SIERRA LEONE
CHILDREN OF WAR Edit of Dialogue
2551
NOV 1999
8:39 Foday Sankoh, Leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)
I am Corporal Foday Sankoh. People call me Pa, Pape. Why? Children beat people. I am not Mandela. I am Pape of Sierra Leone.
9:34 Foday Sankoh, Leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)
The people of this country, Sierra Leone, they have been crying for war. And their cries have been answered by God Almighty.
10:13 Foday Sankoh, Leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)
I want to be the leader for the people of Sierra Leone. And I am the leader of the revolution.
10:52 Foday Sankoh
I take care of them
they are spoonfed
11:39 Foday Sankoh
Interviewer: Are you proud of your soldiers
--Of course! They are not soldiers. These are freedom fighters.
17:53 Foday Sankoh
I challenge anyone to prove that the RUF committed those atrocities.
Interviewer: So are you saying that all the people in those amputee camps are lying when they say your people committed those atrocities?
What is your name!? I can say I do sometimes that YOU did it. This is Africa. People are not honest, people are not sincere.
18:27 FODAY SANKOH
My forces never used machetes. That is the argument.
Interviewer: So all the people in the amputee camps are lying?
Of course they are lying! It is the make-up of the government, mind you.
Interviewer: Why would they lie?
To tarnish the reputation of the RUF or destroy us.
20:58 Foday Sankoh
Believe me, man, the next general election. We are going to win it. Weve won it already. Interviewer: And if you dont win?
Were going to win.
21:26 Foday Sankoh
As long as I am in Freetown, there is peace.
22:11 Foday Sankoh
Interviewer:Have you given an order like that?
Oh, not yet, you need structures according to the Lome peace accord. When the structures are in place, then we can disarm.
Int: But according to the peace accord, you are supposed to disarm your soldiers
Me? No.
23:00 Q/A with 2 candidates
Foday: We are defending the peace process, so the people should not worry.
Int: How serious are the problems in the north?
Johnny-Paul: It is very very serious.
Foday: No! That is a fabrication. Makeni is as quiet as Freetown. There is no fighting there.
Johnny-Paul: There was a message that the RUF personnel was moving towards Makeni, five-hundred men
Foday: All this fabrication, lies, to tarnish or destroy the image of the RUF.
25:55 Foday Sankoh
Int: Do you have anything to ask for forgiveness?
Forgiveness for what? For a revolution? NO! Thats how it was in America, in Britain, in Europe. Yeah?
21:12 Johnny-Paul Koroma, Leader, Armed Forces Revolutionary Council
Interviewer: Do you want to be president of Sierra Leone?
Well, as of now, I am talking about peace and I think you are talking about politics. I am not talking about politics, I am not talking about war, I am talking about peace.
10:23 Corinne Dufka
Foday Sankoh and the RUF have been responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses committed in modern-day Africa. The trademark of the organisation became the amputation of limbs and the use of young children as soldiers.
11:24 Corinne Dufka Human Rights Watch
They had particular squads that were dedicated to burning houses, to amputations, to executions. So this implies a tremendous amount of organisation and commands responsibility of all levels of the RUF.
11:49 Corinne Dufka Human Rights Watch
He has been at the head of an organisation, the RUF, who has committed some of the worst war crimes that we have seen in our time.
18:13 Corinne Dufka, Human rights Watch
The evidence is overwhelming. Through testimonies, people tell the stories , people recognise the soldiers. The soldiers admit to being part of the RUF.
8:58
In the years that follow, Sierra Leone suffered a series of coup d'etats and military dictatorships. The country was destroyed and its people devastated by civil war. It became the poorest nation on earth, with a life expectancy of only 37. And yet, it is a country blessed with a wealth of natural resources and some of the richest diamond deposits in the world. It is precisely these riches and the greed that accompanied it, many say, which has kept the flames of conflict burning.
In 1996, multi-party elections were held and won by Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. But fourteen months later he was overthrown in a coup by Major Johnny-Paul Koroma, leader of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council or AFRC. This led to the intervention of a Nigerian-led military force, called Ecomog. Kabbah was returned to power in February 1998. The civil war intensified, with the Nigerians and Kabbah fighting the RUF and the AFRC.
(lengthen visuals)
In January this year, Freetown was burning as the rebels invaded the city from the east. The Nigerians and the Sierra Leone army were caught unawares and the rebels occupied most of the city. A cameraman from the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Services was trapped in the occupied area and filmed the conflict. An orgy of violence accompanied the rebel advance to the capital and the ensuing battle with the Nigerians. Rebel soldiers, some as young as seven, roamed the streets: burning, killing, looting and maiming.
12:59
Sankoh's RUF rebels were mainly responsible for killing and maiming civilians. AFRC rebels, supporting former military dictator Johnny-Paul Koroma, soon joined in the destruction of Freetown. As the rebels rampaged through the city, hundreds of bodies were dumped at cemeteries and at the state morgue. According to the government pathologist, 7 300 corpses were officially buried.
13:51
The mayhem on the streets of Freetown continued for almost three weeks.
22:29
It has been relatively quiet in Sierra Leone now for several months. Most roads have been re-opened and people can get their products to the markets again
But the Lome peace accord is under serious threat. There are reports of heavy fighting between the rebel soldiers of Sankoh and Koroma in the northern town of Makeni. According to reports by human rights organisations, villages have been attacked and looting, raping, murder and amputations continue.
21:38
The Lome peace accord calls for the disarming of all rebel soldiers. But across the country, reception centres, set up and controlled by the United Nations, are standing virtually empty. By the beginning of this week, only about a thousand rebel soldiers had given themselves up. They were mostly members of Johnny-Paul Koroma's AFRC. While Foday Sankoh is preaching disarmament in public, he told us a different story.
24:07
The Lome Peace accord also guarantees a blanket amnesty for all soldiers and rebels, even those who committed the worst atrocities. The victims are supposed to forgive and forget. There will never be any justice for them.