict period, and has been almost entirely
funded by the United  Kingdom government. Setbacks in these endeavours are
likely to lead to a  deterioration of justice, as people avoid taking complaints
to the police and  crimes go unreported, unresolved and thus ultimately
crime rates increase.  Restoring public confidence in the impartiality of the
police is  imperative.

The final concern raised by the recent spate of violence  centres on the
role of youth. Youth combatants were heavily utilised by all  parties to the
conflict in Sierra Leone. It is widely recognised that any  sustainable peace
must forge a new role for young people in order to keep them  from falling
into criminality or cross-border conflict. Unfortunately, youth
unemployment remains chronically high, with the Sierra Leone Government  reporting it
at 60 per cent, among the highest in the world. Neither the SLPP,  nor APC
governments have been able to address this issue adequately. It is no
coincidence that the violence perpetrated in Freetown and Pujehun has been led  by
the youth wings of both parties. Yet the youth coalition attempts at
cooperation paint a more optimistic picture. Perhaps this initiative  represents a
turn towards negotiation, rather than violence, as youth’s  preferred
political tool. There are concerns as to the makeup of the coalition  – that it
is the educated, elite youth sitting around the tables of  cooperation, who
in fact were not participants in the violence at all. As a  result, the
marginalised youth who are the key actors to engage still remain  at the margins.
If this is the case, it is not so much an argument against the  youth
coalition, which in and of itself appears a worthy and timely  initiative, it
merely speaks to the need for broad-based engagement, which is  trued across
all levels of government in Sierra Leone. The coalition needs  simply to open
its doors further.

2012 is predicted by local and  international observers to be Sierra Leone’
s biggest hurdle in maintaining  peace. Both national and local elections
are scheduled to be held that year  (in the previous self-administered
election, they were split between 2007 and  2008). Holding the elections
simultaneously is likely to increase the  potential for violence as all mandates for
political power in the country are  contested at once. The potentially
comprehensive changing of the guard (or  lack of changing, as the case may be)
that results from the election risks  being too large a defeat for either of
the major political parties to accept.  Any violence that erupts will have to
be dealt with solely by the fledgling  Sierra Leone police, as international
forces are expected to withdraw by 2010.  The nation will thus be tested
for the strength of its security forces,  political culture and institutions
of democracy simultaneously. The  combination of party politics and ethnic
divides is an unfortunate reality  going in to this challenge. The uncertain
role of youth may prove to be the  linchpin in determining whether
cooperation or violence wins out.

*  Lisa Denney is a PhD student in International Politics at _Aberystwyth
University_ (http://tinyurl.com/lkcwe7) .
* Please send comments to [log in to unmask]
(mailto:[log in to unmask])  or comment online  at _http://www.pambazuka.org/_
(http://www.pambazuka.org/) .


____________________________________
Upgrade to Internet Explorer 8 Optimised for MSN. _Download Now_
(http://extras.uk.msn.com/internet-explorer-8/?ocid=T010MSN07A0716U)  
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To  unsubscribe/subscribe or
view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web  interface at:
http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to:
http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List  Management, please send an
e-mail to: [log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

**************Download the AOL Classifieds Toolbar for local deals at your
fingertips.
(http://toolbar.aol.com/aolclassifieds/download.html?ncid=emlcntusdown00000004)

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html

To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤