Subject: GOOD BYES PARAMOUNT CHIEF THOMPSON
From: FAREWELL MAMA
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Date Posted: 21:27:53 01/21/07 ()
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IN PARLIAMENT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Parliament Honours Six Dead Colleagues
Posted by Saidu Kamara on Jan 21, 2007, 12:28

Since the present parliamentarians were inducted in June 2002,six members from both sides of the House have died,they are Paramount Chief Madam Margaret Janatu Thompson–Seibure of Bum chiefdom,who was representing Bonthe district,Sierra Leone Peoples Party parliamentarian of Kambia district,Hon. Isatu Kamara. Hon Tejan Mansaray of Koinadugu District, Hon Sewa Bockarie Marah, the former majority leader of the House, Hon Alfred Gombu-Smart of Port Loko and Paramount Chief Kabbah-Sei of Kailahun.

On 12th January, 2007, parliament paid a tribute to the late Hon. PC Madam Margaret Jamatu Thompson Seibure whose remains was laid at the floor of parliament building Tower Hill where hundreds of family members, relatives and MPs graced the occasion. The solemn ceremony was chaired by the Deputy Clerk of the House, Mr. Cyril King. He described the late Hon Paramount Chief Madam Thompson-Seibure as a caring mother who loved her people while she was representing them. He recalled that the late paramount chief died on the 8th December, 2006 after a short illness. “We have missed her charming voice and beautiful face”, he said.

Hon Bai Cheedy, SLPP MP for western area described the late Hon. Paramount Chief as his aunt “whose relationship with my mother was very strong as two sisters who loved themselves”. According to him, “she was a loving family mother, generous and an epitome of kindness, always willing to share the little she had with all and sundry”. Her kindness in this respect was also extended to many of her old and new friends.

Hon Bami Cheedy disclosed that the late chief was born on the 11th September 1926 in Madine Bum chiefdom. She did her primary school education in Bonthe and later enrolled at the Freetown Secondary School for Girls (FSSG). Following this she got married to Mr. Leslie George Thompson, the first African Controller of Customs and Chairman, Public Service Commission. In 1986, she contested the paramount chieftaincy election and won, and was later appointed Justice of Peace.
In 1996 the late paramount chief was elected as Member of Parliament representing all the parliamentarians, a position she held till her death.
Hon. Bami Cheedy said the late chief was always willing to forgive, noting that “one of the most remarkable things I remember about my aunt was her preparedness to forgive and get on with relationships.”

Hon Ibrahim Sorie deputized for the minority leader, Hon Ernest Bai Koroma, as he made a tribute to the late Hon MP on behalf of the House. He observed that, “a great tree had fallen and the entire country have lost a great woman of substance and it was the hope that her soul would rest in perfect peace.”

On behalf of the family, Justice M.E. Tholla Thompson of the Supreme Court expressed his heartfelt condolence for the bereaved family and the people of Bum chiefdom and prayed that her soul and the souls of the departed faithful rest in perfect peace. Justice Tholla Thompson said the late paramount chief of Bum chiefdom and Member of Parliament was fondly called Aunty Maggi, whose demise has not only left him crestfallen, but also grief stricken.

Her death “severs the final link between her and our family of which she became a member when she married my uncle the late Leslie George Thompson in 1952 and lived happily for over thirty two years until death separated them in 1984”. He remembered the year his uncle died and with her death both of them have been reunited in heaven. “After the marriage, she became very close to my late mother, who treated her as her younger sister.

I was always convinced the reason was because both of them hailed from and attended the same school in Bonthe, though not the same period”, he continued his testimony. “My mother was the first to marry into the Thompson family,” Justice Tholla Thompson said aloud, describing the late paramount chief as a caring mother who had loved people, a trait that had generally stood her in good stead both in the western area and the other regions. “It was no wonder why she was elected first as the paramount chief of Bum chiefdom and later as an MP.

“We shall miss her beauty; we shall miss her poise; we stall miss her invaluable motherly advice and above all we shall miss her cooking”, Justice Thompson told the large crowd present.

“The chief has now left us for the great beyond and I am certain she is satisfied and happy where she is now under the protecting and guiding hand of our Lord Jesus Christ in his dominion. For those of us who know Aunty Margi well enough understand why God wanted her back at this point in her life. Her work here on earth was completed. God wanted her in heaven so she can rest beside her husband. For those of us who did not know her let me tell you she was an angle who deserves honour and glory”.

He quoted the words of the hymnist F. Potts, “Honour, glory, might and merit thine shall ever be father son and Holy Spirit, blessed trinity of the best that thus has given earth and heaven render thee”.
The police led the mourners as they marched along the streets of Freetown from parliament building to the Sacred Heart Cathedral where a special funeral thanksgiving service was held on her behalf, before the corpse was conveyed to her home town where she was buried after a befitting traditional ceremony.

Subject: Feeling very , very disappointed
From: KABS KANU
To: All
Date Posted: 19:55:58 01/21/07 ()
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Entered From: h167-156-253.63.chubb.com at 167.156.63.253

Message:
I cannot conceal the way I am feeling : I am feeling very, very disappointed at what happened at the Emirates Stadium today when the disappointers per excellence Manchester United blew their 1-0 win and lost 1-2 to our antagonists Arsenal at stoppage time.

Any Manchester United fan out there ? Are you feeling as rotten as I am feeling tonight ? I was so mad that I tore to shreds copies of the SUNDAY TIMES and THE TELEGRAPH I had bought on my way to church( Both had nearly 12-page supplements --Previews of today's match ) .You will not believe it. BORDERS sold each paper $6;00.I did not want to read anything about Man U again for the way they frustrated me today .

Maybe, I don't need to be such a soccer lover and Man U fanatic. I told my kids that maybe I don't need to care , like most of you, who did not even know that such a game was played today. Maybe, it is not worth it at all .

Any takers ? I am down .

Subject: Chavez to U.S.: 'Go to hell, gringos!'
From: HUGO CHAVEZ
To: All
Date Posted: 19:32:08 01/21/07 ()
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Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

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Chavez to U.S.: 'Go to hell, gringos!'
POSTED: 4:13 p.m. EST, January 21, 2007
Story Highlights• Venezuelan president tells U.S. to butt out of his country's affairs

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez returned to his weekly radio and TV broadcast Sunday, extolling the ideals of socialist thinker Karl Marx and telling U.S. officials to "Go to hell!" for what he called unacceptable meddling in Venezuela's affairs.

Chavez defended his government's effort to establish a socialist model and rejected U.S. concerns over a measure to grant him broad lawmaking powers, saying: "Go to hell, gringos! Go home!"

The National Assembly, controlled by the president's political allies, is expected to give final approval this week to what it calls the "enabling law," which would grant Chavez authority to pass a series of laws by decree during an 18-month period.

On Friday, U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said that Chavez's plans under the law "have caused us some concern."

Chavez, who this month announced plans to nationalize Venezuela's main telecommunications company and the electricity and natural gas sectors, says the law will permit profound changes in areas ranging from the economy to defense.

Relations between Caracas and Washington have been tense since a 2002 coup that briefly ousted Chavez, who accused the U.S. government of playing a role in the putsch. The Bush administration has repeatedly denied involvement, but recognized an interim government established by coup leaders.

Criticizing excessive consumption and self-indulgence, Chavez also announced plans to raise domestic gasoline prices and approve a new tax on luxury goods such as private yachts, second homes and extravagant automobiles.

"The one who will pay is the one who fills up the BMW," Chavez said of the gasoline tax.

He did not give details of the gasoline price hike, which he said would not affect bus drivers who provide public transportation, or the luxury tax. He said revenue from the new measures would be put toward government social programs.

In Venezuela -- one of the world's leading petroleum exporters -- gasoline costs as little as 12 cents a gallon thanks to government subsidies.

Fond wishes for Castro, comments on Hussein
In typical style, Chavez spoke for hours Sunday on his return after a five-month hiatus to the weekly program "Hello President," sending best wishes to ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro and commenting on topics ranging from watching dancing Brazilian girls wearing string bikinis at a recent presidential summit and Washington's alleged role in the hanging of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"They took out Saddam Hussein and they hanged him, for good or worse. It's not up to me to judge any government, but that gentleman was the president of that country," Chavez said.

Chavez urged Venezuelans to embrace "21st-century socialism," which he said aims to curtail what he sees as U.S. cultural domination and redistribute the country's oil wealth to the poor through programs that provide subsidized food and cash benefits for single mothers.

"Socialism isn't going to fall from the sky. We are going to understand it, work on it, plant it, sweat it," said Chavez, praising Marx's ideals. "Socialism is built on practice."

Chavez said government officials were considering new legislation that would force businesses to set aside several hours a week for employees to study, and he recommended they read leaflets outlining socialist concepts.

A vociferous former paratroop commander who revels in the role of talk-show host, Chavez suspended "Hello President" over five months ago, saying that broadcasting the weekly program would have constituted unfair use of state airtime ahead of December's presidential election.

Chavez was re-elected to a six-year term in a landslide vote.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Subject: Guinea president asks for support
From: BBC NEWS
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Date Posted: 12:36:55 01/21/07 ()
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BBC NEWS

Guinea president asks for support

President Conte has won three elections since seizing power
The president of Guinea, Lansana Conte, has urged the country's people and army to support him despite ongoing protests and 12 days of a general strike.
Mr Conte has faced calls to step down from unions over his handling of the economy and because of his poor health.

Several people have been killed by security forces firing on protesters.

Food prices are said to have risen sharply in the capital, Conakry, with shortages of staple foods including rice and bread.

Hundreds of people are said to have been arrested since the strike began.

President accused

Speaking on state radio in the local Sousssou language, Mr Conte insisted his time in office was not yet over.

Guineans must remain united, above all us soldiers

President Lansana Conte
"Those who want power must wait their turn. It is God who gives power and when he gives it to someone, everyone must stand behind him," he said.

"Guineans must remain united, above all us soldiers, because we must be proud of wearing the uniform, a sign of allegiance to defending the country."

The head of the African Union has asked Mr Conte to begin negotiations with the unions in an effort to restore order to the west African country.

Alpha Oumar Konare wrote a letter on Friday calling for co-operation and dialogue, AFP news agency reported.

Mr Conte seized power in a 1984 coup but has since won three elections.

He is in his 70s but suffers from diabetes.

The unions, which are backed by opposition parties, blame the president for the high cost of living.

They also accuse him of personally securing the release from prison of two men, including Guinea's richest man Mamadou Sylla, accused of corruption.

The current general strike is the third in the last year.

Subject: Re: Guinea president asks for support
From: BRA ENVIABLE
To: All
Date Posted: 16:17:56 01/21/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-rtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.101.8

Message:
Did you notice the differences in orientation between a Western, political mind and its African counterpart?
The embattled Guinean leader had nothing essential to say, except that his country men should stand behind him because it was "God" who annointed him to rule Guinea. As a consequence of this almighty preordination, Guineans must wait, or "stand behind him." What a competent way to resolve a political problem!
A Western political mind would have probably enunciated new policies which could be effective or otherwise, and condition the leader's continued stay in office on the workability of such policies. A dramatic resignation cannot be ruled out in such instances. Invoking God's "order" to stay in office, even when failure is apparent, cannot be the response of a Western, or SOBER, political mind. If God's name can be loosely used as in Lansana Conte's case, then the protesters can counter-claim that "God" told them to demand the president's removal. After all, God has chosen to speak through many people.
African politics has a long way to go. Oostem God tell Lansana Conte say E geh rite for die nar power with mental dullness, poor health in general, and bad habits manifested through incessant smoking of cigarettes?
African politics has a long way to go!

Subject: Power struggle, probe shake Liberian politics
From: Borbor
To: All
Date Posted: 01:28:01 01/21/07 ()
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Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

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Power struggle, probe shake Liberian politics
19 Jan 2007 16:51:52 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Alphonso Toweh

MONROVIA, Jan 19 (Reuters) - A parliamentary power struggle and a graft probe into a former transitional head of state sent shockwaves through Liberian politics on Friday, threatening to reopen wounds from a 1989-2003 civil war.

Pro-government lawmakers voted to dismiss Liberia's parliamentary speaker Edwin Snowe on Thursday but the former ally of ex-dictator Charles Taylor branded the vote illegal, leaving the West African state in constitutional deadlock.

Snowe, who was previously married to Taylor's eldest daughter, accused President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's supporters of bribing legislators to win the no-confidence ballot, when 43 of the lower house's 64 members voted to dismiss him.

"As far as I am concerned, I am still the speaker of the House of Representatives," he told Reuters. "This bribery case is criminal in nature and that supersedes all other matters."

Johnson-Sirleaf, who won a November 2005 presidential runoff against soccer legend George Weah to become Africa's first elected female president, has denied the bribery accusation.

However, doubts lingered over the legality of the dismissal vote which took place at an impromptu venue in a township outside the dilapidated sea-front capital Monrovia -- which is still recovering from the war which killed 250,000 people.

Snowe and a group of opposition legislators were not present at the vote, as they held their own rival assembly session at the legislature's temporary headquarters in the centre of Monrovia. Liberia's parliament building is being renovated.

Snowe, who is still under a U.N. travel ban imposed on Taylor's allies in 2001, had been summoned by pro-government lawmakers to explain two alleged breaches of parliamentary protocol. When he failed to attend, they voted him from office.

Johnson-Sirleaf, who recently celebrated her first anniversary in office and is nicknamed the "Iron Lady" for her tough style, has vowed to tackle graft in a bid to restore Liberia's ravaged infrastructure and long-lost prosperity.

Justice Ministry officials summoned former head of state Charles Gyude Bryant to testify on Friday in an investigation into alleged graft under his 2003-2005 national unity government, which grouped all the former warring factions.

"I was not expecting this and I am very disappointed," Bryant, dressed in a sombre blue suit, told reporters. "This could lead us to a constitutional crisis in this country."

The Justice Ministry investigation was based on an audit of the transitional government by West African regional body ECOWAS two years ago. The report named several senior figures in Bryant's team, including Snowe, who was head of the national oil company at the time.

Two former rebel leaders who formed part of Bryant's administration -- Sekou Conneh of the Liberians United For Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and Thomas Nimely of the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) -- came to the ministry to show their support for him.

"We thought that after the elections we were all going to walk ... towards the good of our nation," said Nimely. "But now we see that we are taking different roads."

Subject: SO FUNNY IT HURTS!
From: KING LOGGY
To: All
Date Posted: 00:46:15 01/21/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 144.226.173.69

Message:
.

Subject: DEMOCRACY CALL TO DUTY
From: Dr.Michel sho-Sawyer
To: All
Date Posted: 19:54:42 01/20/07 ()
Email Address: michel_sawyer@yahoo.com
Entered From: c-24-99-17-147.hsd1.ga.comcast.net at 24.99.17.147

Message:
Y S L I

YOUTH FOR SIERRA LEONE IMPROVEMENT

EXECUTIVE OFFICES:

408 Augusta Drive / Marietta , Georgia , 30067/

Youthforsierraleone.com/ Email:YSLI@Youthforsierraleone.com

March 31st, YSLI will be in Washington/Maryland with a forum" strengthening Democracy In Sierra Leone". The event will be announce in phases soon. We are seeking the general public votes on which theme will be better for such an event. Please know that your votes is important , it is an honor to count your vote.Thank you in advance.

Please select which one of the three choices below you will rather us use as a theme for such a noble event.

1. YOUTH FOR SIERRA LEONE IMPROVEMENT PRESENTs

"FOOTSTEP TO ACHIEVEMENT"

SIERRA LEONE YOUTHS MAKING A DIFFERENCE THROUGH DEMOCRACY & EDUCATION

2. YOUTH FOR SIERRA LEONE IMPROVEMENT PRESENTS
"STREGTHENING DEMOCRACY IN SIERRA LEONE"
FOOTSTEP TO SUCCESS "IN RESSURECTION OF SIERRA LEONE" THROUGH THE YOUTHS

3. YOUTH FOR SIERRA LEONE IMPROVEMENT PRESENTS
"VOTERS EDUCATION DRIVE"
FOOTSTEP TO SUCCESS "IN RESSURECTION OF SIERRA LEONE" THROUGH THE YOUTHS

Subject: Re: DEMOCRACY CALL TO DUTY
From: Concerned
To: All
Date Posted: 21:56:17 01/20/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cpe-24-165-223-190.midsouth.res.rr.com at 24.165.223.190

Message:
first one. Looks uncomplicated and easy to understand....
Me nor to book man so ar respect simpl en easy english

Subject: World Bank Report: Solid Waste Management in Freetown
From: JACKSON DOE
To: All
Date Posted: 19:38:20 01/20/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

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World Bank Report: Solid Waste Management in Freetown
- Wednesday 17 January 2007.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Solid waste management in Freetown poses costly and vexing problems. Included are low service coverage-averaging 40%, insufficient budgets, highly inadequate equipment, substantial inefficiencies such as high costs, low quality service, low labor productivity, poor public attitudes, and widespread illegal dumping. In addition, the long domestic insurgency heavily damaged or destroyed the existing infrastructure, and also, significantly contributed to the more than two-fold increase in population from estimated 850,000 in 1994 to the current estimates of 1.85M. In terms of waste management, there is a positive correlation between city’s population size and both the percentage of waste removed and the rate of households enjoying regular waste collection. The increased population combined with the domestic insurgency, political strife, and accompanying economic crises had a profound impact on waste generation, straining the existing skeletal solid waste management (SWM) system.

Coupled with changing waste management authorities, the Freetown’s solid waste management situation is on the verge of collapse. The large percentage of uncollected or illegally dumped waste in Freetown constitutes a disaster for human health and is also a cause of the environmental degradation. According to the local health authorities, the increased prevalence of parasites, tetanus, malaria, hookworm, cholera, and diarrhea in and around the city is mostly attributed to strewn wastes in the city.

The management of Freetown’s waste is a history of institutional trials and abandonment, with most issues remaining unsolved. The newest authority, the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS) was assigned the responsibility for in May 2003. The assignment came as a result of the failure of previous authorities-the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, the Freetown City Council, and the private sector to effectively manage Freetown’s solid wastes. Unfortunately, the MoYS is also struggling with tight budgets, lack of qualified manpower, and no institutional authority and experience in waste management.

It is estimated that over 742 tons/day of garbage is generated in the metro Freetown area. Of this, over 84% is biodegradable organic waste, mostly from residential and vegetable markets. In addition, the limited Freetown industry contributes approximately 20 tons/day of wastes. Industrial wastes consist of mostly broken bottles (primarily from local brewery), waste cans, rags and plastic and small quantities of hazardous wastes. These wastes are usually unbagged and disposed by the industry at each of the landfills, at no cost.

To collect data and information for this study, during the 25-day field study, many individuals and organizations were interviewed. A list is included under Appendix A: Contact List. Based on the field survey, it appears that, of immediate need is adequate waste management equipment-including skip trucks, skips, Front-end loaders, dustbins, and spare parts to repair and effectively mobilize the limited existing fleet. Simultaneously, for short- and long-term sustainable improvements, an independent lead institute with strong financial footings and executive authorities needs to be established.

To assist, the World Bank instituted this study to analyze the situation and define institutional, financial and other needs, and to propose mechanisms for a sustainable solid waste management (SWM) system in Freetown. To meet the requirements, the study is proposing establishment of an independent, autonomous institute, named, the Freetown Solid Waste Management Company, (FSWMC). The proposed institute must incorporate executive authorities and an effective management structure. For the long-term, sustenance of the FSWMC should be based on two key pillars: gradual implementation of cost recovery with social considerations, and an active participation by the community and the private sector. As part of this activity, the Bank is proposing to spend approximately $3.6M, for emergency cleanup, and to help establish the FSWMC through purchase of the much-needed SWM equipment, and technical and training assistance over a period of two years. It is envisioned that successful implementation of the measures recommended in the study can help establish a long-term, 10-year and beyond, self-sustainable waste management system in Freetown.

1.0 Introduction

Solid waste management is much more than refuse collection and disposal. Wastes such as derelict vehicles, medical, toxic, and hazardous wastes pose special problems. For instance, management of medical wastes requires use of specialized technologies. Abandoned and derelict vehicles may require collection and promotion of scrap steel reclamation for efficient disposal. In addition, public awareness and attitudes towards waste can also affect a city’s entire waste management system. For instance, key factors such as readiness to carry waste to a shared container, the willingness to segregate waste to assist recycling, the waste collection frequency, and the willingness to pay for waste management services have a direct bearing on the quality and cost of solid waste management. In addition, such factors as the opposition to siting landfills, political interference, and, in some developing countries such as India, the social groups from which waste management staff can be drawn, can also affect the cost and efficiency of solid waste management (SWM).

Sierra Leone’s ten-year rebel war severely impacted Freetown’s economy and its infrastructure. Most of the waste management equipment such as the skip trucks, skips and others were vandalized or completely destroyed. The war was instigated due great inequality, very high level of unemployment, and a large group of unemployed rural youth without any education or skills-a group that rebel leaders easily recruited and manipulated. By the end of the war, thousands of refugees migrated to Freetown, swelling its population from 800,000 in 1995 to an estimated high of 1.8M in 2003. Recent World Bank estimates indicate a projected annual population increase of 3.4% for Freetown, which would proportionately increase the solid waste quantities generated.

The result of heavy population migration has been squalor, poor housing, inadequate sanitation, congestion, pollution, poor public services, and chronic unemployment, particularly among the youth, most of who are without any employable skills. The ubiquitous pile-up of garbage, can be seen everywhere. Also, most city drains are clogged with garbage. A number of manhole covers have been removed to dump garbage. Many existing skips (large containers) that also act as transfer station for the solid waste are broken. Often, the garbage is strewn around, where scavengers, mostly children and wandering dogs, birds, pigs, and other stray animals, forage amongst the rubbish, spreading it around. City’s coastal area residents dump the wastes into the sea. In poor neighborhoods, collected waste is often set on fire. The situation is a major contributor to the city’s significant rise of the incidence of vector-propagated diseases.

If solid wastes are not managed properly, they can pose many environmental and human health risks. For instance, refuse blocking storm drains can cause malaria and other diseases. Fires set at disposal sites can cause major air pollution, causing illness and reducing visibility, making disposal sites dangerously unstable, and possibly spreading contaminants to adjacent property. Unfortunately, Freetown’s poor bear a disproportionate burden of the impact of externalities resulting from poor management of municipal solid (and liquid) wastes.

Based on the fieldwork, the main issues apparent in the system are highly inefficient collection practices with quite a variable level of service, poor operating practices-including no environmental systems, highly inadequate and malfunctioning equipment, open burning of garbage, illegal dumping and littering, and a public with seemingly little sensitivity to the garbage around them or any awareness of what represents responsible waste management. The appalling garbage situation in Freetown, which borders collapse, needs effective remedial measures. A collapse of the system will adversely impact the living conditions of the city dwellers, further endangering their environment and health. Freetown’s solid waste management system needs serious rehabilitation, first on an emergency basis, followed by development and implementation of long-term, sustainable measures. It also needs a change in behavior of individuals and the society. A successful solid waste management depends on an efficient operational system from the outset. It is commonly recognized that four technical pillars of any SWM system are: (i) storage at or near the point of generation, (ii) collection of waste, (iii) street cleansing, and (iv) transport and disposal of wastes. Each of these precepts for sustainable SWM also requires careful planning and implementation by a financially sound, well-footed institute that has executive authorities and appropriate policy and legislative support. In addition, the participation, organization and management of relationship between all key stakeholders must also include consensus building throughout the planning process. Solid waste planning also requires regular revisions and updating.

A sound solid waste management system is also essential for sustained economic growth, which in turn can also help generate better revenues and potentially better waste management resources and services. Unfortunately, a sustainable solid waste management system is beyond the ability of any municipal government alone. To meet this need, SWM authorities in many countries are increasing involving private sector and communities as key participants.

In terms of solid waste management, in Freetown, there is too much to do, and at present, there is too little to do it with.

1.1 Historical Perspectives

Waste management in Freetown, under shifting authorities, has been treated as a political football.

In the 60s, the Sierra Leone Department of Health and Human Services (DOHSS) was assigned the responsibility. In 1971, DOHSS nominated Freetown City Council (FCC), an urban Health Authority to manage Freetown’s solid wastes. However, the FCC had difficulty in providing the services, and in late seventies, given the hosting of Organization of African Union (OAU) conference in Freetown, the Health minister, while launching a “Keep the City Clean” campaign, also transferred the waste management to the Ministry of Health, DOHS’s new name. In early 80’s sanitation was added, and a new name-the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS) emerged. In 1987, the MoHS assigned the waste management responsibility to its (then newly created) public health units under its Environmental Health Division (EHD).

The EHD’s Public Health Units, during the period of 1980-1990 got technical and financial assistance from the Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (KFW) of the Federal Republic of Germany. The assistance included provision of waste management vehicles, equipment and consultancy services. The equipment provided was ten (10) skip trucks, two (2) tippers, two (2) front-end loaders, three (3) monitoring vehicles and one (1) one-track bulldozer. However, in 1994, given some political misunderstanding, and declaration of the German Ambassador as persona nongrata by the Sierra Leone’s government, the assistance was abruptly halted. .

Also, during the above period, based on a strategy developed by German’s, in 1982, a private contractor, Ajibu Jallah was hired to manage the city’s solid wastes. As part of the contract, the EHD also leased its key solid waste management equipment to the contractor-which turned out to be a one-man firm. However, given poor performance, serious financial irregularities and adverse political interferences, in June 1993, the contract was abrogated. The EHD then resumed full responsibility of the physical execution of the services under the supervision of a Senior Sanitary Engineer.

Given the (sudden) withdrawal of the German government’s support, and continuing poor EHD performance, alternative arrangements were necessitated. In 1994, the EHD attempted to contract out the services again. However, only one aspirant, a private firm was able to meet the government’s pre-bid conditions. The sole-bidding firm requested twice the amount EHD was spending to keep the city relatively clean. During the period, Freetown’s population was estimated at 800,000. The private bid costs could not be justified.

In 1995, under its Freetown Infrastructure Rehabilitation Program (FIRP), the World Bank, provided two (20 skip trucks, two (2) monitoring vehicles and thirty (30) skip containers) to the city. In addition, the project also provided one (1) truck in 1997. Unfortunately, by this time, most of the skip trucks provided earlier by Germany in 1985 had ceased to operate, creating an acute shortage of skip trucks needed to cope with the city’s growing requirement. Coupled with the domestic insurgency, by this time, most of the equipment was damaged or destroyed. In 1999, based on government’s request the British government provided used waste management equipment including four skip trucks, three cesspit emptier, two waster bowzer, and 2 tippers. A number of these vehicles have since been grounded due to lack of maintenance.

Under the EHD’s resumption of Freetown’s waste management responsibilities, the waste management situation further deteriorated significantly. As before, key contributing factors were essentially the same. These included: high bureaucratic inefficiency, corruption allegations especially in the procurement of spare parts and existence of “ghost” employees, poor management, lack of accountability, and lack of funds. The continued restructuring also placed junior, inexperienced, and incompetent staff over the qualified and the experienced, adversely impacting staff morale and performance.

At this time, EHD’s key solid waste personnel included its chief, a Senior Sanitary Engineer (SSE), one Sanitary Engineer (SE) and three Public Health Inspectors. In addition, EHD also had 57 junior staff and 328 laborers. In terms of equipment, the EHD’s main operating equipment (until 1994) included 1 bulldozer, 9 skip trucks (average availability 80%), 2 dump trucks (90% availability), 2 loaders, 10 other vehicles, 3 cesspit emptier, and 229 5m3. vehicles. Waste containers (skips) were emptied according to the appraised requirements, daily or less frequently.

The current World Bank project aims to help Freetown manage its waste in an effective and sustainable manner. The project, based on recommendations of this study, will fund equipment for much-needed emergency and the short-term, two to four year cleanups, as well as helping establish an independent institute capable of implementing these activities. Equally important, for Freetown, the outputs can provide long-term sustainable solid waste management (SWM) services.

2.0 Analysis of the Existing Situation

As indicated earlier, the ten-year rebel war severely impacted the infrastructure, the agriculture, and the economy of Sierra Leone. The birth of the rebel movement in 1990 under the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) instigated by great inequality, high levels of unemployment, and a large group of rural youth without any education or work opportunities-a group that rebel leaders easily recruited and manipulated. Many people were maimed or killed, and their houses, properties, and productive resources were seriously damaged or destroyed. By the end of the war, thousands of refugees, mostly rural poor migrated to Freetown, swelling its population from 800,000 in 1995 to an estimated high of 1.85 million in 2003.

The population influx resulted in squalor, poor housing, inadequate sanitation, congestion, pollution, and poor public services, and chronic high unemployment, particularly among the city’s youth-most of whom are illiterate and also unskilled. Given the above situation, SWM in Freetown further significantly deteriorated. Compounding this situation are the city’s numerous high-density population areas, which present difficult challenges to managing solid wastes. In these congested neighborhoods, roads are small, and provide less space for storing wastes, either on the streets or within the yards of dense houses.

The ubiquitous pile-up of garbage is a significant contributor to the city’s significant rise of the incidence of vector-propagated diseases. Currently, most of the city’s drains are choked with rubbish. A number of manhole covers have been removed so that garbage can be dumped there. Where special dumps or public “dustbins” or containers (skips included) are provided, garbage is often dumped outside due to lack of capacity, poor collection, and/or public insensitivity. Open Dumps allow free access to waste pickers, animals, and flies; and often produce unpleasant and hazardous smoke from slow-burning fires.

Garbage can be seen everywhere, scattered, or in small or large piles, many of which are regularly set on fire used as a waste disposal option. Waste generation in Freetown far outstrips its collection and transport.

Since May 2003, the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS) is responsible for managing the city’s wastes. The transfer of solid waste management to the Ministry of Youth & Sports (MoYS) also created an ideal enabling environment to partially tackle unemployment, drug abuse, and the homelessness of city’s vast numbers of unemployed youth. For collection, the MoYS has assigned the responsibility to one of its (non-professional) branches, called “National Youth Multi-purpose Cooperative Society (NYMCOS). Earlier, the NYMCOS youths were engaged in mostly voluntary services in the cleaning of strategic public places, streets, drainages, and sidewalks.

2.1 Characterization of Freetown’s Solid Wastes

There are principally three main classifications of urban solid wastes: municipal, industrial and hazardous. However, what is defined or designated ‘municipal waste’ depends upon the individual city’s definition of municipal solid waste. Nevertheless, most municipalities in Africa handle solid wastes from households, markets and institutions, street and public open spaces, dead animals, and non-hazardous waste from processing and industries. This holds true for the Freetown, as well.

Solid waste streams are characterized by their sources, by the types of wastes produced, as well as by generation rates and composition. Accurate information in these three areas is necessary in order to monitor and control existing waste management systems, and to make regulatory, financial, and institutional decisions. Also, to estimate storage requirements and collection frequencies and devise suitable collection methods, it is important to know the volume, density and weight of solid waste produced. Knowledge of the sources and types of waste in an area is also required in order to design and operate appropriate solid waste management systems.

The generation rate of solid waste is usually given in kilograms per person per day (kpd) and its density in kilograms per cubic meter. The volume in liters per day (lpd) is then equal to the mass divided by the density.

There are eight major classifications of solid waste generators: residential, industrial, commercial, institutional, construction and demolition, municipal services, process, and agricultural.

Figure 1: Sources and Types of Solid Wastes

Source Typical waste generators Types of solid wastes

Residential Single and multifamily dwellings Food wastes, paper, cardboard, plastics, Textiles, leather, wood, glass, bulky items, and household hazardous wastes. Industrial Light and heavy manufacturing, Housekeeping wastes, packaging, food wastes, demolition materials etc. Commercial Stores, hotels, restaurants, markets, Paper, cardboard, plastics, wood, food wastes, hazardous wastes etc. Institutional Schools, hospitals, prisons, Same as commercial government centers New construction sites, road repair, Wood, steel, concrete wastes etc. Municipal services Street cleaning Etc. Street sweepings; landscape and tree Trimmings, general wastes from parks, sludge water etc. Process Wastes Heavy and light manufacturing Slag, mineral tailings etc.

(All of the above should be included as “municipal solid waste.”)

Agriculture Crops, orchards, vineyards, dairies, Spoiled food wastes, agricultural wastes etc.

In Freetown, the waste stream is mostly made up of garbage, which constitutes 50-85 percent of all the waste. As indicated above, garbage includes household waste, market refuses, and waste from handling, storage and sales of produce and meals. Non-biodegradable solid waste or rubbish (paper, carton, cardboard, plastics, clothes, rubber, glass, ceramics, tin cans, etc.) is also part of this waste. Other wastes include: ashes, bulky waste, street sweeping, abandoned vehicles, non-hazardous industrial waste, construction and demolition waste etc. In addition, waste is derived from private and public institutions and city’s septic tanks. One other source of solid waste in Freetown, though to a lesser quantity is coming from the imported second hand goods from the developed world. These old goods such as refrigerators, computers etc., are generally near the end of their life cycle and spend little time with their final owners before being put aside as waste.

Also, in regular household waste generation, plastics, paper and cartons, tin cans, glass, bottles and fiber are said to be on increase in selected neighborhoods, which may have a relationship to increasingly affluence and changing consumption habits in these neighborhoods. Electronic waste or E-waste however, is minimum.

Total quantities of wastes generated and characteristics of the Freetown’s waste streams are not known. What has been stated above is based on field observations during the study and the work done in comparable economic, climate and population size cities? These estimates indicate that over 85% of this refuse is largely vegetable, biodegradable organic waste. Poorly collected, it is subject to much quicker putrification, stronger stinks, and more flies. In the long rainy season of the Freetown, being uncovered, the waste becomes soggy, smelly and difficult to collect and transport.

Given these characteristics, the waste densities are high, estimated at 480 kg/m3. The density of waste has an important influence on the selection of methods for collection the wastes. The density of solid waste refers to the weight of one cubic meter of the waste. A high-density waste, as is the case with the Freetown solid waste, may have high proportions of soil, vegetable matter and moisture, whereas a low-density waste might be mostly plastic and paper packaging, with low moisture contents.

Based on an estimated waste generation rates, averaging 0.45 kg/person/day, the total daily waste generated is estimated at 745 tons/day. Construction, demolition debris and yard wastes are not included in this estimate, since these are highly variable and skew quantity assessments. However, medical, toxic, and hazardous wastes are included. In Freetown, these wastes currently are disposed off with regular wastes.

2.2 Review of Collection Practices

Refuse is and always has been a key pointer to the socio-economic condition of those who create it. In Freetown quantities of wastes generated are lower because of overall poverty, low consumption, and extensive scavenging or salvaging by beggars and the very poor.

The quantity of waste that can be collected each day depends upon:

• The number of workers assigned to the equipment;

• The type of containers used for storing the waste (e.g. piles on the ground, plastic bags, baskets, covered bins);

• The locat1on of the containers (e.g. curbside, front gate, backyard);

• The road conditions for access (e.g. paved, unpaved, steep, narrow); and

• The traffic conditions (e.g. slow or congested, or rapid and clear).

There is no house-to-house collection of wastes in Freetown. One of the big problems is that the residents are unwilling and/or unable to pay for these services. In addition, large areas of the city are highly congested, constituting more than 60 percent of all city neighborhoods. Mostly low-income communities inhabit these. Moreover, waste storage at homes is based on poor storage practices, adding to the collection difficulties. Waste without sorting, is often stored in old leaky buckets, and used paper bags instead of a bin lined with plastic bags. Collection workers are not provided gloves and other safety tools for use.

Given the lack of house-to-house collection, pre-collection from homes to the public or communal skips placed at strategic spots in the city, has to be organized by households or some informal private groups. At present, household waste is dropped either by a family member, usually a child or a family servant. This is being done on a very limited basis by an arm of NYMCOS, doing the service for a negotiated payment from the households concerned. There is no transfer station, a situation common to most of Africa. Rubbish picked up from communal skips is moved straight for the two city’s two disposal sites.

Waste collection for Freetown residents is free. The collection costs, by their nature, are capital intensive. For example, street sweeping in many developing countries, including India can costs as much as four times as refuse collection. Street sweeping is the basic way that streets, sidewalks, and public areas are kept clean. Also, collection and street sweeping together comprise the largest cost element, accounting for 70-90% of total costs in developing countries, according to the Asian Development Bank. It is lower, 60-70% in industrialized countries. No estimates are available for Freetown. Given the high costs, it is important that a waste collection system incorporates high efficiency and be regularly monitored for collection improvement and cost-savings. This is one aspect of SWM where private sector has been successfully used to bring improvements and efficiencies. For example, in Accra, Conakry, and a few other African metropolises, private sector has been introduced with varying degrees of success. In few cases, community groups under contracts are also providing this service.

To collect wastes, the MoYS has divided the city into four zones. East Zone 1 covers Calaba Town to Ferry Junction, East Zone 2 covers Ferry Junction to East End Police, Zone 3 covers East End Police to St. John, and Zone 4 covers St. John to 7 Battalion. Daily, three collection teams are mobilized by the Unit Manager of the MoYS. Each team consists of ten members who are given or have access to tipper trucks, wheelbarrows (each of 5-7 ton capacity), and related paraphernalia such as long and short brooms, rakes and shovels.

In addition, on the average, 100 street sweepers, most concentrated in the MoYS’s Zone 3, are also employed to clean key residential and commercial streets. Manual sweeping is the norm, and no mechanical street sweepers are used. Street sweepers pick up their own sweeping and place them in litter baskets for transport to the nearest skip. Poor, unpaved, marginal, or very hilly areas are seldom swept. Sound practice involves regularly scheduled debris and litter collection, even if sweeping is physically impossible. A once a month cleanup such as in a few neighborhoods represents a bare minimum of service. It should be increased to 7-10 times a month. Also, a sound practice involves a mechanism to respond to neighborhood complaints or notice that a cleanup is overdue.

Street sweepers use brooms, litter baskets (1.0-1.5 m3 capacity), and wheelbarrow (most imported) to collect wastes. A street sweeper in Freetown is low paid and makes about 100,000 Le ($33) per month.

Household waste in Freetown is collected via use of skips (containers), each with an average size of 6m3. These are strategically placed along various streets. At these skips, a family servant deposits the wastes. Given highly inadequate number of skips, such wastes are often deposited in small (illegal) dumps along city streets and market and business districts, making collection inefficient and expensive. Distribution of garbage skips and their average monthly collection rates are shown below in Table 2-1. Distribution of Garbage Skips and Their Average Monthly Collection Rates. In addition, key selection criteria for container selection is listed under APPENDIX: Figure A-4. Key Selection Criteria for Container Selection.

Overall, frequency of waste collection in the city is much higher on the eastern and to some extent central part of the city, given high population densities as compared to the western part of the city. The central part is the point of convergence for the population and a commercial district. In spite of a high servicing frequency, garbage piles are often present. Several streets are serviced twice a day. These streets include Monteque Street, Lewis Street, Kennedy Street, and P.W.D. at Tower Hill, Cole Farm, Ashobi Corner and Lumley Babador. The western zone has fewer containers and low collection frequency, given low commercial activity and low population density. The garbage problem is more acute in eastern and central Freetown. Also, given low pickup frequency, many skips are damaged by the metal corroding acidic leachates generated by the waste’s decomposing organic matter.

A skip truck on any day may follow a single route. According to the MoYS, over 75% of total skips (containers) are severely damaged-with most beyond repairs. Poor maintenance, misuse such as setting garbage loaded skips on fire, natural wear and tear are key contributing factors to the deteriorated status. With an average working life of 3-year for a skip, poor replacement ratio has also contributed to this situation. Skips trucks are used to lift one skip (large container), using a chain and pulley system or hydraulic arm-lift, and taken to the nearest of the two landfills (open dumps). Currently, there a total of 54 containers/skips serving various sites at the four MoYS zones.

Also, waste Collection vehicle immobilization rate often reaches 70% in Freetown, reducing the rate of collection. In areas, where manual collection is performed, the volume of material to be collected often far exceeds the capacity of the collection system. To help the situation, a few community groups collect their own waste. However, often these are illegally disposed as garbage piles elsewhere.

Table 2-1. Distribution of Garbage Skips and Their Average Monthly Collection Rates Zone # Zone Range # of Skips Collection Frequency Estimated Population 1 Zone 1: Calaba Town to Ferry Junction 11 30 185,000 - 200,000 2. Zone 2: Ferry Junction to East End Police Stn. 9 20 185,000 - 210,000 3 Zone 3: East End to St. John 8 25 250,000-285,000 4. Zone 4: St. John to Juba Bridge/7-Battallion 26 50 275,000-410,000 Total No. of Operational Skips 54 31.2 (Avg.)

Previously, the collection system in Freetown also used three to four (agricultural) tractors and trailers to collect and haul refuse. In 2001, the waste management agency, Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) loaned these to the Sierra Leone Road Authority (SLRA). However, for unknown reasons, this equipment was never returned these to the MoHS. It is recommended that the equipment is returned to the MoYS which will subsequently transfer these to the FSWMC, upon its establishment.

Collection in economically better neighborhoods, such as Signal Hill, and Wilkinson Street, is performed three to five times a week, on the average-a desirable collection frequency. However, poor neighborhoods are serviced less frequently, on the average, once a week. The reason cited for the variation are better roads in economically better neighborhoods making waste collection easy for vehicles.

Commercial areas in Freetown are generally serviced at night. For example, crowded areas such as Guard Street, a major commercial market with thousands of daytime shoppers, vendors, hawkers and others make daytime collection very difficult. In addition to containerized garbage, the street’s several large garbage piles are also serviced at night. Guard Street is also a regular dumping ground for the large quantities of (spoiled) produce coming from rural areas to Freetown. A good percentage of this produce gets spoiled during the journey to the market in the open trucks, which often breakdown and are stranded for one to two nights along the way to Freetown. As per the MoYS, about twenty trucks come to the street everyday. The street’s few skips are filled up with garbage quickly and the produce haulers dump their spoils in street’s open spaces during the wee hours. In spite of the relative regularity of cleaning, garbage piles at Guard Street can be seen on any day. Provision and timely servicing of adequate garbage containers such as adequate number of trailers could minimize such illegal dumping.

Freetown has no central sewage treatment plant. At the household level, 60 percent of the city’s total population uses pit latrines, and over 30% have septic tanks. Given improper maintenance and servicing, each of these systems represents serious health and environmental hazards to the public. The MoHS is responsible for emptying at cesspits at household and industrial levels. It uses slurry trucks or “cesspit bowzers.” At the Kingtom landfill, the collected faeces are spread in a polder with alternating pits, each currently overflowing, for dewatering and drying up. Upon drying, a polder’s contents are covered with soil and the product used as fertilizer after few months.

The existing polder (slurry pond) has run out of capacity. Its overflowing sewage is led through a 6-8 feet-connecting pipe to an unlined pit in its vicinity. This pit is further connected to a source of tidal water. An ongoing tide takes the untreated sewage out to the sea. Also, a number of families have set up homes close to the tidal pipe. Often, these families use waste plastic to prevent the sewage pass their front doors. There is no water supply in the area, and the situation presents an environmental and health nightmare.

Overall, waste collection in Freetown is very low. Estimates range from 35-55 percent of the total waste generated. Special pickup days are set up for removal of bulky items such as furniture, tree stumps and tree cuttings. Given the low collection rates, the uncollected waste is illegally dumped in open spaces, water bodies, and storm-drainage channels, buried, burnt or deposited along the streets or roadsides.

Based on the field work, the main issues apparent in the system are highly inadequate equipment, inefficient collection practices with quite variable levels of service; no environmental control systems; poor, unhygienic operating practices; open burning of garbage; extensive illegal dumping and littering; and a public with seemingly little sensitivity to the garbage around them or any awareness of what represents responsible waste management.

Commercial and industrial wastes are privately collected and transported to nearest dump site. For instance, the Freetown Brewery collects and deposes the waste at the nearest dumpsite, at no cost. The Brewery’s liquid waste, mostly of unknown composition, is discharged untreated into a nearby stream. The Brewery has no wastewater treatment plant. A Brewery spokesperson indicated that a wastewater treatment plant is currently under consideration by Germany’s Heinken Corporation, the owners of the Brewery. Collection from high-rise buildings, primarily office buildings, likewise is done using bulk containers or skips

2.3 Disposal Technologies

Freetown’s wastes are disposed of at the city’s two landfills, which are essentially open dumps. The open dump approach can be classified as the primitive stage of landfill development and is the predominant waste disposal option in Freetown. A default strategy for municipal solid waste management, open dumps involve indiscriminate disposal of waste and limited measures to control operations, including those related to the environmental effects of landfills. Uncontrolled open dumps have no environmental safeguards, pose major public health threats, and affect the landscape of Freetown.

The two landfills, Kingtom and Granville, respectively are located at the western and eastern ends of the city, respectively. In local terminology, a landfill is called “Bohemia”. Originally, these landfills were designed as Controlled Dumps. In the U.S., and other high-income countries, open dumping of wastes is banned since 1970.

A synoptic view of the two landfills is provided in Figure 2-1. In addition to disposal at these landfills, there is significant illegal dumping of wastes at vacant lots, street corners, roadside, the city’s drains (mostly clogged with garbage), and the few streams from the mountainside that run into the sea.

At these landfills, domestic refuse and market-refuse, mainly from the public markets, form the bulk of the refuse deposited. Organic, biodegradable waste is the largest component of the refuse deposited. In addition, there are smaller amounts of industrial and street-refuse, as well as city’s medical, hazardous, and toxic wastes. Dumping at the landfills is not done by category of refuse. All refuse is mixed and piled at available or accessible area(s) at each dumpsite. Some commercial and other institutions do their own dumping using their own refuse carts or vehicles. These establishments pay no fee to the MoYS or the city. A detailed view of the two landfills is provided in Figure 2-1, Synoptic View of Freetown’s Two Landfills.

At each of the landfills, waste is tipped in heaps, and depending on the availability of the bulldozer, leveling of wastes occurs in a several-day rhythm. When available, a bulldozer works diagonal to slope. Also, all collected medical waste is disposed with regular waste, with the smaller fraction often coming up to surface, given infrequent bulldozing. Uncertain bulldozer availability often results in garbage piles that are intermittently burnt to reduce volume, and to make space for incoming garbage. With no fence, each of the two landfills provides uncontrolled access to a large number of stray animals and scavengers, mostly women and children, who work in smoke-filled air.

Open dumps as well as controlled dumps have the potential to significantly pollute areas groundwater. As water percolates through the solid waste in landfills, it absorbs chemicals and microorganisms present in the putrefying materials. The uncontrolled discharge of liquid formed in solid waste dumps or landfills, known as leachate, contaminates ground and surface waters, and thus, pose environmental and public health risks to the local area. In addition, the migration and emission of harmful gases such as methane (highly flammable, risk of explosion) need to be controlled and economically utilized, given its high calorific value. Methane, as a greenhouse gas also affects global warming 21 times more than carbon dioxide.

Figure 2-1. Synoptic View of Freetown’s Two Landfills

The Ministry of Youths and Sport staff at each of the landfills (open dumps) includes five laborers, two supervisors, one clerk and one security. In addition, the MHD has one to two health inspectors and two security guards. Each of the two landfills has 1-2 room rudimentary office and no weigh stations or formal tipping area(s).

Skip trucks are used to transport skips to the city’s wastes to the nearest dump. The 2-3 skip trucks are supported by two front-end loaders dump trucks to haul garbage. Skips trucks work around the clock. At each landfill, these trucks often have to drive over scattered waste dumps. Use of bulldozer is highly irregular, given the high daily rental costs ($600/day), when available for renting from a private vendor. Given the city’s congested environment, a large number of skips are hauled at night usually by a crew of four, including a driver. During the day, pushcarts, both small and large, transport wastes from neighborhood to the nearest skip or illegal dump, many of which seems to have never been cleared. In many of these skips, garbage is regularly set on fire to dispose of wastes. The MoYS estimates that over 40-50 percent of the total garbage in Freetown is disposed of illegally. It includes large quantities dumped in open drains, sewers and street corners.

For correct discharge of skips at the landfills, the hook of the skip truck must latch into the fixed skip bolt. However, due to overuse, it was noticed during field survey that this part is often damaged or missing. The situation makes discharging a more difficult and time consuming operation, and has the potential to damage skip truck. For this reason, damaged containers need immediate repairs.

Moreover, each of the landfills is also reaching its designed capacity. This is particularly true for Kingtom. The situation is exacerbated by the lack of proper equipment, in particular to level the refuse and to prevent “refuse hills.” Having been pushed beyond their engineered limits, the two landfills have failed. Due to poor operational practices, each open dump has also degraded into potentially hazardous and toxic dump. Earlier, there were plans to relocate each of the two landfills: Granville, to further east in Allen Town, and Kingtom to Hamilton village in the city’s west end. However, these plans were not implemented and no new sites have been identified. Also, a previously identified site in Allen Town is now heavily built. In the near-term, up to 5-year, efficient management of the current sites can extend their life. A bulldozer, with timely and assured availability is also essential for this option to gain traction.

Some vegetable gardening is done at the fringes of each of the landfills and squatters live in makeshift huts and are engaged in various small industries. Unfortunately, the discharge of leachates from open dumps to surface waters exposes down-gradient residents to disease organisms in their bathing, food irrigation, and drinking water supplies, as well as through eating (contaminated) food and fish. In early 1990’s, cholera outbreak in Conakry, Guinea in settlements in the vicinity of open dumps was attributed to contaminated water from the dump. Given frequent burning of garbage at the landfills, the area residents, in particular those in the immediate vicinity face serious health risks from smoke inhalation. Proper management of the two landfills can effectively remedy this situation.

2.4 Cost Recovery

Freetown residents do not pay any user-fee for management of their garbage. For a system to be sustainable in the long run, cost recovery is crucial. However, the goal of cost recovery in Freetown can encounter significant difficulties, given that the idea of a welfare state is still very much alive.

In many developing countries, a user-fee is increasingly being incorporated in property taxes or electricity bills, or other means as cost recovery mechanism. In Freetown, at present, Seaside Youth, a 50-member subgroup of Youth Garbage Collection Enterprise (YGCE) is providing garbage collection services for a 500 Le (21 cents) per pickup at Fourbay Road. This service has been in existence for six months and is profitable as per YGCE. For the project, the MoYS have given two Banjo garbage collection vehicles, to the group, who from its profits bought a small trailer for $2,000. Banjos (a vehicle shaped like a Banjo), is a mobile trailer and is locally designed and manufactured. In addition, the MoYS, as part of its cost recovery, is also experimenting with user fee from some businesses. Such initiatives should be monitored over time for potential success and scaling up.

2.5 Industrial, Hazardous, Toxic and Medical Wastes

Hazardous wastes contain highly persistent inorganic or organic chemicals and compounds with acute and chronic impacts on human health and on the environment that can cause immediate, short-term, public health problems as well as long-term human health and environmental problems. Direct contact such as during handling of waste is the most common exposure route. Hazardous wastes can be in the form of solids, liquids, sludge or even gases. They also vary in the degree of hazard posed.

Key industries in Freetown are plastics, soap manufacturing, tanneries, brewery, and others. The main hazardous and toxic wastes arising from these facilities, none of which has any effluent controls, are:

• Waste lubricating oil, motor and gearbox oils, and some cutting oil;

• Small amounts of organic solvents;

• Flesh and hide cuttings contaminated with sulfide and chromium salts; and

• Textile dyeing wastes which contain toxic metals like cyanide.

In addition, there is rubbish from production processes. The rubbish includes floor sweepings, rags, discarded cardboard and wooden packaging materials, broken glass, metal offcuts, and swarf, whilst the office waste is mainly paper and cardboard. Hazardous wastes contain highly persistent inorganic or organic elements, chemicals, and compounds with acute and chronic impacts on human health and environment. Inhalation of dust from waste storage or dumping sites may also constitute a hazard at the facilities.

There is no heavy industry, large production or processing of chemicals, oil refining or other similar industrial operations that can generate significant quantities of hazardous wastes in Freetown.

Overall, however, except for the Sierra Leone Brewery, the industrial units are small. All these units dispose of their wastes, mostly by private arrangements at the nearest landfill. Also, the Brewery also gives waste malt at no cost to area farmers who use it as cattle feed. In the city, used tires are often burnt to provide heat to small manufacturing operations, and smoke can be seen in a number of places around the city.

Often waste can be recycled. For example, chemical wastes from some industries (including tanning, dry-cleaning, photographic processing, and many chemical production industries) should be collected under close supervision and treated in appropriate ways before recycling. Some wastes are highly hazardous, require careful collection and storage, and can be expensive to treat. In many developing economies, priority attention has also been focused on changing to processes that use substitutes that are less hazardous, and to minimize the quantities that are discarded. Such an approach at this time may not be applicable to the Freetown industry, given the low volumes and lack of scientific and technical manpower and financial resources. Nevertheless, minimization and raw material substitution options should be preferred in dealing with any difficult waste.

No reliable estimates of the quantities of hazardous wastes produced by Freetown’s approximately 23 manufacturing companies are available. A 1995 German study gives an estimate of 7,500 tons/year. It is likely that given poor economic growth, domestic insurgency and other factors, this quantity may not have changed. Key industries that have the potential to generate hazardous wastes include matches, soap, paint manufacturing, the large Germany’s Heinken-owned brewery, chemical, kernel oil and other products.

There is no separation or pretreatment of the wastes or polluted effluents at any of these facilities. Also, there is no environmental monitoring, either voluntarily or by authorities of industrial wastes in Sierra Leone. Most industrial wastes are disposed off at the city’s landfills by private arrangements. In a few cases, such as at Aureal Tobacco Company, wastes such as tobacco dust and cigarette wrappings are disposed at the facility. In some cases, the effluents are illegally discharged into city drains. Unfortunately, this is also the case at the Sierra Leone Brewery owned by Germany’s Heineken. A used oil recycling facility located in the eastern outskirts of Freetown also highlights illegal waste disposal. The facility recycles used oil from the Freetown port, disposing the potentially dangerous residues in an unlined earthen pit at the facility. Sierra Leone also lacks industry-specific environmental regulations and has an overall weak institutional capacity. This aspect needs to be reviewed through establishment and strengthening of institutional framework.

2.5.1 Health Care Wastes

Health care waste is another category of waste that requires special care in handling and disposal. Health care waste (HCW) is defined as the total waste stream from a healthcare establishment, research facilities, laboratories, and emergency relief donations.

HCW, broadly classified includes communal waste and special waste. Communal waste usually has the characteristics of regular municipal waste-such as food waste, packaging materials, waste plastic, and office supplies. It can be safely disposed of with regular municipal waste. The remaining HCW is requires special attention and includes the following subcategories according to World Health Organization (WHO).

• Infectious Waste: Discarded materials from health-care activities on humans or animals, which have the potential of transmitting infectious agents to humans. These include discarded materials or equipment from the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease, assessment of health status or identification purposes, that have been in contact with blood and its derivatives, tissues, tissue fluids or excreta, or wastes from infection isolation wards. Such wastes shall include, but are not limited to, cultures and stocks; tissues; dressings, swabs or other items soaked with blood; syringe needles; scalpels; diapers; blood bags. Incontinence material from nursing homes, home treatment or from specialized healthcare establishment which do not routinely treat infectious diseases (e.g. psychiatric clinics) is an exception to this definition and are is not considered as infectious health-care waste. Sharps, whether contaminated or not, should be considered as subgroup of infectious health-care waste. Includes: Syringe needles, scalpels, infusion sets, knives, blades, broken glass.

• Anatomic: consist of recognizable body parts.

• Pharmaceutical: Consisting of/or containing pharmaceuticals, including: expired, no longer needed; containers and/or packaging,, items contaminated by or containing pharmaceuticals (bottles, boxes).

• Genotoxic: Consisting of, or containing substances with genotoxic properties, including cytotoxic and antineoplasic drugs; genotoxic chemicals.

• Chemical: Consisting of, or containing chemical substances, including: laboratory chemicals; film developer; disinfectants expired or no longer needed; solvents, cleaning agents and others.

• Heavy Metals: Consisting of both materials and equipment with heavy metals and derivates, including: batteries, thermometers, and manometers.

• Pressurized containers: Consisting of full or empty containers with pressurized liquids, gas, or powdered materials, including gas containers and aerosol cans.

• Radioactive materials: Includes: unused liquids from radiotherapy or laboratory research; contaminated glassware, packages or absorbent paper; urine and excreta from patients treated or tested wit unsealed radio nuclides; sealed sources.

Medical waste is generated by Freetown’s health care facilities such as hospitals-including private and public hospitals, general hospital and military hospital, Other types of health facilities include dental clinics, emergency medical care centers, dispensaries, outpatient clinics, military medical service centers and others, including veterinary hospitals. Freetown’s government medical hospitals include Connaught Hospital, PCMH Hospital, Children’s Hospital, Curney Barnes Hospital, Under Five Hospital, Kingharman Road Hospital, Rokupa Hospital, Macualey Street Hospital, and Children’s Hospital. The MoHS estimates that the total number of beds, including at the city’s major clinics and health centers (such as The Good Shepherd Clinic, Yearima Memorial Clinic and Lumley Health Center) is 1,455. Unfortunately, overall, the health care delivery is significantly deteriorated in terms of quality and patient care. There is no effective waste handling and disposal system in the city’s hospitals.

During visit to a few area hospitals, an absence of hygienic waste handling system was noticed. The staff expressed acute shortage of proper equipment including, smaller items such as receptacles. Given this situation, infectious wastes including syringes, needles etc., are collected and transported in open buckets.

No estimates of total quantity of medical wastes generated in Freetown are available. Depending upon the number of beds occupied, and based on similar city data, average rates can be projected at 0.55 kg/bed/day, to an estimated total of 727 kg/day. Likewise, the infectious waste can vary from 3%-30% of the total medical wastes. Several options can be used for safe handling and disposal of medical waste. These include incineration, non-burn technologies such as use of microwave (radiation) systems, shredding and sterilizing, shredding and chlorination, autoclave, electric arc systems and mechanical systems.

Proper management of HCW can minimize the risks both within and outside healthcare facilities. The first priority should be to segregate wastes, preferably at the point of generation, into reusable and non-reusable, hazardous and non-hazardous components. Other important steps are the institution of a sharps management system, waste reduction, avoidance of hazardous substances such as the PVC-containing products, mercury thermometers and others, wherever possible. ensuring worker safety, providing secure methods of waste collection and transportation, and installing safe treatment and disposal mechanisms.

2.6 Institutional Arrangements

As Section 2.1 indicates, management of Freetown’s solid waste has been under shifting organizations, both public and private. Unfortunately, each change further deteriorated the system, bringing it on the verge of collapse. The MoYS, the current authority is struggling to manage the wastes under tight budget, limited trained manpower, lack of experience and little to no legislative authority. The organizational chart, APPENDIX Figure 2-2, Ministry of Youth and Sports Organization Chart, for the MoYS follows.

The public at large is also generally non-cooperative, given the lack of education and awareness, and very weak penalties for non-compliance. For instance, penalty for littering, established in 1962 is 25 Le (9 cents) per occurrence is very low and ineffective. In Sierra Leone, environmental legislation and its enforcement are in a shambles. The environmental division in the Ministry of Land and Environment has a total of eight employees to manage environmental issues across Sierra Leone. It lacks enforcement authority. Also, by-laws and statues overall are non-existent. Furthermore, solid wastes environmental laws are scattered across several agencies. For example, the FCC and the MoHS have their own waste management regulations. Governance at the city level is also weak, suggesting a need to empower the city’s poor, and develop multi-stakeholder partnerships with NGOs, community organizations, and government agencies, etc. Sound environmental decision-making requires not only the knowledge and understanding of environmental laws, regulations and agency procedures, but also qualified in-house staff capable of enforcing these regulations. All key players need to be involved to achieve sustainable success.

Some recommended changes have been identified. For example, the mandate of the Environmental Protection Act of 2000 is “to provide for the effective protection of the environment, the administrative machinery to ensure such protection and for other related matters.” In addition, an informed public can do much to improve the effectiveness of SWM. However such initiatives are only feasible in an enabling institutional setting. This requires assignment of an administrative strategy to meet set management goals, and marshaling of finance and human resources to implement all phases of the program. A new institution (Section 4.1) is being proposed with the ultimate target of changing the existing vicious circle to a positive circle by implementing a sustainable SWM.

3.0 Technical Options

Several technical options are available for collection, treatment and disposal of solid wastes. However, each option must be considered in the context of technical, economic and institutional suitability. This must include characteristics of wastes, appropriateness of technology including in the context of Sierra Leone’s technical standards, cost effectiveness, environmental benefits and institutional capacity. In Freetown, another important consideration is creation of employment for vast number of unemployed city youth. The following table 3-2 lists typical municipal solid waste management (MSWM) costs in developing countries.

Table 3-1. Typical MSWM Costs in Developing Countries. Sr. No. Service Cost 1 Collection US $ 15 - 45 per ton 2 Street Sweeping US $ 10-20 per km 3 Transfer US $ 5-15 per ton 4 Disposal US $ 3-10 per ton

3.1 Options for Collection

Planning for improved solid waste collection services must take into account existing conditions, organizational structures, practices and attitudes. Investigations should cover the following specific subjects:

• The amount and characteristics of solid waste;

• Present responsibility for solid waste collection;

• Existing solid waste collection services; any financial incentives or other financial consideration, which affect the quality of service provided;

• Attitudes of householders and solid waste collectors; and

• Recycling practices, if any.

A number of the above items have been covered earlier in the report. For collection, several types of waste collection options are feasible for Freetown. These can be divided into (i) manual, (ii) by use of animals, and (iii) mechanical. A selected option(s) must be appropriate and at least in the short term, compatible with the existing system. The latter is particularly important where budgets and institutional capacity is weak. Productivity levels of various systems are shown under APPENDIX: Table A-11: Productivity Levels of Various Collection Systems.

In collection systems, in terms of equipment, special emphasis should also be placed on the types of vehicles. For instance, selected vehicle(s) must be appropriate to the terrain, the waste characteristics, the roads, and the manner of waste discharge and (physical) capability of the crew. Current skip trucks can carry a single skip of maximum 8m3. Considering the cost of fuel, manpower and overhead costs for the single container transportation, the system is considered inefficient and uneconomical. For the long-term, alternate options need to be explored. In addition, skip (container) selection must follow sound selection criteria, since their design and size can help facilitate waste collection. Key container selection criteria includes:

Use of house-to-house waste collection systems should be started initially on a pilot scale to gain useful information, for potential introduction on a gradual basis, starting with the economically better neighborhood that are willing to pay a user fee. In Freetown, options to contract out this service to private organizations such as the NYMCOS, given the organization’s experience and access to large number of unskilled, cheap labor should be explored. Under World Bank funding, house-to-house waste collection through private sector participation has been successfully implemented in Ethiopia and Guinea.

In the neighboring Conakry, Guinea, (2002 population 1.8M) which has many similar solid waste attributes and economic situation like Freetown, the collection of MSW is provided by private operators, on a fee-basis, to subscribed households and commercial establishments. As of the end of 2001, 31 private operators, mostly small and medium enterprises (SMEs), provide the collection services to the whole metropolitan area, collecting over 90% of the solid waste generated in Conakry. The waste is disposed of at the city’s 39 small transfer stations by the SMEs from where it is transported in bulk by the city to its sanitary landfill. The city has also rehabilitated the existing open dump to a sanitary landfill. The city is also currently exploring the potential of electricity production through methane recovery at the landfill. As the proposed FSWMC (section 4.1) takes a foothold, it is recommended that the Conakry experience is analyzed for potential use in Freetown.

House-to-house collection will also require use of plastic bags or similar other disposable containers. The commonly used bags that are given by shops to wrap small purchases are too small and not strong enough, so it is necessary to use larger, stronger sacks. Appropriate bags can be provided by the organization that collects the wastes, and the cost built into user for each household.. These bags are usually used as liners within a rigid container. The use of bags at the household level is hygienic. It also reduces the amount of dust that escapes when the waste is being loaded into the truck, in comparison to other storage methods. However garbage bags should not be left outside for a considerable length of time, since stray or other animals looking for food are likely to tear them apart. It is better to take the bags to the nearest skip for disposal. Also, locat1on of the skips (central containers) must be convenient to users, accessible to the collecting trucks, and they should not obstruct the road or pedestrian walkway.

to improve waste collection and overall SWM in Freetown, in the current context are divided into emergency measures, short term (two to four years) and medium- long-term (ten-year and beyond) improvements. Given the limitations of this study, most of the focus is on the first two options.

Based on a field review of the existing situation, it appears that waste collection can be positively improved by increasing the number of skip trucks, skips, garbage and dustbins-with all containers strategically placed, increased collection crews and provision of better collection equipment and tools. Proper placement of waste containers is also important. At this time, large skips (6-8m3) should not be placed more than 200 meters apart. Often, one such container can meet the requirements of approximately 2,000 people (300-400 households in Freetown). As the greater number of skips becomes available, such distance for skips should be kept between 50-100 meters. At present, skips are highly inadequate, unevenly distributed, and often area of sites in not delineated.

During the field visit, the above situation was noted in the newly developed areas, in particular on the eastern and western outskirts. It is important to integrate solid waste system with (new) settlement development. In problem areas, such as narrow streets, lighter and smaller containers can be placed. They can be manually carried to the skip trucks or larger skips by collection staff. Also, durable plastic containers of varying sizes are now available in the marketplace. If suitable, their inclusion can help reduce operational costs.

Table 3-2 Emergency Clean-up Collection Needs, lists short-term emergency needs. Various equipment items such as the number of skips, wheelbarrows and dustbins shown in the table are indicative of the minimum quantity that can be projected, keeping in view the budget limitations, procurement and other constraints, as applicable to the emergency cleanup. The suggested quantity in no way reflects the adequate needs of the SWM system in Freetown. In addition, employment of up to 150 temporary additional laborers for a period of three months (budgeted at an average monthly salary of $100, the prevailing rate) is envisaged. This cost is included in the indicated totals labor budget of $50,000 in the Table 3-2. In addition, additional supervisory staff on a temporary basis can be hired for emergency cleanup projected period of three months. As the Freetown Solid Waste Management Company (See Section 4.2) gains a foothold, some or this entire staff, as needed after careful screening can be retained in the new organization. Furthermore, in line with the current practice, cleaning and collection work will be carried out around the clock for 3-months. This is considered essential given the limited number of skip trucks available for the operation.

Table 3-2. Total Emergency Cleanup Collection Needs Sr. No. Item Existing Quantity Quantity Needed Size/Remarks Unit Cost Total Cost (US $) A. Equipment 1 Skip Trucks 3 3 Compatible 75,000 225,000 2. Skips 54 30 5 - 7 m3 3,800 114,000 3. Tractors - 4 38-45HP/each 10,000 40,000 4. Trailers - 30 3 ton, with hydraulic tipping 5,000 150,000 5. Motor Bikes 1 4 Regular 2,500 10,000 5 Dustbins Unknown 175 1-3 m3 400 70,000 6. Wheelbarrows/ Pushcarts - 30 Galvanized. 700 21,000 7. Brooms, rakes, spades, plastic bags etc. Inadequa-te As needed High quality N/A 4,500 Subtotal A: Equipment 650,000 B. Labor: Additional for three months Manual Labor Variable 160 100 48,000 Supervisory Two One 660 2,000 Subtotal B: Labor 50,000 C. O&M Costs 10,000 Subtotal O&M Costs 10,000 D. Studies/Public Relations/Training. Subtotal D: Studies/Public Relations/Training. 0 Grand Total (A+B+C+D) $710,000

The emergency cleanup cost also includes cleanup costs of the city’s numerous illegal dumpsites and clogged drains. For the operation, the indicated equipment, labor and other resources must be procured in a timely fashion. In addition, the SLRA should provide the services of 1-2 dump trucks at no cost to the MoYS during the emergency cleanup period of three months. The proposed additional labor can be contracted out to the NYMCOS by the MoYS, which will provide the oversight function to the operation.

The short-term cleanup should be led by the MoYS (with oversight by the FSWMC) and assisted by the MoHS and the FCC in terms of sharing of equipment and cleanup responsibilities. Cleanup of clogged city drains should be coordinated with the SLRA, which has jurisdictional authority on the drains.

Initial emergency cleanup efforts should focus on removing the larger illegal dumps—the “hot spots,” such as near Anne Walsh School and Bombay Street Junction. Additional containers, including mobile trailers should be placed at the heavily congested residential and commercial areas. These should include Guard Street, Kline Street and others. In the same manner, residential communities, such as those around Kissy Street, should get preference due to high population density. As the clean up progresses, other areas with guidance from the MoYS can be included. It is estimated that the emergency cleanup operation will take approximately three months from its start date.

Following the emergency cleanup, a short-term waste collection and disposal plan need to be developed and improvement, as the FSWMC gets a foothold. All such efforts should be based on sound planning, experience gained from emergency efforts, and provision of increased equipment, manpower and budgets etc., At this stage, a pilot program for door-to-door collection should be implemented. In addition, other measures such as user charges, and private sector involvement should also be explored to establish long-term sustainability of SWM.

Recycling and Reuse is considered an important element of waste collection. At present, recycling in Freetown is very limited, and practiced in a highly informal manner. Recycling is a series of activities that includes collecting recyclable materials that would otherwise be considered waste, sorting and processing recyclables into raw materials such as fibers, and manufacturing raw materials into new products. Common household items that contain recycled materials include newspapers and paper towels; aluminum, plastic, and glass soft drink containers; steel cans; and plastic laundry detergent bottles. In Freetown, numerous scavengers, mostly women and children, working at the two landfill sites, at illegal dumps and garbage skips pick up saleable items such as plastic sheets, cans, and coconut shells for sale to local industry. Given unhealthy and often smoke-filled environment, especially at the two landfills, the practice poses considerable health risks to scavengers. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection (USEPA) in 1999, recycling and composting activities prevented about 64 million tons of material from ending up in landfills and incinerators. In addition, estimates indicate that as 2003, U.S. recycled approximately 28 percent of its waste, a rate that has almost doubled during the past 15 years. Also, given the wide use of lead-acid and other batteries, the USEPA, in 1996 promulgated a Battery Act to help minimize environmental and health damages as a result of illegal disposal. A key element of the act requires the efficient and cost-effective collection and recycling or proper disposal of used nickel cadmium (Ni-Cd) batteries, used small sealed lead-acid (SSLA) batteries, and certain other regulated batteries. An organization called the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corporation (RBRC) is the lead organization in recycling most of the portable rechargeable batteries commonly found in cordless power tools, cellular and cordless phones, laptop computers, camcorders, digital cameras, and remote control toys. Car batteries are legally required to be recycled by auto shops and auto manufacturers. In Freetown, lead-acid batteries are illegally recycled in a few backyard smelters or disposed of at the landfills in an unsound manner. At present, there are a few private recycling industries profitably operating in Freetown. These industries manufacture footwear, wheelbarrows, cooking pots, watering cans and other items using recyclable materials. However, there is no formal program of waste recycling and waste materials recovery, in spite of scarcity of virgin materials, the high electricity costs (14 cents/kWh), the very high poverty and unemployment levels, the large market for used goods and products made recycled plastics and materials. Equally important also, is the existence of large number of workers, especially the illiterate youths potentially available at low wages. As an effective SWM tool, FSWMC should explore recycling opportunities, both for the short- and long-terms. As a recycling option, composting also offers the potential to reduce waste volumes to save landfill space. Other opportunities such as anaerobic digestion of degradable organic wastes can provide a low cost energy source (biogas), and nutrient-rich byproduct slurry for agriculture use. Biogas contains 55-60% combustible methane. The FSWMC should consider setting up pilot programs for recycling, preferably with community and/or industry participation.

In some developing countries such as those in Latin America, cooperatives have been formed to buy and sell at greater profits recyclable materials. Developing-country experience shows co-operatives were found to have better negotiating power, are able to obtain operating loans routinely, and provide their workers better benefits and better working environment. Under the arrangement, a network of middlemen who operate their business according to supply and demand conditions purchases various waste materials. They, in turn, sell to buyers in bulk purchases. Municipal workers-street sweepers and city garbage collectors are also involved in the sorting of waste during collection round and selling the recovered materials to middlemen who are often located on the route to the landfill.

3.2 Options for Disposal

Several technology options are practiced for waste disposal in developing countries. Included are open dumps, controlled dumps, sanitary landfills, anaerobic composting, incineration, and gasification and wet oxidation. Often, landfills have proven to be a vital component of any well-designed municipal waste management system. They are the ultimate repositories of a city’s municipal wastes; after all waste management options have been exercised. Each of these options offers certain advantages and disadvantages. For instance, open dumps, while having the lowest initial capital investment and operating costs, have high environmental contamination risks and limited lifespan. In this study, landfills and open dumps are used interchangeably.

As Freetown grows and produces more waste and its solid waste collection systems become more efficient, the environmental impact from open dumps is likely to become increasingly intolerable. Therefore, the conversion of open or operated dumps to engineered landfills and sanitary landfills is an essential step to avoid future costs from present mismanagement. Controlled dumps, for instance, have basic environmental amenities: site is fenced, scavenging is organized, waste is covered by soil daily, fires are extinguished and stormwater is re-routed around the site so it does not mix with the waste. Also, they are more environmentally sound than open dumps; however, open dumps do not provide full protection against environmental and public health hazards.

The first step and challenge in upgrading open dumps to sanitary landfills involves reducing nuisances such as odors, dust, vermin, and birds. Sanitary landfills are similar to controlled dumps but built and operated with full environmental controls including a liner, leachate treatment, and the flaring or economic use of landfill gas (LFG). The gas is produced by the anaerobic decomposition of organic wastes, and is mixture of methane (55-60%), carbon dioxide and trace quantities of hydrogen sulfide and other toxic gases. Since the LFG cannot escape, gas must be collected for destruction or where economical, used as an energy source. IN a landfill, the gas is generally drawn from a number of vertical wells drilled through the depth of the waste mass or from horizontal perforated pipes laid in gas permeable trenches distributed through the wastes. These wells or trenches are then connected to a gas ring main and under an applied vacuum the gas is piped to a central lower/fan or gas compressor unit. Further stages including condensate traps, particulate filters, chillers or gas pressure boosters may also be included in the overall collection system. Uncontrolled landfill gas migration from a site poses a threat not only to the global environment but also to human health and can also pollute the local environment. As a greenhouse gas, methane has twenty times the damaging effect as compared to carbon dioxide, the leading GHG.

At this time, for Freetown, open dumps appear to be the only viable SWM disposal option. Over time, 2-year and beyond, the FSWMC should consider incorporating better options such as controlled dumps, and for the long-term, five years and beyond, a sanitary landfill. A controlled dump, unlike an open dump is sited with respect to site’s hydrogeology, has well-planned capacity, is intermittently provided with a soil cover for its waste, is fenced and incorporates other useful features such as basic record keeping and controlled waste picking. Finding an ideal site, planning and designing a new landfill is a length and costly affair, often only feasible with external financial aid. The FSWMC therefore should look in to all these options in a timely manner. A sanitary landfill requires sound management and engineering practices. At present, such skills may not be available in Sierra Leone. Also, unfortunately, without pre-sorting a sanitary landfill prevents recovery of recyclable items, and scavenging activities that support livelihood for a number of families.

Incineration as disposal options for solid wastes allows unsorted, non-bulky solid waste to be fed directly into the furnace and combusted. Incineration significantly reduces the amount of waste to be landfilled and requires very little land. The process produces ash, which generally is landfilled as well as gas and liquid emissions that require treatment. Incineration however is not an effective option to dispose of municipal solid waste in Freetown because of the unsuitable technical characteristics of the waste (high moisture and organic content and low calorific value), high construction and operating costs, and attendant environmental risk due to weak monitoring and enforcement. Also, lower cost land disposal usually has proven to be a more practical waste disposal option than incineration. Given these constraints, even for Freetown’s medical and toxic waste, incineration is not recommended at this stage, and relatively safe landfill disposal alternatives for medical wastes have been identified elsewhere in this report.

Also, it is suggested that each of the two existing open dumps be immediately provided with access to a bulldozer on a regular basis. Other items include provision of a fence, improved access roads, small office facility at each locat1on, and controlled waste picking by scavengers. In the short run, with better management and increased equipment availability, the existing waste disposal practices can be better footed and improved alternatives can be planned and implemented. It must also be noted that improving and “upgrading” open waste dumps does not necessarily have to be difficult or expensive. It should not be regarded as an alternate to a new site, but it can significantly prolong the existing site’s life span and reduce the negative environmental impacts. The upgrading can also give time to the FSWCM to engage in a serious siting procedure for a new landfill. For the longer haul, 10-year or more, new landfill sites must be identified and developed and managed based on sound principles.

Each of these disposal options requires sound planning and an established institutional support capable of providing needed equipment, manpower, budgets, policy guidelines and oversight. As the FSWMC gains foothold, these can be looked into. In the long run, a sanitary landfill has proven to be the most desirable option in many developing countries.

Successful example of private sector participation in SWM in developing countries is illustrated by an organization called the SIMEPRODE in Monterrey, Mexico. The organization operated three transfer stations and the landfill for the state of Nuevo Leone. The transfer stations served the metropolitan area of Monterrey, with approximately 3.5 million inhabitants. The landfill served the metropolitan area of Monterrey, and 75-80% of the remaining state of Nuevo Leone. The management of SIMEPRODE is by political appointment. Recent elections in the State of Nuevo Leone however changed the organization’s administration. The new upper management at SIMEPRODE came from the private sector and was paid private sector equivalents. SIMEPRODE currently operates as a private company-with its own budget-and is responsible only to its board of directors, comprised of the governor, three mayors, and representatives from industry and the unions. There has been considerable improvement in the delivery of the services.

For emergency cleanup, in addition to the equipment listed under Table 3-2 Emergency Clean-up Collection Needs, availability of bulldozer for leveling wastes at the landfills is a critical requirement. It must get immediate and urgent attention. At present, as previously indicated, the MoYS is renting the bulldozer from a private vendor at high costs ($600/day). However, often the funds and/or the rental bulldozer have not been available. The result is that heaps of unloaded garbage that are intermittently set on fire to gain space for incoming garbage. As a (temporary) alternate to renting a bulldozer, the FSWCM should try to gain access to one from the SLRA, which uses bulldozer in its roadwork. The waste disposal operation-emergency cleanup, and also near- and long-term needs require a bulldozer.

Given the existence of numerous, citywide illegal waste dumps, clogged drains and scattered wastes around street corners, it is difficult to give an estimate of the total waste quantity for removal under the emergency cleanup phase. This quantity may run into several hundred tons or more. As a pre-planning measure, the FSWMC should conduct a survey to gauge the quantities, and develop specific-area priorities covering the existing MoYS collection zones. Simultaneously, the FSWMC should also implement appropriate measures such as making transportation arrangements and creating disposal space at each of the landfills to dispose of collected wastes. It is recommended that for this, the existing equipment such as payloaders with sufficient bucket capacity be mobilized from the SLRA. Given the urgency of cleanup, all strategies should be deployed in a timely manner, and with full participation of the FSWMC.

For the short-term, several items can be suggested for improvement of disposal options. These include a fence for each landfills, office space, additional vehicles, improved vehicle access, and controlled access for scavengers. Moreover, the workers should also be provided with gloves, masks, uniforms, and periodic medical checkups. Effective monitoring and evaluation should also back the process.

Long-term, 10-year and beyond, new landfill sites are needed. The indicated period is based on the assumption that the current landfill operation incorporates the recommendations indicated earlier to help prolong each landfill’s life. Also, each new site selection and its development must be based on sound scientific criteria and community input in site selection. Most communities are known for their NIMBY-Not In My Backyard syndrome, adding to the difficulties of a landfill site locat1on. Thus community participation in site selection is important. Also, as indicated earlier, a site’s design and development must use sound engineering principles. Key characteristics of municipal landfill management systems are listed below in Table 3-3. Key Characteristics of MSW Landfills.

Table 3-3. Key Characteristics of MSW Landfill Type Characteristics Advantages Disadvantages Open Dump • Poorly sited • Unknown capacity • No cell planning • No leachate management • No gas management • Only occasional cover • No compaction of waste • No fence • No record keeping • Waste picking and trading • Easy access • “Extended” lifetime • low initial cost • Aerobic decomposition • Access to waste pickers • Materials recovery, income • Envtl contamination • Overuse, many noxious sites • Unsightly, needs remediation • GW and SW contamination • Risk of explosion, GHGs • Vectors, disease • Shorter lifetime, little • Indiscriminate use, vermin • No record of landfill content • Least efficient for materials recovery Controlled Dump • Sited WRT hydro-geology • Planned capacity • No cell planning • Grading, drainage in site prep • Partial leachetes management • Partial or no gas management • Regular (not usually daily) cover • Compaction in some cases • Fence • Basic record keeping • Controlled waste picking and trading • Less risk of Envtl contamination • Permits long-term planning • Low initial cost • Easier rainfall runoff, reduced risk • Moderate cost, reduced risk • Extended lifetime • Controlled access and use • Valuable information • Materials recovery, income, low risk to pickers • Perhaps less accessible • Envtl contamination • Cost • Slower decomposition • Maintenance • Harassment, possible displacement of pickers and buyers • Loss of recyclable resources Sanitary Landfill • Site based on an Environ-mental Assessment (EA) • Planned capacity • Designed cell development • Extensive site preparation • Full leachate management • Full gas management • Daily and final cover • Compaction • Fence and gate • Record volume, type, source • No waste picking • Minimized Envtl. risk • Permits long-term planning • Reduced risk at and from site • Reduced risk from leachate • Reduced gas risk • Vector control, aesthetics • Extended lifetime • Secure access, gate records • Valuable information • Eliminate risk to pickers • Access, longer siting process • Cost • Preparation time • Slower decomposition • Maintenance, staff • Equipment • Displacement of pickers and buyers, loss of recyclable resources

Once the current situation is stabilized and strengthened with appropriate equipment, budgets and effective management—in particular, through the establishment of a lead institution, for the long-term, 10-year and beyond, better disposal options such as a sanitary landfill must be considered. As indicated earlier, in a sanitary landfill, solid wastes are placed on or in the ground at a carefully selected locat1on by means of engineering techniques that minimize pollution of air, water and soil, and other risks to human health, animals and environment. Moreover, aesthetic considerations should also be taken into account.

3.3 Equipment Needs

For the existing SWM operation, severe shortage and/or severely malfunctioning equipment is a major constraint to better management. During the field study, in terms of equipment, the following key deficiencies were identified:

• Highly inadequate number of skips (containers) and dust bins;

• Insufficient skip trucks and front-end loaders;

• Serious lack of spare parts, tires, utility vehicles, and motorbikes for effective monitoring and supervision;

• Inadequate protective gear-gloves, helmets, boots, nose masks, overall clothes, raincoats, etc.;

• Inadequate cleaning tools and equipment such as shovels, rakes, wheelbarrows, etc.;

• No bulldozer(s) and no low-bed prime movers-when bulldozer(s) are not available;

• Improperly maintained landfills-absence of fence, office/work space, tipping areas etc.;

• Insufficient budgets and trained manpower; and

• No health and safety measures, including absence of first-aid kits and other on-site medical provisions.

The existing fleet has very few operational vehicles such as skips trucks, tipper trucks, and front-end loaders. Also, of the total, over 55% are usually non-operational at any time, primarily due to misuse, and lack of funds to repair the broken equipment. APPENDIX: Table A-6 Workshop and Garaged Equipment Needing Repairs or Replacement, lists various equipment with the MoYS. In addition, appendix table No. lists key equipment needing urgent repairs.

Poor equipment availability is the major factor contributing to the chaotic and deplorable waste management situation in Freetown. The existing equipment often malfunctions, is poorly maintained, and sometimes misused. The backup support, by way trained staff and properly equipped workshop, is poor at best. Adversely compounding the situation is more than doubling of the Freetown’s population during the last ten years. Changing waste management authorities have also played havoc with the system. There is also a need to dismantle, remove, and transport to safe disposal sites obsolete parts and equipment, after careful evaluation and audits. Needed corrective measures face gargantuan challenges.

In addition, similar equipment in varying quantities is also used by the MoHS for its use sewage collection and transport operation. It is recommended that on an availability basis, this equipment be shared with the MoYS. For better implementation, inter-agency and also public cooperation should also be sought. This should include pooling equipment, additional personnel (such as from the MoHS and the SLRA) and personnel and management resources. A list of equipment with the MoHS is shown under APPENDIX: Table A-3 List of Current Equipment at the MoYS. Also, current list of waste management staff is shown under APPENDIX: Table A-4. Current List of Waste Management Staff at MoYS.

Thus, for emergency cleanup, it would be necessary to efficiently mobilize existing equipment at the SLRA, the MoYS and the MoHS, hire (temporarily) additional refuse collection and management staff. Emergency short-term funds would be needed for repair of the malfunctioning and disabled equipment and hiring of additional staff. According to the MoYS, over 60% of the non-functioning items need to be junked.

Any equipment selection must be based on a number of criteria. Included are waste characteristics and quantities, physical infrastructure, the number and types of existing equipment, target collection rates, budgets and available institutional support. Due consideration must also be given to types of vehicles and chassis in current use. Spare parts availability and maintenance expertise should also be considered in selecting newer equipment type. In addition, before finalizing the list, taxes, duties and import restrictions also need to be considered.

The proposed equipment type and the quantity for emergency and short-term, 2-4 years is based on keeping the above criteria in view, the field observations, and consensus opinion of the MoYS, the MoHS and the SLRA relevant staff. In addition, labor-intensive approaches were given due consideration given the need to employ large number of city unskilled youth.

3.4 Industrial, Hazardous and Toxic Wastes Management

Industrial solid waste can be managed either on site-at the facility where it is generated-or transported site to commercial facilities. On-site disposal is usually done through the use of municipal and industrial wastewater facilities and off-site, they are disposed off at (regulated) land disposal facilities such as landfills, waste pits and incineration or waste-to-energy incineration facilities like cement kilns. A variety of treatment, recycling, and other management options — such as stabilization and solidification - can also be used for many types of industrial wastes. In the U.S., nearly 99 percent of hazardous wastes are managed on site at the facility itself or treated and discharged through a wastewater treatment facility.

At present, due to limited industrial activity, insignificant quantities of such wastes are produced in Freetown. Thus, for the short-term, safe and less costly disposal options can be used. For example, often, used oil can be economically recycled or disposed of by burning in properly equipped furnaces. It can be stated that most wastes can be recycled. However, recycling economics and technical options may vary with the nature and locat1on of the waste. Some wastes are highly hazardous and expensive to treat. In industrialized countries, priority attention has been given to changing the feedstocks that are less hazardous. Other efforts have focused on minimizing the quantities that are discarded. In most cases, minimization and raw material substitution options have been preferred in dealing with any difficult waste. Such practices may not be applicable to Freetown, given small quantities of industrial and toxic waste generated and lack of technical know-how and manpower.

Nevertheless, industrial and toxic wastes must be managed carefully. For example, chemical wastes from some industries (including tanning, dry-cleaning, photographic processing and many chemical production) must be collected and disposed of in an environmentally sound manner. Similarly, slaughterhouse wastes may need proper handling and as one disposal option for Freetown, these can be buried in special trenches at suitable sites at each of the two open dumps. .

There is no pretreatment of the industrial wastes or effluents at any of Freetown’s industrial facilities. Also, there is no environmental monitoring—either voluntary or by authorities—of industrial wastes in Sierra Leone. At present, most industrial wastes are disposed off at the city’s landfills by private arrangements. Some industries, such as the Aureal Tobacco Company in Freetown, dispose their wastes including tobacco dust and cigarette wrappings at the facility itself. Furthermore, almost all industrial facilities (illegally) discharge their effluents into the city drains. Unfortunately, such is also the case at the large Sierra Leone Brewery owned by Germany’s Heineken. In addition, a used oil recycling facility located in the eastern outskirts of Freetown also highlights illegal waste disposal. The facility recycles port oil, disposing the potentially dangerous residues in an unlined earthen pit at the facility. Given the lack of industry-specific environmental regulations and little to no enforcement of the existing regulations, illegal disposal continues. This aspect needs to be reviewed through the establishment and strengthening of institutional framework.

For example, the private manufacturing facilities should be required to determine the quality and quantity of their wastes through systematic monitoring and maintain good records. This data should be reported to the government who should also require them to dispose of all wastes in an environmentally sound manner and in accordance with the prevailing standards. While the existing environmental laws are not industry-specific, they do provide guidance on disposal of hazardous materials such as oils, organic solvents, acids and alkalies and other major pollutants. There are also provisions requiring licenses or permits for commencing activities that may have adverse environmental impacts.

Sierra Leone’s National Law for Environmental Protection makes the Department of Lands, Housing, and Environment as the agency entrusted with the mandate to coordinate environmental activities in the country and to implement national policies. Within this department is an Environmental Protection Section (EPS), which is the focal point for national and international environmental activities. At present, the EPS has rudimentary staff and little budget.

Long-term options for effectively managing industrial wastes may include use of better manufacturing practices that incorporate better practices such as waste minimization and the cleaner production. At the government level policy and legislative support, implementation and strict environmental regulatory enforcement could be useful tools for effective management of industrial wastes. Details and relevance of such approaches are beyond the scope of this study.

3.4.1 Disposal Options for Medical Wastes

Proper medical waste disposal requires placing toxic and infectious wastes in polythene bags with minimum thickness of 100 microns, and sizes ranging from 60x100 cm. Sharp discards-syringes, scalpel blades etc., should be placed in cut- and puncture-resistant containers, such as disposable plastic bottles or thick cardboard boxes. For transport to the landfill, these should be placed in plastic bags, and closed off with a plastic strip that cannot be reopened. No reuse of the bags or any compression of infectious waste should be allowed. All containers must be properly labeled. For Freetown, given absence of safer systems, hospital waste may be disposed of jointly with regular wastes. However, it is strongly recommended that hospital wastes are carefully separated, labeled and transported to one of the two open dumps. At each site, workers must dump the bagged/containerized wastes directly from the truck into the pit without handling. A smaller truck could be assigned for these needs. Final disposal should be done in a specially designated cell, which should be covered with a layer of lime and at least 50 cm of soil. This should be followed by at least one- meter thick regular municipal wastes, and always placed more than two meters from the edge of the deposited waste. Also, pits where infectious wastes are deposited should not be reopened.

Cost recovery for disposal of medical wastes can be through user charges, based on the “polluter pays” principle, where each hospital or clinic pays according to the volume of waste generated. Some facilities may not be willing and/or able to pay the full cost and , as experience in many countries has shown that in such situations, there is a tendency to illegally or indiscriminately dispose of medical wastes. In such situation, subsidies or other financial incentives may be warranted. After a careful review, these should be considered on case-by-case basis. Also, unlike general waste, the use of Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) is not recommended for management of hospital and healthcare wastes. Unfortunately, experience in other countries has shown that MSEs have a tendency to illegally dispose of hospital waste at unauthorized locat1ons, to avoid following the required procedures and to (illegally) maximize profits. A careful monitoring can help minimize this practice.

For the long run, detailed study to dispose of city’s medical and toxic wastes using technically and economically sound technologies should be initiated. Training and awareness programs also need to be initiated. Trainees must include hospital administrators, MSW staff, relevant local/regional decision-making authorities and others. In addition, use of incineration, as medical waste disposal technology should be explored. Incineration can completely destroy certain infectious medical waste such as syringes, body parts and tissues, and can also treat certain classes of hazardous wastes such as insecticides, pesticides, waste solvents, types of hydraulic fluids and some oily sludges.

4.0 The Institutional Arrangements

An effective implementation strategy for the SWM in Freetown, requires an innovative approach in terms of establishing a new lead agency, which is institutionally and financially on sound footings, has transparent dealing, and is devoid of political interferences. Moreover, such an institution must be driven by three basic concepts: accountability, autonomy and incentives. It should establish its long-term viability through incorporation of a sound organizational structure capable of providing increased efficiency and effectiveness as well as self-sustenance. It should set schedules, and performance measures, and monitor progress. However, establishment of such an institute is only feasible when there is willingness on the part of authorities to take risks, bear additional costs, at least initially, in the expectation that these changes will pay off in the long run. Based on the analysis of the existing situation, a new institute, named the Freetown Solid Waste Management Company (FSWMC) is proposed.

4.1 The Freetown Solid Waste Management Company

As indicated above, a sound institution is essential to sustainable SWM operation. Experience in developing countries has shown that an effective waste management institute should be autonomous, and has executive authority to design, monitor and implement sustainable solid waste management strategies. Furthermore, given the needs for its multi-sectoral role, such an institute must also have authority, visibility, adequate budgets, legislative and policy support, administrative capacity, and a strong constituency to advocate its plans and their potential implementation.

The current organization, the MoYS, (as well as its predecessor, the MoHS) has many shortcomings, especially on the management and implementation side. In addition to severe shortage of equipment, the staff capacities at all levels are very weak. As indicated earlier, the MoYS is also struggling with inadequate budgets, lack of experience, and lack of authority. On the operational side, records and information related to the SWM costs are highly inadequate and spread over several agencies. The current system also lacks internal controls. In addition, an institutional and regulatory framework is severely lacking for procurement, and legislative enforcement. For the current World Bank project minimum standards will have to be set and implemented.

Thus, in the context of Freetown, there is a dire need of a sound institute, as indicated above. During the field visit, several discussions were held with the MoHS, the Sierra Leone Road Authority (SLRA), several permanent secretaries and others. A list of contacts is indicated under APPENDIX: Table A-8, Contact List. A common consensus of these discussions was that the current arrangement is unsound and unlikely to be effective or sustainable especially in the long term. The MoYS also agrees with this viewpoint, however, with a caveat-its youths (and two key staff) must be employed by a new organization. Reverting the SWM to the MoHS, the previous manager, is not recommended in view of its historically poor performance and allegations of corrupt practices.

Based on the above, establishment of the proposed independent institute, the Freetown Solid Waste Management Company (FSWMC), under the auspices of the central Ministry of Local Government (MLG), is mandatory. The FSWMC, as the central authority must be an autonomous body, and must have full authority to independently manage all aspects of SWM in Freetown. Initially, upon the FSWMC’s establishment, binding contracts to hire MoYS’s youth labor should be established for a foreseeable future. Over time, as the new institute, the FSWMC establishes itself, all of the MoHS waste functions including, environmental and waste-related health aspects should be transferred to the FSWMC. An organizational chart for the FSWMC is shown in Figure 4-1: Proposed Organization Chart for Freetown Solid Waste Management Company. However, a seamless transition based on transparency and openness between the existing organization, the MoYS and the SWM system need to be assured through appropriate planning.

Freetown Solid Waste Management Company (FSWMC) is proposed to be the lead organization for managing solid waste. As an autonomous organization under the auspices of the MLG, financially and institutionally, the FSWMC will exercise significant independence. The FSWMC must also articulate a development agenda with a profound conviction to bring about meaningful and visible changes. It should clean wastes, but also create jobs, support and empower communities, encourage private sector participation in the SWM, and establish an overall sustainable SWM framework through cost recovery and active private sector participation. Its key objective will include be putting in place a renewal process aimed at:

(i) Increasing the quality, relevance, focus, coherence, and effectiveness of the SWM operation in Freetown; (ii) establishing a strengthened work planning, implementation, and monitoring methodologies and systems to better track and monitor the SWM operation’s activities; (iii) reducing administrative and overhead costs of the SWM operation; (v) improving the quality of the SWM staff and adjusting its skill mix to current challenges; (iv) improving external and internal communication policies and systems; (v) consolidating the SWM donor funding base; and Others.

Key players that will interact with the FSWMC are:

Ministry of Local Government (MLG) as a central ministry, and the parent of the FCC, will provide access to Sierra Leone’s central government to help establish appropriate policies and regulatory framework, get adequate budgetary allocat1ons, visibility, and coordinate international donor assistance. The MLG’s minister will work closely with the MoYS minister as well as the proposed Advisory Committee.

Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS) should transfer the existing solid waste management workforce and equipment, including workshop to the FSWMC. In addition, it should provide youth on a contractual basis, preferably through the NYMCOS for emergency cleanup operations, likely to begin during the later part of 2004. The FSWMC will communicate manpower needs for this and future activities in a timely manner. It is anticipated that after the emergency cleanup is completed, the MoYS’s role should be limited to supplying youth labor on a contractual basis.

Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) for the near-term, should continue to provide liquid waste management services. However, as the FSWMC establishes its roots, this function, including sewage management should be transferred to the FSWMC. It is recommended that this transfer takes place within a year of the FSWMC’s establishment. In addition, the MoHS should assist the FSWMC in the environmental and health aspects of solid waste management. As ex-solid waste manager for Freetown, the MoHS brings institutional knowledge and experience as well as personnel experienced in solid waste management. It is recommended that the MoHS transfer to the FSWMC the needed personnel, equipment, and other resources. Also, existing equipment building under its control should be transferred to the FSWMC.

Advisory Committee: Given the complex nature of solid waste management, the multi-agency participation, and a poor performance record as well as political interference, it is proposed that an Advisory Committee, in a watchdog capacity be established. An organizational chart for the Advisory Committee is indicated under Figure 5-1. Various members (by title) have been drawn from all the above participating organizations as well as legislative and community leaders recognized for their service to the Freetown community. It is proposed that cost of services of each member is funded by his/her parent organization. They will be funded by their individual organization. It is suggested that the Advisory Committee meets at least six times a year to provide services such as:

• To resolve problems and provide assistance in trouble shooting;

• To assist in inter-agency communications;

• To prevent or minimize political interference and misuse of equipment;

• To safeguard and represent minority participant interests; and

• To act as sounding board for the community.

The FSWMC’s charter will detail composition and duties of it Board of Directors, voting mechanisms, cost-sharing agreements, and other specifications, as needed for an effective framework. On the implementation side, this will include responsibilities for providing new ideas, technologies and skills, and clear accountability procedures. Over time, with a good track record, the FSWMC can evolve into a contracting agency performing on management contracts for other municipalities.

In the beginning, the FSWMC will generate its finances through budget allocat1ons and donor assistance. However, over time, the FSWMC will be self-financing through user fees, business licenses, and other effective means. It will have the authority to contract out, monitor, and supervise the SWM operations, and regulate uncontrolled dumping and disposal by others. The FSWMC, to the extent feasible, will also be responsible for decentralization of field operations. It will also help the Sierra Leone government in establishing enabling policy and regulatory frameworks for the SWM in Freetown. Such policies also help raise public consciousness towards environmental issues, helping lay the groundwork for a conceptual framework at national level.

The FSWMC will also establish various performance indicators and clear line supervision among its various activities. This may require upgrading the staff skills number. All remunerations including per diems must be fully documented. The company should incorporate clear and merit-based recruitment procedures and an equitable structure of compensation in line with relevant principles embodied in a code of conduct. It is suggested that an FSWMC committee is timely established to develop procedures for staff recruitment, a compensation structure and other rules in consultation with the MLG and others, as appropriate.

It is essential for the effectiveness and success of the FSWMC that its resources are utilized and spent for the intended purposes. Thus, effectively functioning financial management and accountability mechanisms are essential. This DM will ensure that proper controls are maintained. In this regard, the FSWMC should also consider using a suitably qualified and experienced independent firm as a “monitoring Agent” (MA). The Agency can monitor procurement of equipment and other items, works and services; screen and recommend for approval withdrawal applications; and monitor expenditures out of the FSWMC to ensure that funds are only disbursed for the purposes for which they have been provided, and in accordance with the applicable (such as the World Bank) procedures and acceptable financial and auditing standards. Employment of the MA should take place in accordance with the procurement procedures of the World Bank’s current funding. Also, an MA may not necessarily monitor 100% of transactions; it should adopt a high sampling ratio. The Monitor should report its findings to the FSWMC’s BOD and the Advisory Committee, in addition to the FSWMC.

An organizational chart for the FSWMC is provided below in Figure 4-1. Proposed Organizational Chart for Freetown Solid Waste Management Company.

Figure 4-1. Proposed Organizational Chart for Freetown Solid Waste Management Co.

4.1.1 The Board of Directors

A Board of Directors (BOD) will elected for the FSWMC, in accordance with its charter and various provisions. The Board will provide guidance and oversight to the FSWMC, in accordance to its charter. The BOD’s members will be elected from the community, the government, the industry and professional sector, including legal and engineering. Each elected individual will also bring solid reputation in integrity, honesty and work performance. It is proposed that the BOD consists of five members. It is proposed that each member works on a nominal salary, paid out of contingency by the FSWMC. It is recommended that the BOD meets every three months, or earlier, if needed.

4.2 THE FSWMC Management Staff

The FSWMC will be staffed with well-qualified and experienced professional recruited on a competitive basis. The proposed reorganization under the authority of the MLG would draw experienced technical management personnel, from existing sources such as the FCC and the MoHS. However, each transfer must also involve appropriate screening and approval by the FSWMC. In addition, approved transfers must be accomplished in a timely manner. An appropriate government mandate can help this process. Any position(s) open to the general public must go through a strict selection criteria implemented by the FSWCM. The only exception to this process could be the two individuals, the Waste Coordinator and the Unit Manger at the MoYS. Their inclusion was requested by with the MoYS minister. To help the staffing process, a list of key individuals currently employed by the MoYS and the MoHS is attached in the APPENDIX: Table A-5. Current EHD Staff at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation. The proposed transfers will also bring needed institutional experience in waste management to the FSWMC. Cost estimates for the FSWMC are indicated under Table 5-1. Cost Estimates (First Year) for the Freetown Solid Waste Management Company.

No budgetary provisions for office rents, utilities, and office equipment such as computers, printers, faxes etc., have been made under the proposed World Bank funding. It is recommended that the MLG provide these to the FSWMC at no cost, and at the start of operations. It is further recommended that this and other support, such as fees for the incorporation of the FSWMC, be agreed upon and documented before the World Bank funds are released. It is expected that within a few months after incorporation, the FSWMC will initiate user fee charges at the domestic and industrial houses. Such fees are based on the “polluter pays principle,” and may include residential waste fees, tipping fees for commercial users, (environmental) fee for business licenses, and increased property taxes and utility surcharges. In implementing these options, the poor can be protected through carefully designed cross-subsidies in user charges or taxes. At the same time, higher charges can be considered for high-income areas. User charges, including a refuse tax, a volumetric tariff, a tipping fee, business licenses, and grants, have the potential to raise considerable revenues.

The roles and responsibilities of various individuals of the FSWMC are synopsized below:

Director General (DG): The individual is the Chief Operating Officer for the FSWMC, reporting to its Board. In this position, the individual will provide administrative, technical, and operational and management oversight for all aspects of the SWM in Freetown. As the key spokesperson for the FSWMC, he/she will ensure adequate budgets, and coordinate policy decisions with all key players. The DG, through use of specialized consultants, at least during the first six months of its establishment, will also be responsible to ensure streamlining of various operations including procurement matters from the preparation of tender documents, bidding processing, bid evaluation of all contracts. At present, there is insufficient transparency related to public finances, and the general attitude towards fiscal discipline is not strong. For instance, the budget process is not yet transparent, and public access to government financial information is limited. The DG will place adequate pre-approval and checking processes, and set high standards for all of its operations.

The DG will be responsible for implementing the SWM program, provide policy development, systems and guidelines development. Included will be technical, budgetary and resource planning, oversight of management information systems, implementation monitoring, training and capacity building. The DG will provide oversight to its five Division Managers, as listed below.

• Division Manger-Administration/Finance-Key duties are management and oversight of the FSWMC’s personnel, budgeting, and security issues, and assisting the Director General (DG) in contractual issues, including potential participation of private sector. Other duties include development of human resource plan including in-service training programs. As a backbone of the operation, this Division Manager must establish close working relationship, especially with the other Division Managers (listed below) to help optimize SWM system’s performance.

• Division Manager-Waste Collection will be responsible for management of collection of household, market and commercial, industrial and hazardous wastes. This work will be accomplished through four Unit Managers, as indicated under Figure A-5. In addition, he/she will relate with the MoHS sewage collection and management to understand various nuisances. It is proposed that after the emergency cleanup, as mentioned earlier, the sewage function also be transferred to the FSWMC for better operational and management economies.

• Division Manager-Waste Disposal/Landfills will ensure environmental management through sound practices at the city’s two landfills. He/She will also be responsible for planning, budgeting, and ensuring close coordination with other division managers.

• Division Manager-Equipment and Workshop. Key responsibilities include equipment management and mobilization and workshop management, identifying potential needs and close cooperation with all other managers.

• Division Manager-Environmental Health, Safety and Public Relations. Key responsibilities include: providing guidance and oversight for solid waste management in the areas of environmental health and safety to ensure legislative compliance. Health aspect work will be coordinated with the EHD/the MoHS. In addition, public relation activities, including public education and awareness will also be under this Division. This DM must also develop an environmental and social screening and assessment framework to assist executing entities in screening activities for likely social and environmental impacts, identifying documentation and preparation requirements, prioritizing activities, and-for activities triggering safeguard policies under the World Bank projects-preparation of necessary mitigation plans. Given the important role of women in solid wastes generation and management in Freetown, as everywhere else, the social screening must place appropriate focus on gender issues. The indicated approach will help undertake due diligence, avoid causing harm or exacerbating social tensions and ensure consistent treatment of social and environmental issues. In a likewise manner, the Division Manager must also be sensitive to changing environmental regulatory regimes and its compliance requirements.

5.0 Implementation Strategy

In Freetown, administration is one of the major weaknesses of solid waste management. Limited budgets, inability to raise revenues through user fees, municipal bonds, or other means, as well as poor organizational set up are also serious constraints to effectively implement and manage the SWM projects. Effective administrative and organizational systems on which the service ultimately depends are crucial to a sustainable SWM system. It is also important to make provisions for public feedback, and for input from related public organizations in planning, evaluation and upgrading of the system. Cost-recovery, defined earlier, contributes to sustainability, as is the role of private sector. Following the establishment of a sound institutional structure, it is possible to bring sustained improvements through labor-intensive, low-capital alternatives, and enabling administrative changes.

Rehabilitation of Freetown’s solid waste management system will require implementation of emergency cleanup measures at the start, followed by implementation of short-term, two to four year SWM strategies. Subsequently, medium- to long-term, five to ten years’ strategies should be developed. Along with the implementation of emergency cleanup measures, processes to establish the FSWMC should be initiated, with the aim that the FSWMC is operational at the end of the emergency cleanup.

Key emergency measures have been identified earlier. It is recommended that the MoYS, in view of the urgency of the situation, should take the lead in implementing these measures. However, for this, the ministry would require immediate infusion of additional temporary workers, especially low-level for street cleaning and garbage pickup; provision of shovels, rakes, containers and dust bins; funds to repair of damaged equipment; and some working capital for spare parts. Emergency cleanup will help temporarily remediate the existing situation. It needs to be followed up with sustainable measures to make Freetown, a clean city.

Figure 5-1. Proposed Advisory Committee Organizational Structure

For the short-term, up to four years, key specific measures have been identified. At the heart of the recommendations is the need to establish the FSWMC, and timely procurement of the needed equipment and other resources.

5.1 Financing Mechanisms

Solid waste management services account for high percentage of the municipal budgets. For instance, in Malaysia, an average of 50% of the municipal operating budget is spent on the management of municipal solid wastes, and of this, 70% is spent on collection. The following table provides a breakdown of the MSW management costs in developing countries. It can be used a general framework for proper finance planning.

Table 3-2 Breakdown of Solid Waste Management Costs—Typical Ranges*.

Collection Sweeping DisposalCapital Capital Costs 30 -40% 20 -30% 50 - 55% Labor Costs 15-40% 50-70% 10-20% Consumable & 30 - 45% 10-20% 30-35% Maintenance. * Source: Cointreau-Levine, Sandra and Adrian Coad. 2000. “Guidance Pack. Private sector participation in municipal waste management.” Swiss Center for Development Cooperation in Technology and Management, Vadianstrasse 42, CH-9000 St Gallen, Switzerland. Page 31 As can be seen from the above table, compared to collection, sweeping has a lower proportion of capital costs and a higher labor component, and that disposal requires proportionately more capital than collection or sweeping.

Financial issues primarily involve cost recovery and mobilization of resources. Options and mechanisms to implement these vary from country to country. As also indicated elsewhere in this report, cost recovery works on the principle of “user pays” and “polluter pays” principles. It has been effective in many developed and developing countries. For instance, cities in Indonesia have used cost recovery mechanisms for decades. Neighborhood leader manage pre-collection, with pushcarts going from door to door. Secondary collection from the neighborhood transfer depots is provided by the city administrations. Residents pay their neighborhood leader for both pre-collection and secondary collection, and the leader pays the city for removal of waste from the neighborhood transfer depot. Pre-collection of domestic solid waste, paid by residents in many developing countries is proving to be one means of developing financial sustainability, as well as obtaining public cooperation with waste collection systems.

For commercial and industrial waste collection, direct user charges are often used. For instance, the industry might be charged according to the number of containers taken away and emptied, or according to the weight of waste collected. Such charges can be collected with utility bills or separately. At present, Accra (Ghana); Ouagadougou (Burking Faso); Cotonou (Benin); and Bamako (Mali) are among the growing number of major cities in Africa to implement citywide cost recovery through direct user charges. The charges in Accra cover about 25% of total system costs and, in most of the city, are collected by special government bill collectors and deposited into segregated accounts dedicated to solid waste management. In Sedondi-Takoradi (Ghana) all businesses within the city pay an “environment tax” as part of the fee for their annual business licenses. The receipts are used to help pay the costs of the city’s sanitary landfill. Direct charges are not often used for collection of household wastes.

Experience in many locales have also shown that people are more willing to pay to private sector than the government for such services. This is because of the traditional bias of inefficiency and wasteful expenses on part of the government.

To recover costs, increasingly, the MSWM authorities in developing countries are levying fee for services provided. A levy is applied in several other forms: (a) direct fees based on waste volumes; (b) indirect fees derived from, for instance, property taxes: and (c) fees collected with payment of electric bills, or with water bills based on floor area and annual rental values of properties. Some of the approaches have been listed earlier. Cost recovery is also possible through the sale of recyclables and recovered resources. For example, in Accra (Ghana) a composting operation has been set up with German technical assistance. Solid waste and treated septage sludge is co-composted, and when properly marketed, is able to achieve full cost recovery.

Effective financial management also requires increasing access to sources of investment capital. For this, strengthening of cost accounting, budgeting and management information systems is also essential. However, it must be based on robust collection mechanisms. The poor can be protected through carefully designed cross-subsidies in user charges or taxes.

In the U.S., the President’s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), 1997 indicates that over 3,400 communities in 37 states have instituted new variable pricing programs for household wastes. These programs take several forms. For example, pre-paid garbage bags or stickers to affix to bags can be required for collection or, collection fee can be based on the number and size of cans-a modification of this for Freetown can be charge on weight of broken bottles such as those from the Heinken Brewery—currently being disposed of the landfills at no cost. Such systems or their applicable modification are easy and inexpensive to implement. The can also provide a stable source of revenues for the collection service. Also, the U.S. experience has shown that education and recycling programs have been important contributing factors in the success of many variable pricing programs. It is recommended that selected communities where house-to-house garbage collection can be provided should consider implementing such programs, initially on a pilot basis. Successful implementation of variable pricing programs can dramatically reduced total quantities of wastes for collection. Perhaps increased recycling and reuse as well as changes in consumption and product purchasing habits have also helped reduce waste quantities for collection. Also, according to the CEQ, in the U.S., over 25% of all paper (41% including paper and paperboard) was recycled, as were 58% of all cans in 1997.

In some countries such as Indonesia, Korea, and others, a portion of services, such as collection, have been contracted out to private sector. Private sector participation can be in many forms including contracting out, franchises, and partnership arrangement. Often, private companies in these countries are also free to form joint ventures with foreign corporations to gain access to resources. In many developing countries, the most effective, efficient, and accountable system has evolved through a combination of government-run and privatized services.

For Freetown, user charges, as tipping fee, based on the volume of waste deposited for the area’s industries, hotels and institutions should be implemented upon establishment of the FSWMC. The practice is becoming increasingly common in many developing countries. For instance, Mexico’s SIMEPRODE-Monterrey Regional Processing and Disposal System, charges a tipping fee of $34.50 at landfills. At present, the Freetown industry does not pay any fee for deposal of its wastes at the two landfills.

For households, on a gradual basis, user fee concept based on income levels or property taxes should be implemented. Unfortunately, using property tax as a base may be less effective---currently, less than 30% of Freetown’s population is registered on the property tax assessment. Also, for the residential users, such fees should be gradually implemented, taking into account social considerations. From the field survey, it appears that economically better neighborhoods are willing and able to pay a monthly fee of Le 12,000 (approximately $4.30). An earlier MoHS estimates show that such user charges, cesspit-servicing can annually generate over $2M when fully implemented under sound collection and management practices.

5.2 Estimated Costs

Costs for emergency cleanup, and the first year are indicated in Tables 5-1.and 5-2 respectively. All costs have been projected in U.S. dollars.

Table 5-1. Cost Estimates, First Year, for the Freetown Solid Waste Management Company Sr. No Item/Type of Cost/ Number of Staff First Yr. Costs ($) Remarks A. Equipment 350,000 Contingencies See Table No. 5-2 B. Labor: Management and Administrative Staff Salaries. . 1. Director General 2. Division Managers 3. Unit Managers 4. Engineers/Technical Staff 5. Health/Inspectors . 6. Senior Accountants 7. Senior Administrative Staff 8. Personnel Manager 9. Computer Technicians 10. Secretarial/Other Staff C. Labor: Workshop/Field Staff 350,000 1. Workshop Manager 2. Drivers/Operators 3. Workshop Foreman 4. Welders 5. Sr. and Jr. Technicians . 6. Container Guards D. Operation and Maintenance 50,000 1. Petrol and Diesel 2. Lubricants 3. Spare parts 4. Communication: Telephone etc. 5. Miscellaneous: Gloves/raincoats E. Studies/Pilot Programs Etc. 200,000 Training/Recycling Pilot Projects. 1. Consultants/Studies 2. Training Costs. 3. Public Education/Awareness. Radio/TV announcements etc. 4. Contingencies/total See table 5-2 Includes official local travel costs etc. GRAND TOTAL $950,000

For the first year, the Table 5-1 indicates the type of equipment that may be needed. The listed items are in addition to those mentioned for the emergency cleanup. The list has been developed in consultation with the MoYS, and the MoHS relevant staff. Combined with the existing equipment at the MoYS, the MoHS, and the equipment procured for the emergency cleanup, the quantities are considered adequate for the first few years of operation.

For the labor, no quantification of individual skills, by way of assigning the number of person(s) needed is shown in the above table. Based on further study, additional details can be provided for each year. It is recommended that the majority of field workers such as, sweepers, helpers, container guards, and others be hired under a carefully written and well-enforced competitive contract, such as with the NYMCOS. This can assure better work outputs. The O&M cost item shown in the Table 5-1, covers procurement of spare parts, petrol, diesel, lubricants and other items such as gloves, raincoats and nose masks.

The Studies/Pilot-short term, low cost collection, transfer and disposal programs and others will also require competitive hiring of specialized consultants, development of pilot programs such as for recycling, and to provide training to the FSWMC staff, NGOs and others, as needed. Some training activities have been identified elsewhere.

Likewise, pilot programs for recycling can be initiated or existing ones, most of which currently are at rudimentary level, be strengthened. Freetown wastes offer significant recycling opportunities, especially for cans, footwares, and biodegradables for composting. Pilot programs can be useful to identify potential recycling constraints, helping the FSWMC to develop appropriate policy and other measures. In addition, under this category, specialized consultants can be hired to meet specific needs such as developing management information systems (MIS) for accounting, to provide independent oversight for an operation, and others. The emergency cleanup is estimated to take three months from the date of start (Figure A-4: Timeline). It is anticipated that the additional equipment and other resources, as indicated under Table 3-2 are available at the time of the start up of the operation. As indicated earlier, these resources should be combined with those available at the MoHS and the SLRA. The MoHS and the SLRA should fully cooperate and assist in the effort at no cost to the MoYS.

While incentives can be built into the contractual agreement between the MoYS and the NYMCOS, labor charges paid to the new recruits must be in line with existing rates. A pre-plan detailing priority areas for cleanup, provision of tools such as rakes, spades, gloves, masks etc., appropriate arrangements at the two landfills to receive wastes and regular oversight including timely trouble shooting of the problems is recommended. In addition notification to the general public should be timely done to seek its cooperation and arouse sensitivities to relatively cleaner environment.

5.2.1 Summary of Various Cost Components

The following table summarizes various cost components under the project. It is followed by a descr1ption of each element listed.

Table 5-2 Summary of Cost Components Sr. No. Period Equipment Labor O & M Studies/Pilot Programs Etc. Total Costs ($). 1. Emergency 650,000 50,000 10,000 Not recommended. 710,000 2. Year 1 350,000 350,000 50,000 200,000 950,000 3. Year 2 200,000 300,000 40,000 100,000 490,000 4. Year 3 100,000 250,000 40,000 100,000 490,000 5. Year 4 100,000 200,000 33,000 50,000 383,000 Contingency (10%) N/A 140,000 115,000 17,000 55,000 327,000 Total N/A 1,540,000 1,265,000 190,000 605,000 3,600,000

The above table summarizes the breakdown of various cost components under the proposed World Bank funding. The various amounts have been distributed in accordance with the anticipated need for the component. In addition, contingency to meet unknowns has been kept at 10% level. Various projections have been made for the emergency cleanup period of three months, and for short-term, up to 4-year operation, as funded by the Bank. Equipment, labor, O&M and studies, pilot program and training have been identified elsewhere for the emergency period as well as for the first year of the operation.

5.3 Private Sector Participation

Private sector participation in the SWM in Freetown, at this time is nonexistent. At this stage, it is also not recommended, given the lack of competition, the lack of institutional capabilities to manage the operation, and high risks for the private entrepreneurs. However, micro- or small enterprises such as for recycling can be set up. For this, the FSWMC can help by way of technical assistance, and facilitating access to micro-credits. Nevertheless, various strategies should be designed with input from key stakeholders including community groups.

Stronger financial-footings of the FSWMC, as envisioned will also help in promoting private sector participation and in its ability to raise investment capital. Private investments-domestic or international, can also boost skills, transfer technology and latest management practices, and create links to marketing networks. While such investments in infrastructure boomed in many developing countries, unfortunately, it has not happened in Sierra Leone for various reasons, including the long domestic insurgency. The government can help by providing loan guarantees, devising private sector risk-loan guarantees, devising private sector risk-reduction strategies and other policy measures.

To further strengthen this aspect, the FSWMC must keep detailed accounting of all management and operation costs, including billing and contract management.

While private sector involvement is not a panacea for all the ills facing the Freetown’s SWM system, its effective introduction elsewhere has shown superior results in similar climatic and economic levels. For instance, under a World Bank funded project, Conakry’s solid waste collection improved from a low of 30% before 1998 to a current high of 85%, lowered the SWM costs to US$4/ton for collection, transfer and disposal, covered all areas, and also created over 3,000 jobs in the city.

5.4 Community Mobilization, Marketing and Promotions

The public enjoys a pivotal role in waste management. Without the public conscious and collective decision to support, proposed improvements in the existing system cannot be sustained. For instance, for recycling, mobilizing household cooperation for community based recycling programs will be necessary to overcome a number of obstacles, particularly the need to convince individuals that the program is essential and relevant to them. It will require a change in public’s attitude and behavior towards environmental consciousness, and recycling as an acceptable method of waste treatment. The FSWMC will have to devise and implement strategies to overcome such key constraints as laziness, and the lack of convenience, such as drop-off centers, or inadequate local facilities. Moreover, such strategies would also need to be publicized and marketed. In a number of developing countries, traditional marketing techniques such as poster, leaflets and newspaper advertisement have been successfully used. As an innovative approach, it is recommended that within a few months after its establishment, the FSWMC should conduct a road show in (greater) Freetown to educate the public in recycling and the SWM. A road show can also provide the FSWMC, greater visibility and closer interaction with the residents.

For the any waste management strategy to succeed in the field, community buy-in is crucial. Public’s awareness and attitudes to waste can affect the population’s willingness to cooperate and participate in adequate waste management practices. For instance, general environmental awareness and information on health risks due to deficient solid waste management are important factors, which need to be continuously communicated to all sectors of the population. Participation of the population can include: carrying waste to a shared container, paying for waste management services, or as indicated above, by segregating waste to assist recycling activities.

In developing countries, there are several successful examples of continuous education and awareness to promote sustainable SWM. For instance, the regular “Green and Clean” campaigns to promote environmental awareness by the Metro Manila Women Balikatan Movement and Green Forum in Manila. Another example is the Environmental Pioneer Brigde Program in Sri Lanka where children are made aware of environmental problems, are shown how to manage the problems, or how to be preventative so that the problems do not occur?

It is therefore important to keep the community informed, and seek it cooperation. Implementing education and awareness strategies can significantly help to keep SWM systems sustainable.

5.5 Training

Building human resources is often the most critical-and one of the most difficult-aspect of building a new program such as effective SWM. Recently, like other services, managing solid waste has become a technically sophisticated municipal activity that requires regular formal or informal training programs to ensure that the workforce is aware of and comprehends the new management techniques available, and their adaptability to the indigenous management environment. In Freetown, this situation gains difficult dimensions, given the lack of adequate technical and management staff. Training could provide a useful tool to help meet these needs. Such training could be in the form of workshops, seminars and in-country classroom training.

For sustainable SWM, human resource development is very important especially for three strategically important groups, namely (i) key personnel in the national coordinating unit of the central government; (ii) operational managers of the selected local organization, in this case the FSWMC; and (iii) university and other higher educational institutions. Among these target groups, the strengthening of human resources in the national coordinating unit and in addition to the FSWMC, one or two selected local governments (such as the MLG, and the city staff) are the first priority. It is recommended that it is done in the short term, while support to higher educational institutions is a long-term program.

Unfortunately, due to financial constraints and low priorities afforded to this important aspect, little, if any, training has been provided to skilled, semi-skilled or unskilled waste management workers of the developing countries, It is strongly felt that proper formal or informal training for the workforce would enhance the work efficiency and improve the situation that now exists in the developing countries.

The training program must relate to the types of waste, goals to be reached, and the means by which they will be reached. Training program should also be based on analysis of the existing situation and current legislation.

Training, being an important element of the SWM, many developing countries have developed specialized SWM training institutes. The oldest among these are the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute and the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health. Both of these are in India. In addition, many private corporations, NGOs and community groups are also provided SWM training in developing countries. For example, within the Hanoi, each worker must complete a training course every year in order to be eligible for promotion / increases in salary. For street sweepers and collectors the course focuses on workplace efficiency and personal safety / health. There are also courses for the mechanics and truck drivers that covers the machinery they operate or repair. The teaching style is classroom based with the aid of some written materials.

It is recommended that the FSWMC provide training in SWM to its key professional staff. In addition, the training should also be provided to the FSWMC’s Board of Directors and selected stakeholders including privates sector participants. Specific training areas will however vary. These can be prioritized based on specific needs. A few items are suggested. These include training in: the roles and responsibilities of the FSWMC and local governments, monitoring and enforcement, targeted public awareness campaigns, organizing primary and secondary solid waste collection services, piloting recycling projects, assessing privatization options and cost recovery issues. Such training can be provided in Freetown, and conducted by experienced specialists, either local or expatriates.

Training can bring improvements over time. However, overall SWM program’s success will also rest on inducing necessary changes in the attitudes and behavior of the government officials, polluters and the general public.

5.6 Monitoring and Evaluation

Given the fact that a great number of actors are involved in the SWM, it is important to determine clearly who is doing what, and who should be responsible for what in the provision of SWM. Hence M&E is very important.

The FSWMC will be responsible for monitoring progress against agreed-upon performance indicators. Key elements of M & E may include maintenance of project information and management system to produce quarterly monitoring reports for the FSWMC’s Board, the MLG, the Advisory Committee, as well as the donors, such as the World Bank. It is recommended that the FSWMC hires a specialized consultant to help meet the above needs, including helping prepare management and financial systems. Independent experts can also be contracted out for such activities as technical reviews-procurement reviews, environmental reviews etc., and assessment of stakeholder’s satisfaction with the services provided by the FSWMC.

A sound independent monitoring and evaluation mechanism for the entire SWM operation is needed to assure objectivity and accuracy of the data. As indicated elsewhere in this report, this work can be contracted with a private consulting such as an MA.

5.7 Logical Framework

For the FSWMC to do an effective job, it should also set up key performance targets to measure its degree of success. Appropriate monitoring and careful evaluation should back these targets. They should cover all areas of its activities including administration, operational areas such as collection, transport and disposal, area coverage, especially the poor neighborhood and other criteria. As an incentive, for superior performance, bonuses can be given. Incentive is an important element for a superior work culture. Likewise, penalties should be implemented for poor performance. A Timeline is proposed in Figure A-4: Timeline.

5.8 Outstanding Issues

To establish SWM on sound footing, in addition to the interventions presented earlier, additional strategic interventions involving government, private sector and community initiative need to be undertaken by the FSWMC. Solid waste management is quite complex when viewed in its full scope, including all the links in the chain, such as transportation and disposal. Moreover, the cost of such service often exceeds by far the beneficiaries’ capacity to pay and demands a judicious contribution from various sources of funding. Unlike urban areas in developed countries, Freetown, like many African cities has little or no tax base and suffers from tight financial constraints. In light of this, a number of issues need to be tackled to establish as sustainable SWM system. Also, likely outcomes will also depend on effective partnerships at all levels. These partnerships should involve local organizations such as area municipalities, citizenry, civil society groups, private firms and other actors including international donors. Experience in other countries has shown that the governments have also led effective partnerships. The FSWMC should look into these aspects for its relevance and long-term needs. While it is difficult to list every need, a few the key ones are as follows:

1. Government Directives, Mandates, and Acts of Parliament: These are needed for such items as: passing of an Act by the Sierra Leone’s parliament to help approve the FSWCM, as a legal entity: an (expedited) return of loaned waste management equipment by the SLRA to the FSWMC; transfer of needed personnel (after screening by the FSWMC) from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to the FSWMC; and elimination or minimization of import duties, taxes or custom fees for procurement of the SWM equipment. The last item is crucial to bringing state-of-the-art technologies such as an incinerator(s) for medical and toxic waste management, as well as IT equipment. Activities such as passing of an Act by the Parliament must proceed promptly to facilitate the timely incorporation of the FSWMC.

2. Policy and Legislative Support: Under this aspect, several areas will need priority attention. Included are: (i) government initiated measures to reduce private sector participation risks in SWM; (ii) waste management promotional instruments like pilot operations and demonstration projects, which must also include informal sector and community participation. Similarly, decentralization which can improve efficiencies, overcome shortcomings of the existing system and bring broader political outlets to help create synergies and dynamisms need appropriate framework and policy support; (iii) technical standards and operational requirements for the design, siting and usage of containers as well as landfills and environmental, health and worker safety measures.

3. New Landfill Site: The existing two dumpsites pose serious health, environmental and socio-economic problems to area residents. The need to look for 1-2 landfills sites is pressing. Subsequently, the selected sites need to be developed as a Sanitary Landfills in accordance with sound engineering and environmental principles. The current landfill capacity, in spite of incorporating the proposed improvements is very likely to be run out during the next 3-4 years. Identification, approval including through public hearing and developing a potential site is a costly and time-consuming operation. It is, therefore essential that the FSWMC initiate this process in the first year of its operation. The effort should involve the Environmental Division of the Ministry of Land and Development, the regional authorities, and the community.

4. Abandoned/Derelict Vehicles: No provision currently exists for removal and safe disposal of numerous these vehicles. These vehicles occupy valuable land and host to rodents and pests, in addition to being unsightly. Removal and environmental and economic disposal of these vehicles requires careful planning. At present, there are no steel reclamation facilities. Thus, among other measures, efforts should be made to arouse the interests of the local recycling community through technical and funding assistance.

5. Private Sector Participation: One of the key pillars of a long-term, sustainable system is provided by an active private sector which brings use of commercial principles in to the SWM system. At present, except for a few rudimentary initiatives, overall, given the high risks, there is no private sector participation in the SWM in Freetown. To minimize the risks, the government must provide effective policy and legislative support. In addition, legislative and policy support is also needed for environmental enforcement, cost recovery through user charges and others. In the long run, private sector participation in SWM has helped lower overall costs. The government should give high priority to this item and work closely with the FSWMC

6. Storm Drains and Regular Drains: Currently, many drains in the city are uncovered, encouraging illegal dumping of wastes. While the drains are under the SLRA, their cleaning will be the responsibility of the FSWMC, once it is established. Also, it is recommended that the SLRA take expedited action to all drains, including storm drains, starting with the congested areas. In addition insect spraying need to be done. As an outstanding issue, it will require inter-agency coordination for a well-planned synergistic approach (with the FSWMC) and appropriate budgeting.

7. Sewage Treatment Plant: A sewage treatment plant or system is essential for appropriate treatment of human excreta. Current system is based on the use of a polder and has run out of capacity. Consequently, existing system is unhealthy and poses serious environmental and health dangers especially to residents in the vicinity.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bartone, C.R. 2001. Financial Management of Urban Solid Waste Services. Lessons from a Decade of World Bank Lending. Proceedings of “Partnership in Municipal Solid Waste Management.” Cairo, 10 -12 April 2000

Flintoff, Frank. 1976. “Management of Solid Wastes in Developing Countries.” World Health Organization. New Delhi. Regional Publication South-East Asia, Series No. 1

GOPA 1995 Solid Waste Management Study. Freetown Infrastructure Rehabilitation Project. A German government funded study for Freetown.

Holmes, John R. 1994. Solid Waste Management Decisions in Developing Countries. Director GIS,Waste Services Ltd, Aylesbury, U.K.

Adapted from Tchobanoglous, G.H. Theisen, and R. Eliasson. 1972. Solid Waste: Engineering Principles and Management Issues. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1977 and Brunner, D.R. and D.J. Keller Sanitary Landfill Design and Operations. Washington: US EPA, Publication SW-65.

The World Bank. 1999. What a Waste: Solid Waste Management in Asia. May 1999. Urban Development Sector Unit, East Asia and Pacific Region, The World Bank, Washington DC.

The World Bank. 2000. Health Care Waste Management Guidance Note: The World Bank, Washington, DC. (http://www1.worldbank.org/hnp/Pubs_Discussion/Johannssen%20-%20Health%20Care-whole.pdf)

APPENDIX A

Figure A-1. Ministry of Health and Sanitation Organizational Chart Figure A-2. Organizational Chart Of Ministry Of Youth And Sports (MoYs) Figure A-3. Key Characteristics Of Commonly Used Equipment Figure A-4. Timeline

Table A-1. List of Current Waste Management Equipment at the MoYS Table A-2. List of Current Waste Management Equipment at the MoHS Table A-3. Workshop and Garaged Equipment Needing Significant Repairs or Replacement Table A-4. Current Waste Management Staff at the MoYS Table A-5. Current EHD Staff at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation Table A-6. Workshop and Garaged Equipment Needing Repairs or Replacement Table A-8. Contact List

Figure A-1. Ministry of Health and Sanitation Organizational Chart

Figure A-2. Organizational Chart Of Ministry Of Youth And Sports (MoYs)

Figure A-3. Key Characteristics Of Commonly Used Equipment

Figure A-4. Timeline

Table A-1. List of Current Equipment at the MoYS Item Quantity Operational Out of Operation Tipper trucks 7 2 5 Skip truck 5 3 2 Front end loader 3 NIL 3 Generator 3KVA 1 1 NIL Generator 15KVA 2 NIL 2 Utility vehicle 1 1 Tire pumping machine 4 1 3 Gurloping metal plate cutter 1 NIL 1 Lathe machine 1 NIL 1 Pressure 2 1 1 Grinding drum 1 NIL 1 Power drill 3 1 2 Grinding stone 1 NIL 1 Steel cleaner 2 NIL 2 Grinding machine 2 NIL 2 Compressor (spraying) 3 NIL 3 Bulldozer 1 1 1 Low Bed prime mover 1 NIL 1

Table A-2. List of Current Waste Management Equipment Serial No. Item Quantity Specification 1 Skip Truck Mercedes Benz 12 9000kg Lifting Max 12 CM Capacity Engine- 6 Cylinders 2 Tipper Mercedes Benz 6-8 m3 Tipper space Engine- 6 Cylinders Trans- Double axel GVW- 12-16 tons 3 Front End Loader Caterpillar 2 Engine- 4 or 6 Cylinders 4 Tractors/Caterpillars 12 D6 5 Monitoring vehicles 2 4WD 6 Breakdown vehicle 1 4WD 7 Motorbikes 5 - 8 Water bowzer - 9 35 KVA generator 1 - 10 Air welding plant 1 - 11 Stream cleaner 1 - 12 Air compressor for inflating tires 1 - 13 Assorted mechanical tools 2 sets 6mm - 46mm 14 Tire removal equipment light and heavy duty 1 set - 15 Electric cutter 1 - 16 Hand grounding marline heavy duty 1 - 17 Hand drilling machine heavy duty 1 - 18 Electric battery charger 1 6 - 24 volts 19 Container Dust Bins 3 Bedford or BMC Engine Type 6 Cylinders

Table A-3. Workshop and Garaged Equipment Needing Significant Repairs or Replacement Item No. Descr1ption Quantity 1 Lathe Martine 1 2 Gellotine Plate Cutter 1 3 Standing Electrifier Drillers 2 4 35 KVA generator 1 5 Air compressor 1 6 Air welding plant 1 7 Can hoist 1 8 Electrifier tire removers 2 9 Stream cleaner 1 10 Electrifier cutter 1 11 Beam setter 1 12 Bailing machine 1 13 Weight bridge at Kingtom Landfill 1 14 Water bowzer Bedford 1

Table A-4. Current Waste Management Staff at the MoYS Title Quantity Labor and General Workers Manager and Unit Manager 2 Sweeper 100 Container guards 50 Office cleaner 5 Landfill workers 30 Mobile team 50 Drivers Operator 5 Skip trucks/tipper drivers 12 Drivers 11 Mechanical Engineers/fitters 22 Auto Electricians 3 Mains Electrician 1 Fuel Distributors 2 Welders 6 Tyre repairers 3 Security Office/compound 20 Landfill security 10 Administration Ministry Coordinator 1 Unit Manager 2 Assistant Unit Manager 1 Administrative Secretary 1 Personnel Manager 1 Financial Accountant 1 Day and Night shift coordinators 2 Supervisors 25 Office Typist/Secretary 2 Store Keeper 2

Table A-5. Current EHD Staff at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation No Name Designation Functional Areas 1 Mr. M.S. Ibrahim Chief Health Superintendent Cline Town 2 Mr. T.J. Charles Health Superintendent EHD Worksyard 3 Mr. E.H. Georgestone Senior Sanitary Engineer EHD Worksyard 4 Mr. John Tommy Sanitary Engineer Medical Waste Cline Town 5 Mr. Yusif Dumbuya Mechanical Engineer EHD Worksyard 6 Mr. T.J. Koroma Sanitary Engineer Landfill & Cesspit Emptier Operations 7 Mr. E.B. Deen Health Superintendent EHD Worksyard 8 Mr. A.B.H. Kargbo Health Superintendent Medical Waste Cline Town 9 Mr. W.F. Martyn Health Inspector Medical Waste Cline Town 10 Mr. Tunde Taylor Head Mechanic EHD Worksyard 11 Mr. T.A. Belmoh Account Clerk EHD Worksyard 12 Mr. D.M. Sandi Account Clerk EHD Worksyard 13 Mr. Tamba Fayia P.H. Aide EHD Worksyard 14 Unisa S. Sesay P.H. Aide EHD Worksyard 15 Tamba Lebbie P.H. Aide EHD Worksyard 16 Mariama Jabbie Clerk/Typist EHD Worksyard 17 Nancy Edwin Clerk/Typist EHD Worksyard 18 Kadiatu Kamara Receptionist EHD Worksyard 19 Lahai Kowa Mechanic EHD Worksyard 20 Mr. Cole Store Keeper EHD Worksyard

Table A-6. Key Workshop and Garaged Equipment Needing Repairs or Replacement Sr # Item Total # Oper-ational Out of Order Requirements/Remarks 1 Bulldozer 1 None None Loaned in 2002 to SLRA: Not available to MoYS. 2 Skip Trucks 5 2 5 Operational trucks need new tires and extensive tune up; In-operational need spare parts. Skips Most are badly damaged 3 Front-end Loaders 3 None 3 Need major repairs Low-bed Prime Mover 1 None 1 4 Generator 3KVA 1 1 Needs a tune up and replacement in the near future 5 Generator, 15 KVA 2 None 2 Urgently needed; blackouts necessitate work discontinuity. 6. Utility Vehicle 1 1 None Needs tune up. 7 Tire Pumping Machine 4 1 3 8 Gurlop Metal Plate Cutter 1 None 1 9 Lathe Machine 1 None 1 10 Pressure Machine. 2 1 1 11 Grinding Drum 1 None 1 12 Power Drill 3 1 2 13 Steel Cleaner 2 None 2 Can be Fixed 14 Grinding Stone 2 None 2 Can be Fixed 15 Steel Cleaner 2 None 2 16 Grinding Machine 2 None 2 One can be Fixed 17 Compressor (Spraying) 3 None 3 18 Lathe Martine 1 1 - 19 Gellotine plate cutter 1 1 - 20 Standing electrifier drillers 2 1 1 Can be Repaired 21 35 KVA generator 1 Needs Parts, Expensive to Repair 22 Air compressor 1 1 23 Air welding plant 1 1 24 Can hoist 1 0 1 to be repaired 25 Electrifier tire removers 1 2 out of order, can be repaired 26 Stream cleaner 1 27 Electrifier cutter 1 1 - 28 Beam setter 1 1 - 29 Bailing machine 1 1 - 30 Weight bridge at Kingtom Landfill site 1 - - Out of order. Urgently Needed for charges from users fees 31 Water “Bowze” Bedford grounded 1 - - Grounded: expensive to fix.

Table A-8. Contact List Serial # Name Title Telephone/Email A. SIERRA LEONE WATER COMPANY, P.M.B 42, TOWER HILL FREETOWN 1. Justin A. Musa Director General/Engineer-in-chief 076-610-308 slwc@sierratel.sl

2. Francis Moijue Deputy Director General 076-610-558 fmoijue@hotmail.com

3. Mary James Development Planner/Deputy Director Admin. 076-660-250 jamesmaryus@yahoo.com

4. Joseph Mahayei Water Analyst 030-206-479 jdmahayei@hotmail.com

B. MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS, FREETOWN. 5. Hon’ Dr. Prince Harding Minister Not available 6. Dr. Shamsu Mustapha Technical Coordinator - Transport Sector Project (TSP) Coordination and Monitoring Unit (CMU)/IDP, World Bank 030-234-692 7. Franklin Bassir Environmental Specialist and Coordinator and Monitoring Unit (CMU)/IDP, World Bank Transport Sector Project (TSP) 076-623-083 franklinbassir@yahoo.coms

8. Musa Randy Kabbia Data Analyst Transport Sector Project (TSP) Coordinator and Monitoring Unit (CMU)/IDP, World Bank (Office) 221 237 (Mobile) 030-216-658 kabayz@yahoo.com kabacmu@hotmail.com

9. Albert Lappia Project Officer, Sierra Leone Roads Authority (Office): 220 579, 22 6565 (Cell): 076-688-323 10. El-Hadj I. M. Kabbay Director-General Sierra Leone Roads Authority (Office): 222322 / 220587 (Cell): 076-602-183 slra_dg@sierratel.sl

11. Farrma Tass Thorlu-Bangura Financial Analyst Transport Sector Project (TSP) Coordination and Monitoring Unit (CMU)/IDP, World Bank (Office): 223283 (Home): 272928 (Cell): 076-657-689 tasscmu@hotmail.com C. MINISTRY OF YOUTH AND SPORTS, BISHOP HOUSE, NATIONAL STADIUM, BROOKFIELDS, FREETOWN 12. Hon. Dr. Dennis Bright Minister OF Youth and Sports Ministry 241 640/241391 (Residence) 239 203 Cell: 076 609 444 ayobright1@yahoo.com

13. Haroun Sankoh Coordinator - Solid Waste 076-614-647 14. Sultan Bangura Welfare Officer, NYMCOS 076-631-737 15. Abdul A. Ismail Unit Manager 076-655-347 babyassan@yahoo.com

16. Tunde Taylor Chief Mechanical Engineer 076-697-890 17. Gibrilla K. Bangura Assistant Manager, Waste Mgmt. Unit 076-687-726 D. MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND SANITATION, CLINE TOWN, FREETOWN 18. Dr. Clifford W. Kamara Director of Planning and Information Youyi Building, Freetown. 076-601-494 cwkamara@sierratel.sl cwkamara@hotmail.com

19. John Tommy National Medical Waste Manager 076-612-176 gladtom58@yahoo.com

20. J.G.K. Lebbie Port Health Officer 030-219-578 21. Thomas Amara Assistant Port Health Officer 076-635-065 22. M.S. Ibrahim Environmental Health Manager 076-629-349 23. Tamba J. Charles Health Superintendent In-charge of Liquid Waste Management 076-662-547 24 M.K. Kpevai Senior Health Superintendent, Western area, and Unit Head Environment Inspection Unit 076 - 635 - 065 E. MINISTRY OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, YOUYI BUILDING, FREETOWN 25. Hon. Sidikie Brima Minister (Office): 225922 (Cell): 076-600-760 F. MINISTRY OF LANDS, COUNTRY PLANNING AND THE ENVIRONMENT,YOUYI BUILDING, FREETOWN 26. John Solomon Kamara Principal Environment Officer Environment Protection Department (Office):240355 / 240367 (Cell): 076-668-697 jskamara@yahoo.com

G. CITY COUNCIL OF FREETOWN, 17 WALLACE JOHNSON STREET, FREETOWN 27. Henry Nathaniel Fergusson Chairman, Committee of Management (Mayor) (Office): 223636 28. Akindele P. Williams City Engineer (Office): 225046/227885 (Cell): 076-640-905 H. MINISTRY OF FINANCE MINISTRIAL BUILDING, GEORGE STREET, FREETOWN 29. Sheku Tamu Deputy Financial Secretary (Office) 222211 Fax: 228472/225 826 Cell: 076 64 6057 (Res.) 233037 I. CABINET SECRETARIAT, LEONE HOUSE, 21/23 SIAKA STEVEN STREET, FREETOWN 30. Joseph P. K. Lamin Secretary to the Cabinet Head of the Civil Service (Office): 227891/222994 (Cell): 076-604-535 J. THE WORLD BANK, SIERRA LEONE COUNTRY OFFICE, AFRICANUS HOUSE, 13A HOWE STREET - FREETOWN 31. James Sackey Country Manager (Office): 227555/227488/228377/229138 (Cell): 076-607-854 jsackey@worldbank.org

K. INSTITUTE OF MARINE BIOLOGY AND OCEANOGRAPHY (IMBO), FOURAH BAY COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF SIERRA LEONE, MOUNT AUREOL, FREETOWN 32. Dr. Ernest T. Ndomahina, Ph.D. Director/Marine Environmental Consultant Office: 228580 Cell: 076-613-980 ernest_ndomahina@yahoo.co.uk

L. PRIVATE SECTOR 1. SAWAB CONSTRUCTION COMPANY - 8 EAST STREET, FREETOWN 33. Hon. Kabba Kamara, MP Manager/Director and Member of Parliament (MP) 076-633-889 2. POLYSYNTHETIC INDUSTRIES - 2 BETTS STREET, CLINE TOWN, FREETOWN 34. Ibrahim Jaffer Owner/Recycling Industry for Plastic Not Available 3. SIERRA LEONE BREWERY LIMITED, P.O. BOX 721 35. Ivan Carol Managing Director (Office): 263385/6/7/8 (Cell): 076-603-182 slbl@sierratel.sl carrol@hotmail.com carrol@heineken.com

36. Victor H. O. Sawyer Brewery Manager (Office): 263385/6/7/8 slbl@sierratel.sl vicsandsaw@yahoo.com victorsawyerr@heineken.com

4. ALTERNATIVE USE INTERNATIONAL LIMITED, 843 FINCHLY ROAD, LONDON NW118NA, UK 37. Nicholas P Adams Representative, Garbage Incinerator (for electricity production) UK Mobile 07947 855137 SL Mobile 00232 76675141

TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR THE STUDY

Annex A: Terms of Reference and Scope of Services

SIERRA LEONE INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

TERMS OF REFERENCE COMPONENT IDENTIFICATION URBAN WASTE MANAGEMENT

1.0 BACKGROUND

The Government of Sierra Leone through its Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC) Coordination and Monitoring Unit, wish to carry out a study on improving access to urban waste management services, as a subcomponent of the Infrastructure Development Project (IDP), currently under design. The study will be carried out with financial assistance through a PHRD Grant from the Japanese Government.

The Sierra Leone cities are unable to cope with the deteriorating urban infrastructure, unacceptable level of service delivered by their departments and their weak financial disposition. The IDA-financed FIR project (P002433) provided specific equipped for enhancing collection and disposal of waste in Freetown. However, during the disturbances and the subsequent civil war, nearly all the equipment procured for solid waste management was either diverted to other uses or vandalized. Refuse collection in Freetown, particularly in the low-income communities targeted by FIR project, are currently in a poorer condition than at the beginning of the project. Before the civil war, Freetown had in place a solid waste collection system, established through a bilateral agreement with the German Government. The German team left at the end of the assignment in 1995, and the contract for the local private sectors refuse collectors lapsed after the coup. Refuse collection situation in Sierra Leone remains a serious issue that needs to be addressed.

As an emergency measure, the IDA financed Transport Sector Project (TSP) financed a solid waste collection program for Freetown, Bo and Kenema designed mainly to generate employment, through local contracts. Makeni, the capital city of the Northern Province (Kabala), was not included at that time due to the problem of inaccessibility. The program was implemented by the Sierra Leon Roads Authority (SLRA). Although relatively successful, these service contracts ended in March 2002, and the Ministry of Health and Sanitation continues to be responsible for the management and sustenance of refuse collection and disposal in the country.

This assignment will be carried out under the overall supervision of the Coordinating and Monitoring Unit (CMU) of the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC).

2.0 OBJECTIVE

The objective of this assignment is to recommend and urban waste management component for the city of Freetown, which shall investigate components addressing urban waste management and industrial and toxic waste management - where management is understood to include collection, treatment, disposal and overall management of waste management activities.

3.0 SCOPE OF SERVICES

The consultant shall work closely with the Freetown City Council, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Municipalities, donors and other stakeholders in the sector to carry out the following tasks:

1. Analysis of the Situation

Solid Waste Management The consultant shall revie3w the recent and existing solid waste collection and disposal practices and programs as well as past and planned projects to improve solid waste management in the city of Freetown. Current regulations shall also be review, in addition to community participation in waste management activities including current levels of payments for services.

The efficiency (equipment base, staff collection rates. Etc.) of the private company currently responsible for garbage collection shall be assessed in connection with the estimated domestic waste generation and types of waste produced in the different neighbourhoods of the city.

Industrial and Toxic Waste Management The consultant shall identify the major producers of industrial and toxic wastes (both solid and liquid), including health facilities, as well as the types and volumes of waste produced and the current treatment and disposal practices. A review will be made of existing discharge requirements/regulations for wastes and for disposal of other wastes.

2. Technical Options

Solid Waste Management Options for collection, treatment and disposal of the waste will be reviewed. The consultant shall also review the conditions of existing designated disposal sites and assess the need for improvements in management or for new management arrangements in the next 10 to 15 years. The positive and negative environmental impact should be taken into consideration.

Proposals will be made on options for door to door collection, primary collection, use of containers etc. for each neighbourhood based on the volumes of waste generated, the willingness to pay for collection of garbage (information from the sanitation survey), access etc. Recommendations will be made on the types (and numbers) of equipment required for collection of waste from the different sites.

Industrial and Toxic Waste Management The consultant shall, as appropriate, propose pretreatment/treatment of industrial effluents or solid wastes in order for them to comply with the regulations and good practice. T he possibility of treating certain types of waste with domestic wastewater/sludge will also be considered. Where regulations do not exist, the consultant shall propose detailed TORs for these to be prepared for the major waste streams.

3. Proposals for Improvements in Institutional and Financing Arrangements

Solid Waste Management Proposal shall be made on the possible financing mechanisms for the different types of collection services and for management of the disposal site(s).

The need for additional private sector (and NGO) involvement for collection, treatment and disposal of waste shall be considered, as well as the needs for community mobilization, marketing and promotion activities.

Industrial and Toxic Waste Management The consultant shall make recommendations on the personnel, budgetary and equipment requirements in order to better control industrial waste discharges and their impact on the environment. The consultant will also propose mechanisms by which industries may pay for any services they receive for treatment and disposal of their wastes.

4. Implementation Strategy

Solid Waste Management and Industrial and Toxic Waste Management Describe project components and propose an implementation strategy and investment plan that will result in improved services for the city. The solutions shall be applicable to the conditions of the moment, while the implementation time frame shall be for a 4 years and 10 years plan, taking account of constraints to implementation and the need to identify quick-win initial initiatives. The strategy shall also include provision for ongoing planning and development of services during the plan period.

The descr1ption of the project components shall include, but not necessarily limited to: (i) estimated cost and timing; (ii) institutional arrangements for subcomponent implementation and monitoring, including coordination with other projects; (iii) draft subcomponent logical framework, including performance targets and indicators; (iv) outstanding issues and potential covenants and conditionalities to include in the project proposal document.

4.0 REPORT AND OTHER DELIVERABLES

The Consultant shall prepare and submit the following reports (all in English) to the Client and IDA.

Draft Component Design Report: 2 copies of Draft Final Report, inclusive of all outputs from Tasks 1 & 2, to be submitted to the CMU and 2 copies of the same to IDA, 5 weeks after signature of the contract. The consultant shall present this report with a verbal briefing.

Final Component Design Report: 2 copies of Final Report in hard copy and in diskettes to be submitted to CMU and 2 copies to IDA not later than 1 week after receiving comments from the CMU and IDA.

All the Reports shall include an executive summary.

To facilitate IDA and CMU review, all the Reports shall be transmitted electronically, as well as in hard copy.

All documents shall be prepared in accordance to the World Bank Guidelines. Two (2) copies of each of the reports shall be submitted by the Consultant directly to the International Development Association (IDA) for the attention of:

The Task Team Leader, FTTR, Africa Region, 1818 H Street, N.W. Washington D.C. 204333 Fax (202) 473-4048

5.0 EXTENT OF THE SERVICES

Total key staff inputs required is estimated at one and half (1.5) man-months. The Draft Final Report shall be presented and discussed in-country with CMU.

The duration of the assignment is estimated at 2 months, including mobilization period following signature of contract. The Consultant shall have at a minimum the following qualifications.

Urban Waste Management Specialist: Graduate qualifications in sanitation engineering or related field from a recognized institution. Proven experience of not less than 15 years in urban waste and industrial and toxic waste management planning and implementation. Proven knowledge and familiarity with environmental, social and cost recovery issues associated with urban waste management. Experience in the region and Sierra Leone preferred.

The consultant shall be fluent (written, spoken and reading) in the contract language, English. The consultant shall also be fully computer literate.

6.0 FORM OF CONTRACT FOR THE SERVICES

The services are to be provided under a standard IDA contract for small assignment by lump sum payments. Twenty (20) percent payment will be due upon signing of contract, Fifty (50) percent at delivery of the Draft Component Report and the balance will be due upon submittal of the Final Component Design Report, duly finalized to accommodate IDA and SALWACO/CMU comments.

7.0 DATA, LOCAL SERVICES AND FACILITIES TO BE PROVIDED BY THE GOVERNMENT

Government will arrange for cooperation with Government ministries, departments and other agencies required for carrying out the work, liaison as necessary for this purpose, and will give the Consultant full access to all information required for the completion of the studies.

Subject: Re: World Bank Report: Solid Waste Management in Freetown
From: KLA
To: All
Date Posted: 14:35:45 01/21/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 164.82.85.3

Message:

"Since May 2003, the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS) is responsible for managing the city’s wastes. The transfer of solid waste management to the Ministry of Youth & Sports (MoYS) also created an ideal enabling environment to partially tackle unemployment, drug abuse, and the homelessness of city’s vast numbers of unemployed youth. For collection, the MoYS has assigned the responsibility to one of its (non-professional) branches, called “National Youth Multi-purpose Cooperative Society (NYMCOS). Earlier, the NYMCOS youths were engaged in mostly voluntary services in the cleaning of strategic public places, streets, drainages, and sidewalks."...WORLD BANK REPORT

"Government wishes to inform the General Public about its concern for keeping the City of Freetown clean and about the mounting garbage all over the city. In order to arrest this situation, Government has decided to transfer the responsibility of garbage collection in the city of Freetown from the Freetown City Council to the Ministry of Local Government and Community development. Government is constrained to take this action because of the inability of the Freetown City Council to effectively carry out this responsibility." .....GOSL

Some of us grew up in a FREETOWN that had its quirks, but was cleaned on a regular basis. Remember the garbage trucks near Regent Square Municipal School?

Bottom line, the City must be clean, do not care how it is done. Hope the major players read the World Bank
report and use it as road map in taking this Historical city to where it belongs.

TSTM
XX

Subject: Re: World Bank Report: Solid Waste Management in Freetown
From: UNDERSTAND
To: All
Date Posted: 16:33:05 01/21/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
This report was done before the local bov't elections. After the local gov't elections, the gabage collection was thransferred to the Freetown City Council in 2004 or early 2005.

Subject: Re: World Bank Report: Solid Waste Management in Freetown
From: THANKS
To: All
Date Posted: 16:46:09 01/21/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Bra,

You men KLA? E dae fen way for defend en failed krio mayor. The man talk big big talk before e become mayor. You should have read his articles on Olu Gordon's Peep Magazine. Promises upon promises. As soon as I become Mayor, the British gov't has agreed to give me 20 trucks, the German government will giv me 15 because of the business connections with these countries. Natin de boy nor able do. KLA, stop making excuses for your man, the gabbage collection was transfered to his council about 24 months ago.

Subject: Re: World Bank Report: Solid Waste Management in Freetown
From: BRA ENVIABLE
To: All
Date Posted: 22:18:33 01/20/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-mtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 64.12.117.8

Message:
WOW. This posting beat Bambay Lans Kamara inn tem.
Those who knew Africa Online will doubtless remember Amie N.L.L. Olenga

Subject: Sex Scandal Rocks Ngozi Okonjo Iweala’s Marriage!
From: IWAELA
To: All
Date Posted: 13:59:40 01/20/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
BY Thesmoking Gun

DATE : Friday, 19 January 2007

In a brazen shakedown scheme targeting the husband of a former Nigerian foreign minister, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, a Maryland woman extorted $185,000 in hush money from the man by threatening to go public with details of their sexual affair, federal investigators charge.

Queen Nwoye, a 28-year-old nurse, was accused in an indictment filed today in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. of extorting Ikemba Iweala, a 59-year-old neurosurgeon who is married to Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who until last August was Nigeria's finance minister. Prior to that appointment, the Harvard-educated diplomat worked for three years as the African country's finance minister.

Okonjo-Iweala, 52, is currently a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution. An FBI affidavit--a copy of which you'll find below--details the alleged extortion plot, which began early last year when Dr. Iweala, who works at Washington's Providence Hospital, received a call from Nwoye. According to FBI Agent William Ronacher, Iweala, pictured at right, acknowledged having a year-long affair with Nwoye in 2002-3, adding that they remained "social friends" after their "intimate relationship" ended.

In a February 2006 phone conversation, Nwoye asked Iweala to speak with her cousin, whom she identified as "Ernest Ufondu." In a series of subsequent phone calls spanning two months, "Ufondu" repeatedly demanded money from Iweala in return for his and Nwoye's silence. In fact, "Ufondu" was actually Nwoye's boyfriend Adriane Osuagwu. Iweala initially agreed to make two $20,000 payments.

A week after delivering the second installment (which he turned over to Nwoye in cash in the Providence Hospital parking lot), Iweala received a call form his ex-lover. She "told him that she had not had sex in a while and that she wanted to see him," according to the FBI affidavit.

Amazingly, Dr. Iweala agreed to a rendezvous with his extorter later that evening. The pair, in Nwoye's car, drove to a secluded area of the hospital parking lot and disrobed. As they "were engaged in sex, or about to engage in sex," an unknown man approached the auto and began taking photos of the naked duo. Not surprisingly, the brain surgeon immediately began receiving new demands from Osuagwu, who told him, "What happened tonight? That was a terrible mistake. Now I have the photos. You have to pay money to stop all these things." Iweala paid an additional $145,000 before contacting authorities about the scheme.

In subsequent phone conversations monitored by the FBI, Nwoye told Iweala the explicit photos "would not go anywhere without her support" and claimed that all the money she received was forwarded to "Ufondu." Nwoye, charged with a felony count of conspiracy to commit extortion, is free on a personal recognizance bond and scheduled for a February 15 federal court appearance.

Originally published by TheSmokinggun.com

____________________

Subject: Guinea...........!!!!!
From: KLA
To: All
Date Posted: 13:54:05 01/20/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 164.82.85.3

Message:
Ethnic Groups:
a) The Malinke (30% of the country’s population) enjoyed a special status in Guinea from the colonial period until the death of long-time leader Sekou Touré in 1984. Touré led a repressive regime in Guinea, and resentment between Malinke and other ethnic groups grew. Touré, though faced with several coup attempts, managed to keep ethnic violence in check during his tenure as president.
b) The Fulani (Peuhl) (30%) are the most dispersed people in West Africa. Their main concentrations are in Senegal, Guinea, Mali, and Nigeria. Based on life-style and occupations, two sub-groups are distinguished: mainly Muslim Fulani who lead a simple nomadic life and rarely intermarry with other peoples and Fulani who have settled in cities or villages and have intermarried with other ethnic groups. Many nomadic Fulanis have settled in the Guinea Highlands.
c) The Soussou (20%) have become the dominant ethnopolitical group in Guinea since the rise to power of Lasana Conte in 1984. Since Conte came to power after the death of Touré, the Soussou have dominated the majority of high-level positions within the civilian government and the military.

Risk Assessment
In lieu of the current political situation in Guinea, the Soussou are unlikely to engage in future rebellion or protest. As the advantaged group, they face no restrictions or repression, the government represents their interests, and it is in their best interests to maintain the status quo. If their current situation changes, democratic reforms take hold, and Conte either loses power or is forcibly removed from office, the Soussou may quickly lose their favored position in society. In addition, whichever group takes control may wish to punish the Soussou for their years of domination. Guinea as a whole and the Soussou must also be concerned with the situation in Sierra Leone, and the effect that the influx of hundreds of thousands of refugees will have on Guinean society. At present, the opposition groups appear committed to democratic reform, which hopefully will prevent ethnic violence, but the long term stability of the Soussouian state of affairs in Guinea is unknown.

Analytic Summary
The Soussou are found in the coastal areas of Guinea (REGIONAL = 1), and the majority have not ventured far (GROUPCON = 3) beyond their traditional homelands (TRADITN = 1). Beyond a different language (LANG = 1), the Soussou are very similar to the other large ethnic groups in Guinea – the Malinke and the Fulani (CUSTOM, BELIEF, and RACE = 0). Since the group holds an advantaged position in society due to the ethnicity of the president, the Soussou are organized around their ethnicity and are cohesive...."

GLOBAL ALUMINA is a company that will use the vast bauxite resources of the Republic of Guinea to produce alumina for sale to the global aluminum industry. Global Alumina will assist Guinea to improve its citizens' quality of life by unlocking the country's most abundant and valuable natural resource.""

OIL

About the Hyperdynamics
'Hyperdynamics is committed to providing energy for the future by exploring for new sources of oil and gas both domestically and internationally. The company currently is exploring offshore Republic of Guinea and holds the largest exploration license in West Africa, covering 31,000 square miles. ".....hypd

31,000 SQ MILES is an area larger than Sierra Leone.The company involved has spent close to 30 million dollars on preliminary exploration work.

With so much money on the Table,why bother with an ailing President like Lanssana Conteh and his Ethnic Mafia? See how fortune seekers make things happen!!

The GOSL may have to move a little faster, on matters of defense and Humanitarian issues.

TSTM
xx

Subject: RE: Support For the Gambian Leader on HIV/AIDS cure.
From: musa Kalawa
To: All
Date Posted: 11:57:44 01/20/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: adsl-69-230-196-154.dsl.irvnca.pacbell.net at 69.230.196.154

Message:
I have been following the trend in development with regards to the Gambian president claim to cure HIV/AIDS and Asthma. The man has continuously claim to have cure some patients before making these claims.
Can he be given fair chance to justify his claim with the United Nations?

Below is a link from AllAfrica web site, so read on

Subject: Gambian Dictator Says He Has Cure for AIDS, Treatments Under
From: COMEDIAN
To: All
Date Posted: 10:31:47 01/20/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Gambian Dictator Says He Has Cure for AIDS, Treatments Underway
01/19/07 - Yahya Jammeh, President, The Gambia







Banjul, The Gambia

H

ave you been diagnosed with the HIV AIDS virus? Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh says he has found the cure.

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh
As the world’s scientists and medical doctors continue to scout for an HIV/AIDS cure, which they have not been able to find for the past 20 years, The Gambian leader President Yahya Jammeh has disclosed that he has the cure for the HIV/Aids pandemic as well as asthma.

Today at State House, the Gambian leader began treatment of HIV/Aids patients. His treatment of asthma patients will start on Saturday. Below is the full text of the Gambian leader’s statement on the cure of the two diseases, delivered at State House at a ceremony attended by the Vice-President, Secretaries of States and many dignitaries.

“I call you to this meeting and maybe you will wonder why I called you including the two Ambassadors from Cuba and Taiwan. I called the two Ambassadors and of course Rose Clair Charles because you have a direct link with the health delivery system of this country. You know that Cuba is a key partner in our health sector and Taiwan is the force behind the Medical Team in The Gambia. This is a follow up to what I said on GRTS that I will now fully participate in the treatment of certain critical cases.

Since 1994, there are many Gambians who know what I can do. A lot of people have been treated in silence or under conditions of strict confidentiality .One would wonder why I start giving medicine to the public and all of a sudden stop. I have been having a lot of queries about that even after we went to the RVTH on Saturday. People were saying, “Well, the President. This is what he does. He will introduce very effective medicines and all of a sudden it will die down and we will not have access to him.”

I had to work on instructions. I don’t have the mandate to do it publicly in great numbers. I was only restricted to a small number so as to be able to prove to people that what I say is what I can do before I have the permission to do it publicly.

I am not speculating on my medicine. There are living witnesses to what my medicine can do. As far as I am concerned it takes only five minutes to cure asthma. I have other medicinal herbs that can take care of a number of illnesses. One of it was the one that was sold publicly at the July 22 Square and the Serrekunda Police Station. But of course, it has to stop at a point because I don’t have the mandate to go beyond that.

I now have the mandate to cure people publicly under strict conditions that I have to abide by otherwise I pay the price.

Now I have the mandate to publicly treat all the diseases on condition that the patient will be treated publicly. In fact, the first and the most important condition is that the person must be diagnosed by a medical practitioner or a medical institution. I am not authorised to treat anybody who just feels sick without a doctor’s confirmation. I can treat asthma and HIV/Aids and the cure is a day’s treatment. Within three days the person should be tested again and I can tell you that he/she will be negative. After the treatment, they have to go to the RVTH for a test again. As I said, I will not treat anybody who is not diagnosed as asthmatic or a HIV/Aids patient by a doctor.

I don’t want to give my medicine to a wrong person.” So the reason why I called you is that I have to work with a team of doctors that I can trust. Doctors who will not sabotage my treatment. That does not in anyway mean that I will give them the medicine. These doctors would make sure that the patients abide by the instructions. If I give you the medicine with instructions on how to go about it and you go and do something contrary to that and you turn out to be positive ,don’t blame me. I will not give you names but it is true. It is not a treatment that I speculate on. I am not doing it for money or popularity. The mandate I have is that HIV/Aids cases can be treated on Thursdays. That is the good news and the bad news is that I cannot treat more than ten patients every Thursday. There is nothing I can do about it and if I go beyond that I will have to pay the price.

Percentage of Adults infected with AIDS by Country.
For asthma, I have to choose between Saturday and Friday. I am also not authorized to treat more than 100 people. I am also not authorized to treat anybody who does not produce a diagnostic paper of asthma or HIV/Aids. One will asked what the Cuban and Taiwanese ambassadors are doing here. The aim is to share the treatment with them because in Taiwan traditional medicine are used. The asthma medicine can be mass produced and packaged and exported to them. The one on HIV/Aids cannot be mass produced because I am restricted to ten patients only on every Thursday and I cannot go beyond that. I want to have a team of three doctors for asthma and HIV/Aids. I want you to select ten HIV/Aids patients: five males and five females for Thursday.

The conditions should be explained to them before they come because if any of them backs out, you cannot replace the one that has backed out. They can eat before coming but they should not eat anything that is oily. The medicine will be given to them in the morning as a preliminary and after, they can eat and in the evening they take it again. Once that is done, they cannot eat anything else the following morning. They may be hungry and thirsty but they have to bear it and that is why they need a doctor to monitor them. Once they have taken the medicine, they should not eat anything no matter what happens till the following day.

Now with regards to asthma treatment, that is the easiest part. When they are coming for treatment in the morning, they should not eat anything that has pepper or seafood when they take the medicine, for four hours they should not eat anything. After that they can eat anything except something that contains oil or seafood. We want to see how we can work with the RVTH to see where these people can be kept until the following morning.With regards to asthma treatment, there is no need to keep them. They can go for six months, without taking anything that is alcoholic. With regards to HIV/Aids, they should be kept at a place that has adequate toilets facilities because they can be going to toilet every five minutes.

Anybody who says he will not be treated publicly should stay away because I have to fulfill the conditions and I will not take risks for anybody.

I am not a witch doctor and in fact you cannot have a witch doctor. You are either a witch or a doctor

Subject: JUVENILE JUSTICE IN SIERRA LEONE
From: Olu Beckley
To: All
Date Posted: 08:19:56 01/20/07 ()
Email Address: mariamab@aol.com
Entered From: at 65.117.246.204

Message:
NEW YORK TIMES
December 24, 2006, Sunday
By MICHAEL WINES (NYT); Foreign Desk
For Young Offenders, Justice as Impoverished as Africa

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Set in a wasteland of derelict buildings and furrowed alleys, the Kingtom Remand Home for young lawbreakers here was itself a dilapidated mess, until British donors renovated it in November. Now it boasts a new roof, freshly plastered walls, refurbished dorms and a coat of Kelly-green paint — all in all, a refuge far better than Freetown’s mean streets.

Yet the new Kingtom houses all of four teenage inmates. Fourteen others escaped in October, mostly, the home’s matron said, because there was not enough food. Nobody stopped them because the sole guard was on his deathbed. No one was called to replace him.
Across sub-Saharan Africa, where 350 million young people often subsist amid poverty, orphanhood and separation from their parents, running afoul of the law is a fact of life. So are places like the Kingtom Remand Home.

Juvenile justice here is, in almost every sense, an oxymoron. This region’s nations endorse international norms for fairness and humanity, employ dedicated staff members and benefit from foreign donations, yet Africa’s juvenile-justice systems routinely, almost blithely, deliver injustice and brutality instead.
In even a cursory review of child justice in Sierra Leone and three other African nations, a visitor found children locked up with adult criminals in a medieval prison; others recounted their weeks in police-station pens barely bigger than closets. Children languished in rehabilitation centers with little food, few beds, no activities, not even electricity. Some have stayed well beyond their sentences, simply because there is no money to send them home.

One child said he had been locked naked in a cell for three days with five adults who beat him and took his food; another was in his fourth year in an adult prison, awaiting trial, without ever seeing a judge.
Boys faced years in detention for offenses as minor as stealing a phone or having sex with a girlfriend. Girls bought protection from the law by giving themselves to corrupt policemen. Again and again, children said they had been beaten and robbed by police officers who arrested them, jailers who imprisoned them or inmates who shared their cells.
Many nations face a fundamental problem: millions of children lack birth certificates. Children nearing legal adulthood, usually age 17, are difficult to tell from adults, while adult offenders often claim to be juveniles. Hardened by such deception, officials often regard all but obvious children as adults, and treat them accordingly.

Reforms also face a cultural divide. The global child rights standards adopted by African parliaments trickle down sluggishly to villages, where the concept of children’s rights can be a curiosity. Harsh discipline frequently is the norm. In Sierra Leone, more than one in five children recently surveyed by Unicef said they had experienced severe physical punishment at home.

Sierra Leone, among the world’s least developed nations, bars children under age 10 from being held responsible for a crime; in Uganda, the minimum is 12, the age urged by the United Nations. In some American states, it is as low as 6. Similarly, 31 African nations prohibit sentencing juveniles to life without parole, as the United Nations convention dictates. In the United States, 27 states mandate life sentences for juveniles who commit selected crimes.

After a guard at the Kingtom Remand Home beat a young inmate to death two years ago, hiding his body in a plastic bag, Sierra Leone promised widespread changes. But while the government has a justice plan and support from British donors, there is no one at the Justice Ministry responsible for juvenile justice.

At the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs — an agency for five million people — the annual budget is $250,000. Child-justice spending is a sliver of that. There are few social workers, few probation officers, few lawyers and few judges — fewer still trained in children’s rights.
“How can you have law students or proper judges trained,” Mr. Cappelaere of Unicef asked, “if you don’t have a proper law program in your university?”
Boys Among Men

Saidu, a 14-year-old with the oversize eyes of a younger child, is one of the four boys who did not flee the Kingtom home in Freetown, though he had reason. Saidu is a murderer. His is a cautionary tale of what happens even when most of the system’s protections for children — defense lawyers, a separate juvenile court and a probation officer — are in place. The victim was 15. He argued with Saidu at a theater, then beat him up to the mocking chants of onlookers. Humiliated, Saidu ran home, found a knife and returned. As his tormentor whipped him with a belt, Saidu said, he shoved the knife into the boy’s chest.

Once, such children would have been sent to Pademba Road Prison, a malevolent 60-year-old Freetown dungeon. But there, the toilets are plastic buckets, the holding cells are foul and the howling crush of prisoners seems, at times, to verge on riot. The government has barred juveniles from its cells.
So Saidu was sent to Kingtom. On a recent steamy morning, he was taken to Magistrate Bankole Shyllon, Sierra Leone’s only juvenile-court judge, to be arraigned. “I understand the facilities at Kingtom home are not what they should be, and there have been several escapes,” the prosecutor said. “I would be very concerned if we had another.” Prohibition or not, he said, Saidu should be sent to Pademba Road.

Saidu’s lawyer — a rarity, hired by his parents — protested. Any boy imprisoned there must be shielded from adult inmates, he argued. Magistrate Shyllon was not convinced. “I would not advise them where to put their own offenders,” he said. “I will send him to Pademba Road,” he added. “Hopefully, they will see that he is a child". Saidu dropped to his seat, sobbing. He went to the prison that afternoon.
The next day, Ibrahim Jawara, a probation officer for the Ministry of Social Welfare, pleaded Saidu’s case before Pademba Road’s officer in charge.
“He’s 14 years old,” Mr. Jawara said. “Are you supposed to keep him with hardened criminals?”
“No,” said the officer, clearly pained. “But we have 960 prisoners here in a facility that was built for 324. We don’t have the facilities.”

Saidu was far from the only child in Pademba Road. At a visitor’s request, prison guards assembled perhaps 80 inmates who claimed to be underage. Some clearly were not, but others were indisputably youngsters: Alpha Jalloh, a 14-year-old sentenced to 18 months for theft; James, 14, doing four months for stealing a cellphone; and Alhaji, 14, who seemed uncertain of his offense, but complained of having to fend for himself against older, stronger inmates.
“I don’t have anybody to fight for me,” he said.
Saidu was jailed in Cell 2, perhaps 8 feet by 10 feet. His cellmates were a bank-fraud artist and a convicted murderer. The murderer, Joseph Bellon, 27, seemed most concerned about him.
“He didn’t eat any food last night,” Mr. Bellon said. “He’s really traumatized,” he added. “He’s a young boy.”

In an interview, Magistrate Shyllon said he had studied justice in Canada and Britain. He knows, he said, how Western critics view sending a 14-year-old to such a prison. “This is Sierra Leone,” he said. “Nobody spoke about human rights in England in the 1970s, when they were putting people in overcrowded prisons. Do you want me to leave an alleged aggravated burglary to be out of prison because cells are overcrowded? Let him be overcrowded. But solve the overcrowding.”
Although the child rights legislation in some countries, like Uganda, is a model for the continent, the justice system matches its ideals only sporadically, wherever fortune has placed money, a caring government official or, perhaps, a program by a children’s charity. Seldom do the fates converge.
That, say experts like Mr. Cappelaere, is the problem. Western-style justice systems are supposed to deliver equal and humane treatment but often get bogged down in Africa by cost and complexity. Many juvenile offenses might be better handled by traditional justice practices, which focus less on punishment than on apologies and compensation for victims, some experts argue.

Traditional justice is not ideal: a child rapist, for instance, might expiate his sin by marrying his victim and paying a dowry to her parents. The best system, experts say, would blend Western human rights values with traditional resolutions.
But such systems could take decades to establish. For now, the focus is on plugging the holes in the existing ones. In Lira, Uganda, the state prison has set aside a dorm for boys — spartan, but freshly painted and clean. Amid Africa’s often-brutal prisons, it is an island of civility. It is only an island. Among the dorm’s 60 or so boys is Otim, an orphan accused of murdering a 23-year-old man. Otim is 17. The murder occurred in 2002, when he was 13. He said he had been in prison since then. He has yet to see a lawyer.
Otim claims he was framed by his uncle, who coveted the 12-acre plot Otim’s parents left him. “I think I will be free because there’s nothing wrong I have done,” he said. But, he added: “I am still waiting to be tried. I don’t know why I have not been tried.”
Neither do his jailers.
“Well, that’s a problem for the government, really,” said the prison’s duty officer. “There’s nothing we can say about that.”

Subject: Will Golley suffer the same fate as Foday Sankoh ?
From: Concord Times
To: All
Date Posted: 01:11:14 01/20/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac837ba4.ipt.aol.com at 172.131.123.164

Message:
Will Golley suffer the same fate as Sankoh?

Sam Kargbo 25/8/2006

Recently, Richard Dicker, the Director of the International Justice Programme at Human Rights Watch (HRW) in America , made a rather poignant statement about the former Liberian President, Charles Taylor, who is now in The Hague awaiting trial for alleged war crimes. Dicker said that although his organisation was strongly opposed to Taylor being tried in The Hague instead of Freetown , there was a positive advantage in the relocat1on of the trial because Taylor would have easy access to medical care.Dicker said: "Charles Taylor is entitled to and should receive high quality medical care for the period of his detention awaiting and during trial. It would be a source of enormous concern if Mr. Taylor's health was neglected while he's in detention awaiting trial."
The fact that Dicker sees a positive advantage in Taylor 's removal from Freetown must be viewed critically. Is he implying that prison conditions in Sierra Leone are not up to standard and that prisoners' health are at risk because of poor medical services? This would seem to be the case.It is in this light that we come to the case of Omrie Golley who has been charged with treason for allegedly plotting to overthrow the SLPP government. Golley's health is deteriorating fast as a result of the appalling conditions at Pademba Road Prison.

We are not interested in discussing the merits or demerits of the case. What we are interested in is the humanitarian aspect. Golley's lawyers have failed to get bail for their client who is in need of immediate medical attention. Given the poor conditions at Pademba Road , if Golley does not get treatment soon, he could well die.Golley's lawyers are calling for better medical treatment for their client because there is only one doctor for 900 prisoners at Pademba Road . How could it be possible for sick prisoners to get proper medical attention in such a situation? It is not surprising that prisoners continue to die due to lack of proper health care.One notable detainee at Pademba Road who died as a result of his incarceration was Foday Sankoh, leader of the Revolutionary United Front. He died in July 2003 in hospital after complications arose out of the stroke he had suffered earlier. Sankoh's Senegalese wife, Fatou Mbaye Sankoh, was convinced that her husband would not have died then if he had received proper medical attention.This is the same situation Golley has found himself. Ironically, Golley used to be close to Sankoh, having been a spokesman for the RUF. Are we right to think that the powers that be are deliberately placing similar obstacles in the way of Golley for him to suffer the same fate as Sankoh?We hope not. But the cavalier attitude in which the court has handled the bail issue does not tell well for the justice system in Sierra Leone . After all, it is the duty of the authorities to ensure that apart from making sure that Golley has a fair trial, he should also “receive high quality medical care for the period of his detention awaiting and during trial,” as HRW's Dicker put it in the case of Taylor.

However, it is clear that the Golley bail issue is causing concern not just in Sierra Leone but also abroad. The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office have made several representations to the government but these appear to have fallen on deaf ears.UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his last report on Sierra Leone to theSecurity Council, said that Golley's case appeared to have been politically motivated. This was one of the many interventions that the UN has made on behalf of Golley since he was arrested in January this year. During his visit to Sierra Leone last month, Annan brought up Golley's case during discussions with President Kabbah but nothing came out of this.The problem with this recalcitrance on the part of the government is that it does not have a good record when it comes to prison deaths. Quite a few Sierra Leoneans who have knowingly or unknowingly tangled with this government have ended up dead.Take, for example, Conrad Roy. He was a journalist with a reputation for fairness and objectivity and someone who lived for his job. But when the Nigerians ousted the AFRC in 1998 he was arrested and sent to Pademba Road where he died.

Another who suffered a similar fate was Abdul Salami Williams, who served as Secretary of State for Labour under the AFRC. By the time he was released from prison by the SLPP government, Williams was in dire need of medical attention and when his German ex-wife attempted to get him out of Sierra Leone for urgent medical attention, the government refused to allow him to travel. Needless to say, he died from medical complications brought about by his imprisonment at Pademba Road .The recent death of the Chief Immigration Officer, Gloria Newman-Smart, is another example of how failure to provide proper medical care could turn out to be fatal. Ms Newman-Smart, who had a medical condition, also died as a result of complications brought about by her detention at Pademba Road .Local human rights groups, such as the New Alliance Foundation, have regularly pointed out the folly of the government's inaction over Golley's health concerns. The government might argue that the matter is now in court and that it is down to the judge to decide whether or not to allow bail forGolley. But we all know that this government does intervene in the judicial process when it sees it fit to do sot.

Take the case of Harry Yansaneh, the editor of For Di People newspaper, who died a year ago as a result of a beating he received from assailants associated with a Member of Parliament representing the SLPP. Nothing has been done to bring the culprits to justice.This prompted the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) to issue a statement recently calling for justice to prevail in Yansaneh's case. "It is outrageous that one year after our colleague's death, the state appears to have dropped this case. An official judicial inquest found that Yansaneh died as the result of a brutal beating, and a ruling party parliamentarian was implicated in the crime," said the CPJ's Africa Programme Coordinator, Julia Crawford."A serious attack on a journalist should not be allowed to go unpunished, especially if it contributed to his death," Crawford said in a statement marking the first anniversary of Yansaneh's death.

So, it is obvious that even though the government is doing its best in terms of democracy, there is a huge deficit when it comes to respect for human rights. It does not augur well for Kabbah. What sort of legacy does he want to leave behind when he steps down from power next year: a regime that was impervious to human rights considerations?

Subject: Re: Will Golley suffer the same fate as Foday Sankoh ?
From: Ee Bayeh Bisin
To: All
Date Posted: 07:43:25 01/20/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cpe-69-206-234-17.nyc.res.rr.com at 69.206.234.17

Message:
Golley, Sankoh, Charles Taylor,Milosovich, Norman and Saddamm are classified under the category of Simple Criminals

Posturing as Political Wannabees..

Any person who gains mileages or fame and Power for personal Gratification at the expense of innocent Lives are SCUMS OF

THE EARTH WHO DESRVE THE WORST FORMS OF RETRIBUTION OR DEMISE!

Were it not for Political hurdles Like The Lome Accords Most of their Likes existing in our Communities Today would have Long EXPIRED!

Subject: Re: Will Golley suffer the same fate as Foday Sankoh ?
From: M. Alieu Iscandari Esq
To: All
Date Posted: 13:46:10 01/20/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
But wait my friend. The true measure of justice in any society is how it treats those amongst us who are considered despicable. What say you?

Subject: Re: Will Golley suffer the same fate as Foday Sankoh ?
From: Waraba
To: All
Date Posted: 13:57:12 01/20/07 ()
Email Address: futatoro@gmail.com
Entered From: adsl-75-21-40-123.dsl.pltn13.sbcglobal.net at 75.21.40.123

Message:
Alieu! Don't Say that Again!
You do not want the people to vote for BEREWA(despicable)
Waraba

Subject: HINGA NORMAN IS DEAD
From: JAMES HINDOWA SOWA
To: All
Date Posted: 17:53:46 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 38.119.107.81

Message:
Reports reaching us indicates that Kabbah has instructed his Islamisc Alqueda friends in senegal to inject Norman with a poisonous substance. Norman has been injected, and he is now unconcious. The family both at home and abroad are watching and monitoring this sad event. I have just spoken to Sam Foray and Kathos Mattai.

Kabbah and Salone will pay for killing our hero. This is the saddest day of my life. Kabbah has finally killed our hero.

Subject: Re: HINGA NORMAN IS DEAD
From: Truthful
To: All
Date Posted: 03:53:14 01/20/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-129-164-0.range86-129.btcentralplus.com at 86.129.164.0

Message:
Kabbah, Al-Qaeda, Senegal, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
You are just cheap and petty.

Subject: Re: HINGA NORMAN IS DEAD
From: Truth
To: All
Date Posted: 18:00:20 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-129-137-151.range86-129.btcentralplus.com at 86.129.137.151

Message:
A very expensive joke, if what you are saying is untrue.

Subject: Re: AND MAY HE ROT IN HELL
From: GAMANGA
To: All
Date Posted: 18:02:15 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
GOOD RIDDANCE TO THAT SOB

Subject: Re: AND MAY HE ROT IN HELL
From: Truth
To: All
Date Posted: 18:04:59 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-129-137-151.range86-129.btcentralplus.com at 86.129.137.151

Message:
We have just concluded a prediction that Sierra Leone will see another war - the last war to our progressive strides - I am not a Norman supporter but such will ignite troubles - the madingoes and the Temnes will really suffer. I pray this story is not true.

Subject: Re: AND MAY HE ROT IN HELL
From: J LAMIN ISCANDRI
To: All
Date Posted: 18:04:05 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
The wretched SOB ALIEU ISCANDRI in action again. You are one pathectic man. How is that old SOB your thievind daddy doing? Is he dead yet?

Subject: Re: AND MAY HE ROT IN HELL
From: KABS KANU
To: All
Date Posted: 18:27:21 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-rtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.101.8

Message:
No, we cant allow this.How sure are you it is Allieu ?There is no evidence, abd secondly, we note that you insulted his father. What has his father got to do with this, Lamin ? Your post is deleted.

Subject: Re: AND MAY HE ROT IN HELL
From: M. Alieu Iscandari esq
To: All
Date Posted: 19:25:03 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
Your post is deleted.

Is it really? If I can read it its still there Kabbs

Subject: Re: AND MAY HE ROT IN HELL
From: KABS KANU
To: All
Date Posted: 21:39:02 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-rtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.101.8

Message:
Allieu, depending on where one is, deleting immediately is not possible. Mr.J.Lamin Iscandri, your posts were removed because yiu insulted Allieu's father.

As you can see, posts insulting me , by Paloma, were not removed.

Subject: Re: AND MAY HE ROT IN HELL
From: J.. Lamin Iscandri
To: All
Date Posted: 21:41:11 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Kabs,

Alieu knows taht he posted as Gamanga. God knows that it is Alieu who posted it. Alieu is a shameless man.These are the people who accuse others of stealing.Shame on Alieu

Subject: Re: AND MAY HE ROT IN HELL
From: KABS KANU
To: All
Date Posted: 21:51:31 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-rtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.101.8

Message:
Once you engage Allieu alone and on the issues, none of your posts will be deleted.

Subject: Re: AND MAY HE ROT IN HELL
From: Baba Oreilly
To: All
Date Posted: 18:31:55 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 70.237.0.17

Message:
Thank you very much, Kabs. You are a Daniel.

Have you decided if you want me to moderate your forum for just a week, with style and fashion?

Subject: Neo Colonialism or New Word Order
From: M. Alieu Iscandari Esq
To: All
Date Posted: 17:29:45 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
title=alt=http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/dsp_image.php?id=43462805>

There is an African proverb which says that, "truth is like pregnancy. You can not hide it for ever. It will eventually get exposed". The agenda of building US military base(s) in Ghana has now been exposed.  

Months gone by a number of our Ghanaians drowned on the Volta Lake when they were forcibly removed from a forest reserve they called home. The reasons that the State gave to the Ghanaian public, at the time of tragedy was that, the victims were cutting down trees in the forest reserve. Not much was done for the survivors by our Government. Ghanaweb users contributed to the victims' cause by donating monies to help them deal with their afflictions. My thanks to citizens who helped raise donations and donated to the cause.    

Contrary to the official version of the event, certain citizens leaked disturbing information, which alleged that the Ghanaian government was planning to use the area to build forward bases for the US military. Equally troublingly is the fact that, the Afram Plains is the nation's breadbasket. It stretches along some of the most fertile lands needed for food production.    

Why Afram plains many might ask? The reason is simply. It will be ideal for military bases. The bases will easily have access to fresh water, via the Volta Lake. The Afram Plains is a flat land, which makes it a suitable environment for the construction of airstrips. There are no hills or forests to hide enemies, whether real or imaginary. The lake serves as an easy and reliable route to transport heavy munitions, personnel and vital supplies such as food to the bases. From what this writer has read and seen the US military plans to open up an entrance, via Volta Region and Ada, for their frigates and other small to medium naval vessels.  

The government of Ghana did deny and still denies that, there are any such plans for the US forces in Ghana. It must also be taken into account that, in years gone by, several top US military personnel have visited Ghana in quick succession. Are these visitations a twist of fate or coincidence? Unfortunately for our government, its attempt to shield the truth from the Ghanaian public was exposed by recent interviews granted by US military officials and strategist who are now openly talking about building bases in Senegal, Uganda, Ghana, Djibouti, Cameroon, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. In one such interviews, which was reported by the Insight newspaper, one official stated that, "The United States of America is seriously considering the establishment of a military base in Ghana for the sole purpose of protecting its access to West African oil." Marine General
James L. Jones, Head of the US European Command, who made the disclosure said the Pentagon was seeking to acquire access to two kinds of bases in Senegal, Ghana, Mali and Kenya and other African Countries (Source: The Centre for Research on Globalization. (CRG) is an independent research and media group of writers, scholars and activists. It is a registered non profit organization in the province of Quebec, Canada).  

 The major risks associated with hosting US military installation include terrorist attacks, the destruction of national culture and more direct US control over the lives of their hosts. Tamale Airport, according to speculation is to be turned into a US air force base if current consultations are concluded."  (Source: The Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) is an independent research and media group of writers, scholars and activists. It is a registered non profit organization in the province of Quebec, Canada).  

  For those of you who follow world trends, please add your thought(s) to this issue, and which I feel needs a national debate. Currently the US buys approximately 15% of its oil from West Africa mainly from Nigeria, Gabon, Ivory Coast and Equatorial Guinea. The US plans to buy at least 30% of its oil from West Africa, which has vast reserves of unexplored petroleum. We might have to ask Sir Sam Jonah for more details, as a major shareholder in Equator Exploration, a major oil exploration company that owns rights to many of West Africa’s oilfields. USA’s reason is simple. It needs to reduce its risk of being held hostage by oil producing countries in the Middle East and Russia; a reason which makes perfect economic sense. It is also important to US national security.

Africa is a rising player in the world energy field, with North African oil and gas flowing mostly into the EU and rapid rising stocks from West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea to North America and Asia. Africa provided 25% of all new oil and gas discoveries in the world in the last 5 years. Africa’s 300 billion barrels of oil will account for a third of the total global oil production in the next five years adding a whopping 3.5 million barrels per day between 2006 and 2010. Source: BP review of world energy information. Africa is awash with oil and world events are now shifting the spot light onto the continent’s oil and gas reserves.

There is also the Indo-Chino effects, as China and India are now competing with USA for access to energy. The US is doing exactly what China is doing in places such as Angola and Sudan, where China is drilling, transporting and protecting oil facilities for its own use. Sudan currently supplies China 7% of its daily oil needs of about 700, 000 barrels a day for which China has a 24/7 Chinese military presence in Sudan protecting oil fields and pipelines. The world now knows that China protects Sudan at the UN, using its veto to block UN Security Council Resolution on West Darfur because of access to oil.

  We are all aware of problems in the Nigerian oil producing areas especially in the Delta region. The situation is not about change any time soon. According to some predictions, Nigeria will experience the spasms of a potential civil war as the nation's general elections come closer. There will be a bloodbath should different powerful factions decide to use violence to extort and preserve their power, and does look more probable so by the day. This unsavoury situation will affect oil production, availability for the world. The US knows this, hence, the need for military bases on the West African subcontinent to guarantee oil shipments to US and rest of the world.

Where else in West Africa can the US operate its military base(s) in peace except Ghana? Nigeria is too unpredictable and Nigerians by nature do not take kindly to foreign occupation of their land. Other English-speaking West Africa countries, such as Liberia and Sierra Leone are too unstable to host military bases. France will not allow a US base in any of the former colonies. The France still controls lives of its former colonies and US bases in former colonies will be too close for comfort. This leaves Ghana as the only stable country willing to accommodate US military bases. At present, the US is building a new embassy in Cantonments, which is believed to be the biggest of its kind in Africa. One of the huge complexes on the site will be the new African Headquarters and Communication Monitoring Centre for the Central Intelligence Agency.

At 50, Ghana is still reeling under neo-colonialism. Decedents of the very citizens who aided the West to over throw Nkrumah are now helping the US and other powers to re-colonize us. These traitors parade around in Armani suits, dine in international hotels, smoke the best Cuban cigars and binge on the finest whisky. We now have Western monitors and consultants sitting in on meetings by senior civil servants, all in the name of monitoring developmental funding and capacity building. They tell the nation's policymakers how to spend our resources, price our primary commodity exports. They also dictate to us whom we sell our nation's raw materials and act as agents.

Ghana has a non reciprocal agreement with the US where on the behest of America, a Ghanaian can be extradited to face charges in the US. The opposite is the case when an American citizen commits a crime in Ghana.. By allowing foreign military bases on our lands, just think of all the possible crimes these unruly GIs will get away with.

The question is; will American military be protecting oil supplies for the good of the world or solely in America's interest? If the UK, the most trusted and closest ally of the US has not gained from US exploitation, how can Ghana? It is against the backdrop of these stated facts that I oppose any foreign military base in Ghana.

The US can still protect its oil supplies without relying on Ghana. After all the USA has always maintained a naval battle group on the coast of North Africa, West Africa and South Africa within international waters since the end of the second world war; so why can't it continue to maintain this policy or operate from the joint UK/US base on Diego Garcia?

There are those who will argue that such a base will create jobs. To them, I say dream on. Temporary manual jobs are not long term economic opportunities. Others may say that the US military bases in Japan, South Korea and Germany helped these countries to develop. This contrary to the truth, those countries have been paying hundred’s of billions to the US in the name of so called helping to protect those nations from enemies.

Think of the secret CIA prisons and torture camps across Europe, Middle East, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Zanzibar, Djibouti and South East Asia. Ghana could potentially become one of these countries if we allow the US to build a military base on our territory.

An American military base in Ghana should not be politicized. We need a national and parliamentary debate. I am against it period. Algeria has just recently turned down a request to host the headquarters for US Military operation in Africa. So why is our government so eager to allow bases(s) in Ghana when others are turning away from such installations?

I might be wrong in my analysis. Let's start a genuine debate and take it all the way to parliament. In my estimation, the NPP government is weak and has failed to weigh the implications that attend hosting military bases on one's soil.

Subject: Re: Neo Colonialism or New Word Order
From: BRA ENVIABLE
To: All
Date Posted: 20:38:34 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-dtc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 205.188.116.198

Message:
This is Neo-Colonialism acting the way it normally does-through its native agents of the victim country. And this is happening on Ghanaian soil, the home of Osagyefo. So much for our independence!

Subject: Re: Neo Colonialism or New Word Order
From: Puzzled
To: All
Date Posted: 17:44:42 01/19/07 ()
Email Address: puzzled@hotmail.com
Entered From: c-24-127-53-17.hsd1.va.comcast.net at 24.127.53.17

Message:
I am puzzled: did you not work for the Americans in Sierra Leone? Isn't the court in Sierra Leone an American creation (under UN disguise)?

Subject: Re: Neo Colonialism or New Word Order
From: Teflon Tee(TT)
To: All
Date Posted: 22:22:56 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cpe-69-206-234-17.nyc.res.rr.com at 69.206.234.17

Message:
I entreat you to do Your Homework and Check Your Facts!

The US Definately made Significant Financial Contribution to broker the Peace Process and enable the the building of

Institutions in Post War Sierra Leone,But other Nations enjoy the Lion Share of Business and Trade Advantages in Sierra Leone

Matter of Fact,Significant American Taxpayers Money may have been used in the Financing of the Court but it was at the

behest of other Traditional Interests and so called STAKEHOLDERS not American Interest that the Special Court was Created in Sierra Leone.

Subject: Re: Neo Colonialism or New Word Order
From: M. Alieu Iscandari Esq
To: All
Date Posted: 17:53:49 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
and whats your point. Address the issue posted and dont get personal. What I do in my professional life is none of your damn business.

Subject: Re: Neo Colonialism or New Word Order
From: puzzled
To: All
Date Posted: 10:21:00 01/20/07 ()
Email Address: puzzled@hotmail.com
Entered From: smith2250.apsc.vt.edu at 128.173.64.123

Message:
that is what both the Mafia and members of the KKK say: it is just a job! Is that a way to mkake a living?

Subject: Hinga Norman and Issa Sesay will return
From: Patriotic Vanguard
To: All
Date Posted: 16:21:01 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-rtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.101.8

Message:
"Norman and Sesay will Return"----Rapp.
By Gibril Koroma - Friday 19 January 2007.
The new prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone Mr. Stephen Rapp(photo), said in Freetown recently that Special Court indictees Sam Hinga Norman and Issa Sesay now undergoing medical treatment in Dakar, Senegal, will return to Sierra Leone "well in advance of the expected date in the verdict of the CDF case in the case of Hinga Norman and the restart of the RUF case in the case of Issa Sesay."

Rapp, speaking at a press conference last Wednesday, went on to say that verdicts would likely come up in March or April this year.We bring you a full version of the proceedings at the press conference below, courtesy of the Special Court:

Verbatim Transcr1pt of the Press Conference by the Registrar and the Prosecutor at the Sierra Leone News Agency (SLENA) on Wednesday, 17 January 2007

Opening remarks by the Registrar, Mr. Lovemore Munlo, SC.

Lovemore Munlo: It’s a very special morning today that I come to talk to you. First of all, it’s the beginning of the year, and I wish you all a very successful and happy new year. And I also want to say we will continue as we have done in the past getting in touch with you to exchange views and also to give you information that we can give.

Introduction of the new Prosecutor

Today I have come here, the most important matter I’ve come with, is to introduce to you the new Prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Mr. Stephen Rapp. Mr. Stephen Rapp comes to the Special Court with vast experience. He is a distinguished son of the State of Iowa in the United States where he worked as an elected legislator in the State of Iowa. He has been in private practice. He has also worked as a head of staff and consul for a U.S. judicial committee. That only prepared him for his position at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda where he worked as Senior Trial Attorney responsible for prosecution of those who are charged before the tribunal. He was on one of the trial teams, among many trial teams, that were dealing with the cases in Arusha.

After a distinguished career as a Senior Trial Attorney, he was appointed - or promoted, rather - the Chief of Prosecutions. His responsibility was to supervise all the trial teams dealing with cases at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. I had the privilege of working with him for, I think, 4-1/2 years and I saw his career advance. This is a combination of a very good career which he has had, but now he has been appointed as Prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

I will be asking him to talk to you and maybe [if you have questions] he’ll answer your questions.

Briefing on the Senegal operation

I just wanted to say that, in addition to this, I thought that I should also brief you about what is happening at the Court.

Today, this morning, we started an operation to get two of the detainees specialised medical treatment go to Senegal for treatment. These detainees are Mr. Hinga Norman and also Mr. Sesay. They left the Court premises exactly at 8:00 this morning and by 9:00 they were at the Lungi International Airport. They boarded a private plane. They must by now have arrived in Senegal. They have been accompanied by members of staff of the Special Court, and this is being done in close cooperation with the Government of Senegal, for which we are very grateful for giving us facilities, excellent facilities, medical facilities and very experienced medical staff to look after our detainees. From here, our detainees have left with their medical doctor, Dr. Harding who [indistinct] last time [indistinct] press conference.

So these are the things I wanted to say before I ask the Prosecutor to talk to you. Mr. Prosecutor.

Opening remarks by the Prosecutor, Mr. Stephen Rapp

Stephen Rapp: Well, thank you very much Lovemore. I asked for this box so I could stand up. I have a bit of a cold today, and I wanted to be able to be heard and project my voice to answer your questions. Thank you for the kind introduction. And I’d also like to thank the Sierra Leone News Agency for hosting this event.

It is wonderful to be here with you and I am very pleased that my first press conference as Prosecutor of the Special Court is with you. You’re the journalists of Sierra Leone, and I wanted to be sure that before I spoke with the international press, I first met with Sierra Leone’s domestic reporters so that I could tell you personally how important I believe the work of the Special Court is to the people of this country, and to its future.

First, let me tell you a bit about myself, and Lovemore has mentioned some of it. I am originally from a small town in the rural state of Iowa, in the United States. In my early career I worked in private practice as a lawyer on the staff of the US Senate in Washington and as an elected representative of my area in the legislature of the State of Iowa. In 1993 former President Bill Clinton appointed me as the United States Attorney, the Prosecutor for Northern Iowa, where I served for eight years until 2001. I then joined the Prosecution of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, serving, as Lovemore said, as a Senior Trial Attorney - as the team leader for a case in court, specifically the media trial - a trial that took some 34 months at the Rwanda tribunal where the defendants were accused of committing genocide and crimes against humanity by virtue of the terrible hate speech they spread over the radio, specifically the radio station RTLM, and through a newspaper - a newspaper Kangur - first case since World War II involving committing essentially these horrible crimes through speech, and specifically, through the media. We were very proud that in December 2003 the Trial Chamber convicted the three accused of genocide, of incitement to commit genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, and extermination and persecution as crimes against humanity.

After that I became the Chief of Prosecutions at the Rwanda tribunal, a position that I held until I came here earlier this month as Prosecutor of the Special Court.

Becoming the Prosecutor is for me a dream come true. I’m honoured and humbled to be part of an important endeavour in the history of this country; an endeavour that I believe is marking a turning point for Sierra Leone. Since the end of the war the international community, the government of Sierra Leone and the people of this nation have been working to create a more stable, prosperous and just society. The Special Court is certainly not the only part of that effort, but it’s a crucial component. The Court is both a concrete example and a symbol of the turning point in this nation. For many years there was chaos, now there is order. Where there was volatility and violence, there is now peace. Where once wicked men shattered many thousands of lives, now impunity no longer reigns.

The Court also represents a greater hope for the international community as a whole. In the words of the United Nations Security Council, it is part of an effort “to end impunity, establish the rule of law and promote respect for human rights and by doing so to restore and maintain international peace and security.”

The Court recently reached a significant milestone with the completion of the trials in the CDF and the AFRC cases. In the coming months the Judges in these cases will render their verdicts. The RUF trial continues in May with the presentation of the Defence evidence. Finally, the trial of Charles Taylor will begin this year in The Hague. The Court’s Outreach Programme, with which I’m sure you’re all familiar, has capitalized on the Court’s domestic locat1on to communicate the Court’s message to every one of the 14 (sic.) districts, to every corner of this country and ensure that a maximum number of citizens learn about what is happening in the case, and in the Taylor case. For this reason, some are concerned about the decision to move the trial of Charles Taylor to The Hague. And while I support this decision as necessary for the stability of the region, let me say how important I believe it is that the Taylor trial be brought home to the people of Sierra Leone and to this region. Every effort is being made and will be made to ensure that Sierra Leoneans have transparent access to this trial. Each case at the Special Court is heard, argued and decided in the name of the people of Sierra Leone. The Judges, some of whom come from Sierra Leone, and attorneys for both the Prosecutor and the Defence that include Sierra Leoneans, and the many miles between here and Mr. Taylor will not change that.

So let me say once again how pleased I am to be with you today and how honoured I am to be part of this significant chapter in the history of your country. And I’ll be happy to take your questions.

Questions and Answers

Q: (Indistinct) Charles Taylor has been taken to The Hague (indistinct) and most of the atrocities committed affected the people of Sierra Leone and Liberia. Don’t you think it’s more (indistinct) for the Special Court to facilitate (indistinct) journalists so they can cover Charles Taylor’s trial in The Hague so that the people of Sierra Leone...

RAPP: Well I think it’s real important that the trial be covered and that Sierra Leone journalists have access to all parts of it. Now I think that Peter Andersen can discuss and describe the work that’s been done by the BBC Trust that I think will provide opportunities for Sierra Leone journalists to attend at The Hague and also to receive audio and video and other materials from The Court so that you can do your job. But that’s in the area of Outreach and Public Relations and Public Affairs that’s not specifically in the area of the Prosecutor. But we work very cooperatively in this area, and we’re going to do everything we can to get that level of support. I’m off on a visit this weekend in Europe and in the United States and North America with President King - the President of the Court, Justice King - and we’re going to be talking to national authorities for whom we rely for contributions, but we’re also going to be talking to non-governmental organisations, and an important part of the support that we seek will be toward this effort of Public Information and Outreach. We do not want to die with the secret of the Court. We don’t want to put on great evidence and have a judgment and decisions and for the people affected not to know about it. Because if they don’t know about it, they’re denied justice, but also what we’re hoping is that a message is sent that no matter how big you are, no one is above justice, and that those who suffered because of the alleged acts of an individual will receive justice and will receive information about it. And of course to the extent that they’re witnesses, will be well treated and have an opportunity to tell their story in a way that doesn’t compromise their safety and security.

Q. (Indistinct) the state of illness of Issa Sesay and Chief Norman?

RAPP: Well I think the Registrar specifically addressed that. We cannot under medical confidentiality describe - none of us can - describe what a person’s medical condition is. That’s an issue of medical confidentiality and I think that the patients themselves would object if we stood here and talked about their medical condition, and they would have the right to. We’ve said before that these conditions are not life-threatening, that the operations that they receive are common, that they’re going to receive them from top doctors, and we look forward to good procedures and to recovery that will permit them to be returned to detention in the next few weeks here in Freetown.

Q: (Christo Johnson, Reuters) I just want to come up with a supplementary. You are a man of justice, and if we are talking about justice and this nation, we all know how important - you have said it - no man is above the law, which we agree. Now, Hinga Norman, however, is a Sierra Leonean, and Sierra Leoneans want to know about his health. So are we saying it’s a hidden secret? I agree, you need to get the medical advice. But the people want to know about his health. Is it in secret...in terms of justice?

RAPP: We, every day in court and every day when we do our job, have to follow the rules, and a Prosecutor doesn’t break the rules. And sometimes we’d like to be able to answer questions that we can’t answer. And in this particular case, neither the Registrar nor myself can answer. Obviously if you contacted the attorneys for these two gentlemen, they can contact their clients and decide what information should be released. But it’s not for us to talk about somebody’s health condition, just like it wouldn’t be for us to reveal one of your sources publicly that you’ve guaranteed confidentiality to. We respect other professions and in the medical profession there’s this confidentiality, and we do have information ourselves that’s been provided to us because we have to make these arrangements, but it’s been provided to us only on the condition that we don’t re-disclose it. So we have to abide by that.

Q: (Clarence Roy-Macaulay, AP) In other words, what you are saying, they are going for an operation which could not be done here in Sierra Leone.

MUNLO: I think maybe in fairness to the Prosecutor, the Prosecutor does not look after detainees. That responsibility falls on the Registrar, and I’m grateful to him that he’s tried as best as possible to give you answers. I think the bottom line is what he has said: that even for you reporters, you have your own ethics. You will not reveal the sources of your information. And me, when Peter tells me that I have this information but this is how I got it, we don’t reveal the source of information. I must respect him as my professional advising me about what will annoy reporters if they knew I did it. Similarly, the doctor - you know these people have a doctor - and last time I brought the doctor here. You talked to him. I need not repeat. You saw how he told you about confidentiality about his patients. He has also said the same thing to me, that have taken these people away from me. That is why I haven’t gone with him. He knows what is happening to them. He has put a stop that I cannot talk about their conditions. But you see, you being reporters also know how you can get more information. We are the wrong people to give you that information. The Court has provided to Hinga Norman and to Issa Sesay Defence counsel with whom they share information. Maybe Hinga Norman would want to consult his lawyer, how much he can say and how much he cannot say. Those people, you could get it from them, but from us, it will be a breach of confidentiality. As a custodian of these people, I have no authority whatsoever to reveal what is happening in their bodies, unless they tell me to do that.

Q: (Clarence Roy-Macaulay, AP) (Indistinct) I just want you to confirm that they have gone to Dakar, Senegal (indistinct) kind of operation which cannot be done here.

MUNLO: They have gone to Dakar, Senegal to be seen by doctors. It has not been yet identified. If it had was identified, maybe our doctor would have dealt with it here. They have gone there, they will be meeting the doctors any time from today. After they have meet them and the doctors have (word indistinct), they will tell us what the situation is. But right now, they have not yet met the doctors. It will be speculation for me to give you the information you want. I don’t have it.

Q: (Christo Johnson, Reuters) Excuse me, you are the Registrar. If you are the Registrar, I’m sure you are the man responsible for the entire Court, looking after the affairs of the Court. And I believe the case of Hinga Norman and other detainees in there, when they are to be pulled out of that area for any area to travel to, you as Registrar must be properly informed. They cannot do it without your consent. Is that correct?

MUNLO: That is very correct. I’m properly informed by my doctor that the kind of medical treatment they need to have, he cannot give it to them. He is taking them to Senegal to meet doctors who are qualified and experienced and have the necessary medical facilities to look at the nature of the illness that they have. That has not been done. It will be done now when they go to the hospital. I cannot pre-empt or know what the doctors...

Q: (Christo Johnson, Reuters) (Indistinct) the nature of the illness (indistinct). Can we stress how serious it is?

MUNLO: Well, they walked to the helipad. They went in the plane. We are talking to them. Hinga Norman was in a very high mood, spirits, that’s what I’ve been told by the people who took him to the helipad. That’s as much as I can say.

Q: Are they accompanied by their family members?

MUNLO: I think all family members know to...

Q: Lawyers. Are they accompanied by their lawyers also?

MUNLO: They are not accompanied by their lawyers. This is a medical situation; they have been accompanied by their doctor who looks after them - not their lawyers.

Q: (Christo Johnson, Reuters) (Indistinct)

MUNLO: They left today. Yes. They left the Court 8:00. They were at the...

Q: (Christo Johnson, Reuters) (Indistinct) helicopter this morning.

MUNLO: Exactly. They were at Lungi by nine and by nine sharp they left for Senegal.

Q: Is the illness a minor one?

MUNLO: I cannot say that. I’m not a doctor. That’s what the doctor is going to tell us.

Q: (Christo Johnson, Reuters) We had the case of the late Foday Sankoh you are playing, others played with us as journalists with Foday Sankoh, until certain time David Crane and others, even though they were trying to hide to us when Foday Sankoh was dead. But in our own way as journalists we sought it out and discovered that Foday Sankoh was dead. We really want to get the clear picture because there is still questions to be answered by the readers or audience: What’s wrong with him? This is our problem. We know you have not been allowed by the medical authority to say. But if this is a serious matter, though you have said he was in a high spirit. Yes! Foday Sankoh was in a high spirit - but he died!

Q: (Clarence Roy-Macaulay, AP) You are aware that both of them have been ill for some time now. Am I right to say that?

MUNLO: Well, like everybody else they have a condition that comes up and goes off. I am also continuously ill. Every human being, as soon you come in this world, there’s the undermining process that sets in your body. So I cannot tell you that they have never been ill when they were in the detention. They were ill, some of these illnesses were treated by the doctor we have in the detention facility. It so happens that for the disease they have now, the doctor has advised me he would want to go to a country where they have better medical facilities, where they have more experienced doctors then him on the ailments that have been said, so that they would help him look at that. This is why he has accompanied them. He will be there together with them, and see the doctors they are going to meet in the...

Q: (Indistinct)

MUNLO: Dr. Harding. They have their own...

Q: (Indistinct)

MUNLO: Donald Harding. He was here last time we had...

Q: (Clarence Roy-Macaulay, AP) Would I be correct to say that for some time now Issa Sesay has been complaining of having a bullet lodged in one of his legs for which he has been suffering (indistinct)?

MUNLO: I think I have already told you, I think you are asking me...You know I can’t answer you that question.

Q: (Clarence Roy-Macaulay, AP) (Indistinct) you declined to answer, that’s all. I put the question and you declined to answer.

MUNLO: Yes, I cannot discuss the medical condition of the detainees. It would be a breach of their human rights.

Q: (Kelvin Lewis, Awoko) Mr. Munlo, my question is why Senegal, and was it necessary for the Special Court to sign an agreement with the Senegalese agreement for those people to be taken there?

MUNLO: Yes, we signed an agreement with the Senegalese government just to make sure that their safety is assured while they are there for medical treatment, and that after medical treatment they come back to Freetown to the detention where they are so that they can continue with their case. So it was very important not just to take them there without making arrangements assuring their security.

Q: Indistinct

MUNLO: Well, let’s not speculate. I cannot answer speculative questions, because those things haven’t arisen. All I can assure you is that I have made arrangements to make sure that when they go there I will cooperate with the Senegalese authorities that they are there only for the purposes for which we have sent them - medical treatment. After that, the Senegalese authorities will assure me that they will come back, and they will facilitate for their movement out of Senegal back to the detention where they left from.

Q: (Clarence Roy-Macaulay, AP) How long are they going to be there?

MUNLO: I have already answered that the diagnosis hasn’t even been done. They have just gone today. That is a matter for the doctor to...

Q: (Kelvin Lewis, Awoko) Did that agreement determine the country they were going to, because the same (medical) facilities that are available in Senegal are available in Ghana; they are also available in Nigeria...

MUNLO: They are available in many countries. You cannot take them to all those countries. You have only to choose one country.

Q: (Kelvin Lewis, Awoko) Why Senegal? Because of that agreement - that the Senegalese government agreed to provide those assurances and you were not (indistinct) provide those assurances?

MUNLO: Even if we took them to Ghana we would expect Ghana to sign a similar agreement as the Senegalese have signed. It doesn’t matter which country. Whichever country would have allowed us to take them there, we would have asked them to sign this agreement for our own internal security provisions, so that we are sure this going to the hospital does not undermine the judicial process afoot.

Q: (Christo Johnson, Reuters) Are we saying that the absence of these two alleged people, Hinga Norman and Issa, does it cause any effect to the proceeding of the Court>

RAPP: My understanding of this arrangement for medical treatment is that they will be returned to Freetown well in advance of the expected date of the verdict in the CDF case in the case of Hinga Norman and the restart of the RUF case in the case of Issa Sesay. We’re hoping that we’ll have verdicts in March or April. So we don’t expect there to be any problem. Obviously they will have access to their attorneys in terms of anything that may be occurring in submissions in those cases, but the arguments have been made in the case of the CDF case and it’s solely in the hands of the Judges of Trial Chamber I. In the case of the RUF case obviously there’s some decisions that Defence is presumably making about witnesses, and we expect the Defence who wanted this medical treatment to be able to consult with their client about that. So we don’t anticipate any interference with the trial process. I do want to say this: I’m new here. I’ve been fully briefed by Mr. Munlo and I’ve talked to others, but we very much appreciate the good work of the Registrar’s office in arranging for this and here at the Special Court, where we’re not a United Nations court, we can’t snap our fingers and other countries will respond as a matter of international law. We have to constantly rely on cooperation of other countries, and that involves diplomatic skill. It involved it in the situation of obtaining arrangements for the eventual imprisonment of Mr. Taylor if he is convicted, with the United Kingdom. It’s involving, in this case, countries in the region for medical care. That takes a lot of effort, negotiation and obviously a difficult issue always when you’re dealing with individuals who have been accused of very serious and grave crimes, and most countries being reluctant to allow people like that into their country. So it’s a large effort to make sure that these things go well and I really salute the Registrar for negotiating the agreement making it possible to receive quality medical care, respecting the human rights of the detainees, creating a situation where they would remain in the custody of the Special Court when they’re in Dakar or wherever in Senegal and on their way back, so the rights of the accused are protected, and the rights of the victims and the people of Sierra Leone that have an interest in justice in these cases and them being present, and them being adjudged for the crimes, whether they are guilty or innocent and eventually sentenced if they are found guilty. And I think everyone’s interests have been served here and the Registrar has done the right thing and should be commended.

Q: (Clarence Roy-Macaulay, AP) Why have they been taken out only now for this medical treatment?

RAPP: Well, we can’t speak to that, but I think you can sense that arrangements in terms of agreements with the countries, agreements for security, for transport, for everything else, are necessarily things that take time and negotiation. In every situation it’s a matter of asking others to assist us and to make the facilities available. And in this situation, given - as Mr. Andersen has said - not talking about a life-threatening condition in the case of either individual, that it was appropriate to take the steps that were done and we think that everything in this matter will turn out for the best.

Q: (Kelvin Lewis, Awoko) You are the third Prosecutor, the third substantive Prosecutor. in as many years that the Court has functioned for. What assurances are you giving us that you are going to be the last?

RAPP: Well, I took this appointment to finish the mission of this Court. I was at the ICTR for almost six years. I know there are many people in many of these court that are not there anywhere near that long. But I believe very much in committing to a job and completing that job. We’re fortunate now I think to have reached a point in the history of the Special Court where we can see the end. We can see the completion, and we can see how to get there. And as I said before, I’m going with Justice King, Justice Gelaga-King, to the United States and to Europe. I’ll be meeting with the Management Committee next week in New York, and basically we’re going to be able to sit down say ‘these verdicts are going to come in in the AFRC and CDF cases. The evidence will be concluded in the RUF case this year. Judgments will be rendered in that case. The Appeals Judges will arrive here, those that are not here already, such as Justice King, within the next several months to hear the appeals which we presume there’ll be from either side in the CDF or the AFRC case, to then hear the appeals in the RUF case. The Taylor case will start this year. It’s currently scheduled for April 2nd. We’ll find out at the Status Conference next Friday, which I’ll attend at The Hague, what the trial date will be. It may well be moved back to June or July, but it’s entirely within the hands of the Judges. The Defence has asked that it be moved to September. The Prosecutor has said that some delay is justified, but not beyond July, but it’s in the hands of the Judges. That case will start in the next several months, and we believe be concluded by the end of 2008. And so we will look to a situation where, by the end of 2008, appeals will be decided in the AFRC and CDF cases; in 2009 they’ll be decided in the RUF and the Taylor case, presuming there are appeals. And so we can now look, I think, for the Special Court to - after a very busy year of 2007 - to be winding down its work to an absolute completion by the end of 2009. And for that reason the Secretary-General appointed me as Prosecutor for three years or until the work is done, whichever comes first. And obviously if we can get it done more quickly we will.

Q: (Kelvin Lewis, Awoko) How far do you stand funding (indistinct).

MUNLO: Well, we have confidence that the funding will be available for the last three years of the life of the Court. The Prosecutor, the President and the Deputy Registrar are leaving this week for the United States to talk to some of our supporters who give us funding for the Court to see how we will go about raising funds. The Management Committee, which you know which runs the Court, is also very much geared to hear our views on how we should put the package together for the last three years so that the Court goes on efficiently and without disruption. So there is a plan in place. We are working towards that, and we have confidence that we will get the money to finalise our work in three years time.

Q: (Kelvin Lewis, Awoko) (Indistinct) you need?

MUNLO: We are working on it now. We are working on it because of the new developments. We are talking to the International Criminal Court where we are renting premises to try this case. Some of the costs, you cannot work on them. They needed to see when we start operating, how the issues will go on. So it’s an ongoing process. I will not be honest to you to stand here today and say ‘this will be the figure’, because we are still working on it. All I can tell you is we have the confidence that we will have the funding to bring this whole process to a successful conclusion.

Q: (Clarence Roy-Macaulay, AP) How much have you spent so far?

MUNLO: Well I cannot give you the exact figure but I think we have spent in the region of $125 million or something like that, thereabouts, in the three years that the Court has been running. That will include of course costs not only for running the Court - you will remember that when we went to New England we had to revamp the whole place and put it in the condition that you see it today. We have the world-class kind of courtroom. Though costs are also part of the $125 million I’m talking about. It’s not only running the Court, it’s also bringing the facilities at which the Court should operate.

Q: You said just now you are going to America to talk to those responsible (indistinct) support to 2009. If they say ‘no there is no money’ is there a Plan B?

MUNLO: Speculative. You want us to speculate. I’m telling you our programme, what we are doing.

RAPP: The Management Committee at the Court is very active, one, in making sure that the Court is well-managed, and they are pleased with the way things are moving forward, but what’s particularly important I think at this stage is that we’re able to come forward now that talks about this year, which will be an expensive year because Taylor going to The Hague and the trial starting and the Appeals Judges coming. This will be a year of great activity, with these judgments being rendered and the appeals beginning and Taylor beginning. But next year will be considerably reduced and the next year will be reduced further. And I think now that we’ve seen the judicial schedule and how things have gone forward, it’s possible to talk with much greater certainty about the budget. And we think that it will be attractive, and the Management Committee thinks it will be attractive, that we go to donors to say ‘it’s not going on forever. It’s going to be this month this year, this much next year, and this much the last year, and then the mission will be accomplished. And so far there’s contributions that have arrived - the Secretary-General wrote to Member States in November asking for contributions. Contributions have been received in trhe last two months. The United States has a new control of its Congress. We want to deal with the new leaders in the Congress, and with the Administration. We’re looking foir substantial support from the United States in the coming year. And frankly from what I know about of the situation and our contacts diplomatically, the support is out there and it’s important I think the fact we’re going to be able to tell them now specifically what’s been done and what’s likely in the future, I think we should have good success. But it will take continued efforts, because as you know this Court relies on voluntary contributions unlike the court that I just came from. The court that I came from assesses countries. All 191 members of the U.N. have to pay an assessed contribution or after awhile they lose their right to vote. Those other courts have that power. We don’t, so it requires us to go out and in the last four years it’s been possible to do that, and now as we come to the end - and particularly with the Taylor trial and the world’s interest in the Taylor trial - we believe that support will be forthcoming, provided we show our plan, and we have it.

Q: (Indistinct)

RAPP: Right. Obviously this is a Court with a smaller workload. There are fewer cases here, but these are significant cases. Other courts have chosen to, for instance at the ICTY they have many lower-level individuals, people that have been guards in prison camps that have committed serious crimes. In the case of the ICTR, while I was there we dealt with twelve government ministers including a Prime Minister and a lot of senior people, but there were also some junior people. Here, the focus is on the people bearing the greatest responsibility. And the first Prosecutor and the Judges that were confirming those indictments made those decisions, and we’re proceeding with those cases.

Q: (Christo Johnson, Reuters) Yes, this is my last question. I don’t know whether you are speculating that this Court will end as you are winding up in 2009.

RAPP: Obviously everything in a judicial system depends upon the Judges, and the facts and the trials. A trial, a court, is not a factory. We have a plan, and it’s realistic, and it’s supported by President King and the Registrar, and the Prosecutor, and the Court, and the Judges and the Principal Defender are working together, so I’m confident that we can come close to meeting these timelines.

Q: (Christo Johnson, Reuters) (Indistinct) but there is still a wanted individual (indistinct, traffic noise) Johnny Paul Koroma.

RAPP: No. And in the reports that we made to the Management Committee, both from the President and from the Prosecutor, we’ve indicated that that’s a case that needs to be dealt with. The Investigative Section - and I’ve been speaking to our investigators - are continuing their efforts to locate him or determine definitively that he’s died, and we’re going to continue to do that. Obviously it’s a high priority now to get that matter resolved so that we’ve got time to get that case into court. But it’s still there, and obviously if we end up finishing up without that case, then we’re going to have to look at other mechanisms. At the Rwanda tribunal and the Yugoslavia tribunal, what’s happened is that cases have been referred back to national authorities for prosecution, and the evidence supplied the national authorities both in the region and outside the region. And that can happen whether the person has been arrested or not arrested. So if we get to the end of the day, if we haven’t concluded that matter and determined whether he’s alive or dead, we’re going to have to make sure there’s some disposition here at the Court which indicates that if he’s found he will be tried by a competent court. That’s one of the things that we will have to finish up before we conclude our business - the same for the Yugoslavia and the Rwanda tribunals.

Q: What’s your own mission as the new Prosecutor? Because when the former Prosecutor was here, his own mission was to get hold of Taylor (indistinct)

RAPP: My own mission is to present the evidence and the strongest possible case against Taylor, to make sure that the story is told so that the Judges understand his level of criminal responsibility and that we support the amended indictment in all of its particulars. But we do it in a manner that’s efficient, that doesn’t take as long as Milosevic case did at The Hague, that shows how this process can be done right and effectively. This Court has in many ways set the standard, and has done many things better than the much more expensive institutions that were supported like the ICTR and the ICTY. For one thing, other than the Taylor trial itself, it’s been in-country, much more accessible to the people of the country than the case of the ICTY, Yugoslavia tribunal which is 1,500 kilometres away in The Hague, or the Rwanda tribunal which is 800 kilometres away from Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania. And trials here have been expeditious. The people who allegedly bore the greatest responsibility were tried, and I think with the Taylor trial, which will be conducted as I’ve said with great transparency for the people of Sierra Leone, it will also be a case that will gain great attention internationally because of its locat1on at The Hague, and that there will be a greater attention to it in all the world that trials we had for instance in Arusha, or other trials here in Sierra Leone. And I think it will tell the people of the world about the suffering the people of Sierra Leone experienced, and the people of the region. And I think that will be positive for an understanding of the challenges of the society. And I also think it’ll be good for international justice to see how things can be done through a court that is a cooperative venture, both the international community and the affected nation. So that’s what I want to see accomplished. That’s of course mainly about Taylor, but of course we have these other cases involving nine individuals, and we want to make sure that those are finished properly, that if individuals are convicted that those convictions are upheld on appeal, if there are decisions by the Trial Chamber that should be challenged on a legal basis on appeal that those appeals are properly lodged by the Prosecutor, and that justice is done in each of those cases right down to the end, and that whatever happens in those cases is communicated to the people of Sierra Leone and the people of the region that were affected by the alleged acts of these men. So those are my goals.

Q: (Joseph Turay, Trumpet) Are we expecting more indictments?

RAPP: The answer is, not at this time. I would think it unlikely that there would be further indictments given the stage we are in in the Completion Strategy. A Prosecutor never says ‘never’ - but unlikely.

Q: (Joseph Turay, Trumpet) Mr. Munlo, now that we are reaching (indistinct) in the CDF and AFRC cases, have any arrangements been made as to whether they are going to be jailed if for any reason they are found guilty?

MUNLO: I cannot answer the question as to where they are going to be jailed because my Judges have not made their decision. And me as a Registrar, and also a lawyer who has practiced for some time, believing the principle that they are presumed innocent until the decision comes. And even when the decision comes, it’s not final. They can appeal against that decision to another court to come up. So I’m not going to answer that question.

Q: In one recent publication - I think it was on Allafrica.com, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the President of Liberia who was giving all her support to the Court here to get Mr. Taylor, is now saying that government has no plan of trying Mr. Taylor. What does that mean for your witnesses who are presumed to be coming from Liberia?

RAPP: We expect a number of witness to come from Liberia and we are working with witnesses who’ve agreed to come from Liberia, and we expect cooperation from the Government of Liberia and believe that that cooperation is there. I think the President of Liberia’s comments related to whether Charles Taylor would face a separate trial for crimes committed specifically in Liberia as opposed to the crimes affecting Sierra Leone that fall within the Court’s jurisdiction. Of course we’re limited to a temporal jurisdiction between 1996 and 2002. Liberia could deal with other things. But if she was correctly quoted, it was that given our trial, and given the fact that these acts were related, that if justice is done in our trial, that’s sufficient in the Taylor case and doesn’t call for a further trial in Liberia. That’s a question for that State. We’ll be dealing with the crimes that he allegedly committed that affected Sierra Leone.

Q: (Indistinct)

RAPP: Whether Liberia prosecutes or not doesn’t affect where the witnesses will come for our case. And understand, we’re committed as well in our Outreach to communicate what’s happening in this case to Liberia, because this war was a regional war and Liberians suffered.

Thank you very much.

Subject: for SLPP crude fanatics
From: news
To: All
Date Posted: 16:16:05 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: 198-67-ftth.onsneteindhoven.nl at 88.159.67.198

Message:
World Bank Exposes SLPP Garbage Collection

Few weeks back the ruling SLPP government issued a press release indicting the Freetown City Council and informing the public about its action to take over the cleaning of the city of Freetown.
The release ran for days without any response from the city council either in support of government action or in disagreement of what was being said.
Government in the press release stated categorically that the local government, headed by Sidique Brima, would be in charge of the exercise with assistance from GTZ, a foreign established non-governmental organization.
The head or spokesperson of GTZ, Dr. Nouz equally trumpeted government’s rationale for taking over the exercise at a press conference held towards the end of 2006.
Dr. Nouz outlined efforts made by GTZ to collaborate with the Freetown City Council, which proved futile, and because of that she revealed that GTZ was going to proceed with the cleaning. What came out from the both the press release of government and the conference of Dr. Nouz smacked of some high level of suspicion in the public –domain, which interpreted may not be unconnected with the grand plan to extravagantly misuse World Bank funds, as the latter is the funding body for the cleaning exercise of Freetown.
As if the suspicion from the general public was right, the World Bank in a letter dated Wednesday 17, 2007 has categorically criticized the SLPP government and went to the extent of describing its action as unilateral.
At the press conference, it would be recalled Dr. Nouz claimed that GTZ has already invested the sum of twenty thousand dollars to kick-start the operation. This amount of money is hoped to be realized more than that time considering the quantum of money the World Bank is intending to put into the cleaning exercise.
Realizing the financial benefits to be derived, the government in collaboration with GTZ quickly deprived the Freetown City Council of performing its municipal function.
Mr. Weibe Moes of the World Bank, in a letter to the government and other institutions such as the Guma Valley Water Company, SALWACO and some members of the civil society groups stated thus “…GoSL has unilaterally decided to take away the responsibility for solid waste management from the Freetown City Council and put it with the assistance from GTZ…..”
The unilateral decision of government as highlighted in the letter by Mr. Wiebe Moes did not go down well with the funding body. Consistent with this Mr. Wiebe Moes is expected to arrive on January27, 2007 to hold further discussion with the relevant authorities.
The Mayor of Freetown, Mr. Johnson has maintained sealed lips when contacted. However, close sources to the Mayor explained that he is aware of everything and has described it as the “Politics of the SLPP government “
It is expected that Wiebe Moes would travel with other World Bank officials in the person of Arthur Swaton and Dan O’ Hearn.

Subject: World Bank exposes SLPP 's garbage politics
From: Standard Times
To: All
Date Posted: 16:13:21 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-rtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.101.8

Message:
World Bank Exposes SLPP Garbage Collection Politics
Posted by on Jan 19, 2007, 23:35

Few weeks back the ruling SLPP government issued a press release indicting the Freetown City Council and informing the public about its action to take over the cleaning of the city of Freetown.
The release ran for days without any response from the city council either in support of government action or in disagreement of what was being said.
Government in the press release stated categorically that the local government, headed by Sidique Brima, would be in charge of the exercise with assistance from GTZ, a foreign established non-governmental organization.
The head or spokesperson of GTZ, Dr. Nouz equally trumpeted government’s rationale for taking over the exercise at a press conference held towards the end of 2006.
Dr. Nouz outlined efforts made by GTZ to collaborate with the Freetown City Council, which proved futile, and because of that she revealed that GTZ was going to proceed with the cleaning. What came out from the both the press release of government and the conference of Dr. Nouz smacked of some high level of suspicion in the public –domain, which interpreted may not be unconnected with the grand plan to extravagantly misuse World Bank funds, as the latter is the funding body for the cleaning exercise of Freetown.
As if the suspicion from the general public was right, the World Bank in a letter dated Wednesday 17, 2007 has categorically criticized the SLPP government and went to the extent of describing its action as unilateral.
At the press conference, it would be recalled Dr. Nouz claimed that GTZ has already invested the sum of twenty thousand dollars to kick-start the operation. This amount of money is hoped to be realized more than that time considering the quantum of money the World Bank is intending to put into the cleaning exercise.
Realizing the financial benefits to be derived, the government in collaboration with GTZ quickly deprived the Freetown City Council of performing its municipal function.
Mr. Weibe Moes of the World Bank, in a letter to the government and other institutions such as the Guma Valley Water Company, SALWACO and some members of the civil society groups stated thus “…GoSL has unilaterally decided to take away the responsibility for solid waste management from the Freetown City Council and put it with the assistance from GTZ…..”
The unilateral decision of government as highlighted in the letter by Mr. Wiebe Moes did not go down well with the funding body. Consistent with this Mr. Wiebe Moes is expected to arrive on January27, 2007 to hold further discussion with the relevant authorities.
The Mayor of Freetown, Mr. Johnson has maintained sealed lips when contacted. However, close sources to the Mayor explained that he is aware of everything and has described it as the “Politics of the SLPP government “
It is expected that Wiebe Moes would travel with other World Bank officials in the person of Arthur Swaton and Dan O’ Hearn.

Subject: Re: World Bank exposes SLPP 's garbage politics
From: Olu Beckley
To: All
Date Posted: 16:41:40 01/19/07 ()
Email Address: mariamab@aol.com
Entered From: at 206.113.148.2

Message:
To de-centralize and then turn around and re-centralize is criminal, undemocratic and unconstitutional.

Freetonians should make known their disgust for this blatant erosion of their democratic right to have a responsive local government that represents them; develops the capacity to provide them with the services they need, and be accountable to them at the next local government elections. This government should not be allowed to derail the progress made so far with the decentralization process.

Other local government should be wary of the precedence set by the Press Release from the Office of the President.Which local government will be the next victim is just a matter of time.

Subject: Re: World Bank exposes SLPP 's garbage politics
From: FREETOWNINIAN
To: All
Date Posted: 17:00:37 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Olu,

The people of Freetown do not give a damn about all what you have said. They are just thankful that their city is now been cleaned. Trust me, the people were tired of the filth that the Mayor, his council and gov't were unable to clear. Although most of the trash is scattered by the people anyway, but they are still thankful that at least action is been taken.

FREETOWNIANS ARE TRIED OF YOUR DIVISIVE POLITICS.

Subject: Re: World Bank exposes SLPP 's garbage politics
From: Olu Beckley
To: All
Date Posted: 06:38:58 01/20/07 ()
Email Address: mariamab@aol.com
Entered From: at 65.117.246.204

Message:
How come we stoop so low and demean other people's intelligence only to impose our will on others and deny them their democratic right? For Sierra Leone, awareness and positive thinking is permeating the society very fast. When government action and uphandedness becomes the talk of the day along office corridors, in poda-podas and ghettos, we need to be concerned. Lansana Conteh has just started to pay the price for taking Guineans for granted.

Governments are not always right. They make mistakes, and it takes a commitment to the national welfare to accept mistakes and makes ammends. This is what the NEW APC with the Hon. Ernest Koroma as leader and Presidential Candidate stands for.

Subject: Re: World Bank exposes SLPP 's garbage politics
From: JAMMEHCRAZY
To: All
Date Posted: 16:17:24 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
As if the suspicion from the general public was right, the World Bank in a letter dated Wednesday 17, 2007 has categorically criticized the SLPP government and went to the extent of describing its action as unilateral.

At the press conference, it would be recalled Dr. Nouz claimed that GTZ has already invested the sum of twenty thousand dollars to kick-start the operation. This amount of money is hoped to be realized more than that time considering the quantum of money the World Bank is intending to put into the cleaning exercise.
Realizing the financial benefits to be derived, the government in collaboration with GTZ quickly deprived the Freetown City Council of performing its municipal function.

Mr. Weibe Moes of the World Bank, in a letter to the government and other institutions such as the Guma Valley Water Company, SALWACO and some members of the civil society groups stated thus “…GoSL has unilaterally decided to take away the responsibility for solid waste management from the Freetown City Council and put it with the assistance from GTZ…..”

So where is the condemnation, if this was what the World bank said. Standard Times continues to disappoint me.

“…GoSL has unilaterally decided to take away the responsibility for solid waste management from the Freetown City Council and put it with the assistance from GTZ…..”

I do not see any condemnation in the above statement. But again, its from the JOINDALIST of salone, so i am not shocked. SALONE SORRY YAH

Subject: Re: World Bank exposes SLPP 's garbage politics
From: WORLD BANK MAN
To: All
Date Posted: 16:20:08 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
“…GoSL has unilaterally decided to take away the responsibility for solid waste management from the Freetown City Council and put it with the assistance from GTZ…..”

Are you sure the world Bank people cannot even write proper English? This sentence does not make any sense.

Subject: Re: World Bank exposes SLPP 's garbage politics
From: Political Paraplegic
To: All
Date Posted: 07:09:41 01/20/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cpe-69-206-234-17.nyc.res.rr.com at 69.206.234.17

Message:
What does Command of The english Language Have to Do with Cleaning Your own SHIT?

The only issue here is that Anyone incapable of administering their own personal hygiene is nothing but an Invalid?

So Sa Lone government en City Council Nasty en Alaki Period!

Whosoever, Think lek dem en do lek dem ,nar Wan of Dem!

Subject: Peter Anderson's Network Africa Interview
From: NETWORK AFRICA
To: All
Date Posted: 15:58:31 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
I listened to the interview, and it makes a lot of sense. SamForay and his tribalistic group are pathetic. They lack credibility. Please listen to his interview.

Subject: HINGA NORMAN SWEARS KABBAH
From: Presidential Spokesperson
To: All
Date Posted: 15:43:50 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-rtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.101.8

Message:
CULLED FROM STANDARD TIMES

His Excellency
President Alhaji Dr. Ahmad Tejan Kabba
President of the Republic of Sierra Leone
Your Excellency,
I have the honour to respectfully address an open letter to your Excellency for all the affections you, your Government and Party extended to me and the other CDF/SL members in jail throughout the various holidays since your concocted court indicted us for restoring you and your Government to power.
Chief Norman being escorted on way to Senegal

I also wish to thank you for what you did for all the CDF/SL members and those across the nation and the world on today’s date (January 18 2004) commemorating the end of the Disarmament and end of war in Sierra Leone.
Your Excellency’s machination in transforming RECONCILLATION into PROSECUTION in Sierra Leone of men who laid down their lives for your Excellency, Government and the Nation will surely be remembered. Your Excellency’s betrayal of the CDF/SL and the MENDE/KAMAJOHS and the bitter ungratefulness will surely be rewarded even, abundantly by the good Lord!
Since your Excellency and Government have deemed it MORALLY RIGHT to go back on your SIGNED undertakings in the LOME AGREEMENT in respect of the CDF/SL and particularly the Kamajors, the CDF/SL has no alternative but to forward the following request for urgent action.
Resulting from series of careful discussions among representatives of ADMINISTRATORS, INITIATORS, DIRECTORS, COMMANDERS, FIGHTERS AND OTHER SERVICES of the entire membership of the CDF/SL across the nation, it was decided that your Excellency President Alhaji Dr. Ahmad Tejan Kabba,
Commander-in-Chief, Minsiter of Defence and National Commander of the Civil Defence Forces of Sierra Leone (CDF/SL) be informed that the remaining members of various categories listed below are requesting on urgent payment of full compensation for services rendered to the President and Government of Sierra Leone from 1996 to the year 2002 (January 1996 to January 18, 2002) as Civil Defence Forces (CDF) was legitimized by parliament. In the services of Government, many of the fighters died, injured and disabled and most are still missing. Today, their rewards are false charges of crimes against humanity, murder cannibalism, rape, looting etc; indictments against the MENDE/KAMAJOHS not that we did, but that we bear greatest responsibility for those who did the acts. God alone knows the next tribes in line to be charged for services rendered or for the actions of those who rendered CDF services to your Excellency, your Government and the nation.
Payment is due to the following: -
a) ADMINISTRATORS
b) INITIATORS
c) DIRECTORS
d) COMMANDERS
e) FIGHTERS
f) OTHER SERVICES
Now that UN Funded DDR programme is said to have ended December 31, 2003 without addressing the issues of compensating the remaining huge number of fighters especially now that the men are being prosecuted and harassed, no talk of gratis service will be entertained.
Your Excellency is therefore informed that registration has been ordered across the nation for the purposes of assessing the number of persons and amounts payable to every individual and the total amount involved.
The CDF/SL is requesting the entire DDR completed documents indicating the total CDF personnel disarmed and total amount paid to the CDF/SL (names, addresses and tools and equipment given out and their cost for verification. Also names of CDF students, paid for throughout the various institutions across the nation. The demand for payment is non-negotiable.
Highest regards – believe me.
Your Excellency’s servant,

Chief Samuel Hinga Norman JP.
National Co-ordinator-CDF/SL

Cc:
- Vice President of The Republic of Sierra Leone
- Majority Leader (SLPP) in Parliament
- Minority Leader (APC) in Parliament
- All CDF ADMINISTRATORS, COMMANDERS, DIRECTORS, …INIIATORS, FIGHTERS and OTHER SERVICES.
- UNAMSIL
- Diplomatic & Consular Corps.
- CDS.
- Inspector General of Police
- All Unions
- Civil Societies.
- TRC
- Special Court
- RUFP
- Inter Religious Council
- Press.
- File.

Subject: Re: HINGA NORMAN SWEARS KABBAH
From: Lawyer No 1
To: All
Date Posted: 03:59:57 01/20/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-129-164-0.range86-129.btcentralplus.com at 86.129.164.0

Message:
I do not see any SWEARING, in this letter.He sound, very defiant though.Perhaps his arrogance is the cause of his current predicament.

Subject: Re: HINGA NORMAN SWEARS KABBAH
From: NYABINGHI DREAD
To: All
Date Posted: 17:50:23 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
MENDE/KAMAJOHS?????????

All the Kamajors were MENDES. No one can be a Kamajor UNLESS he is MENDE. Give us a break. I have always said that Hinga norman was not Fighting for sierra leone, but rather he was fighting to bring the SLPP to power and that is why he feels betrayed.

"Today, their rewards are false charges of crimes against humanity, murder cannibalism, rape, looting etc"

WELL DUH!!!! ISNT THAT WHAT YOU DID? MAN I DONT BELIEVE THAT HINGA NORMAN WROTE THIS HE COULDNT BE THAT STUPID.

OVER TO YOU cadmus

Subject: Re: HINGA NORMAN SWEARS KABBAH
From: CADMUS
To: All
Date Posted: 11:37:45 01/20/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host217-42-214-6.range217-42.btcentralplus.com at 217.42.214.6

Message:
NYAMBINGHI DREAD,my good friend,

To my understanding, anyone fighting the Rebels was fighting for Sa Lone. Fighting the Rebels was not a 'Mende thing' Civilians fighting from each part of the country had different names attached to them.

From a personal point of view, I did not support the setting up of the Spacial court.However, it is an internationally set tribunal that must be respected..infact we have no choice now that it is here.

Alieu is a Learned Colleague who lives in the States. I always refer Legal matters to him to get his take from an American legal point of view.

On a more personal note,I want to take issue with the Gay Jibe....Quite funny, especially since I am notorious for being a 'WOMAN LAPPA' I have nothing against Gays in a democratic society. I am however married, to a very beautiful Sierra Leonean PRINCESS who I cannot swap for anything in this world.

Subject: Re: HINGA NORMAN SWEARS KABBAH
From: NYABINGHI DREAD
To: All
Date Posted: 14:00:24 01/20/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
CADMUS,
EXCEPT YOU ARE THE PERSON WRITING AS J LAMIN ISCANDARI, THEN THE COMMENT REGARDING BEING GAY WAS NOT DIRECTED TO YOU. I DONT KNOW WHO THIS ALIEU YOU SPEAK OF IS BUT HE MUST BE SOMEONE EVERYONE WANTS TO TACKLE WITH. HE APPEARS IN POSTS EVEN WHEN ITS NOT HIM.

SO ARE YOU THE PERSON WRITING AS J LAMIN ISCANDARI WHO IS ATTACKING ME AND CALLING ME BY OTHER PEOPLES NAMES?

YOU SAY
"To my understanding, anyone fighting the Rebels was fighting for Sa Lone. Fighting the Rebels was not a 'Mende thing' Civilians fighting from each part of the country had different names attached to them.

I SAY
CADMUS MY GOOD FLEN
THE MENDES WERE IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHTING ON ALL SIDES OF THE WAR AND IT SORT OF MAKES THOSE OF US WHO ARE NON MENDES WONDER WHAT WAS IN THIS FOR THEM. FOR STARTERS, THE RUF WAS OVER 80 TO 90 PERCENT MENDE IN CONSTRUCT. THE KAMAJORS WERE AND STILL ARE 100% MENDE IN CONSTRUCT.

OF COURSE THE KAMAJORS WERE CONSIDERED PART OF A CIVIL DEFENSE GROUPING LOOSLEY CALLED THE CDF. THE CDF INCLUDED THE KAMAJORS, THE DONSO'S , TAMMABORROS, THE GBETHIS, BUT WHY IS IT THAT ALL THE ARMS AND AMMUNITIONS PROVIDED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF TEJAN KABBA WAS PROVIDED TO THE KAMAJORS WHEN THE WAR EFFORT WAS NOT SINGULARLY THEIRS.

THERE ARE MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS AND YOUC OULD START BY ANSWERING SOME OF THESE PRESSING QUESTIONS FOR US IN AN HONEST AND FORTH LIKE MANNER.

THE PROBLEM ARISES WHEN WE FEEL LIKE YOU WANT TO HOOD WINK US INTO BELIEVING YOUR TRUTH AS UNIVERSAL.

STILL WE DAE YA SOH

Subject: Re: HINGA NORMAN SWEARS KABBAH
From: J. LAMIN ISCANDRI
To: All
Date Posted: 18:00:26 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Oh cousin Alieu,

You nor get shame. You are a wretched human being. You are the most useless and worthless Iscandri that has ever existed in this world. You are a disgrace. How is your thieving Daddy doing. The actions of your dad led to that war. He is my relative too, but I do not defend thieving relatives.

Alieu, you are pathectic.

Subject: Re: HINGA NORMAN SWEARS KABBAH
From: NYAMBINGHI DREAD
To: All
Date Posted: 19:11:57 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
AND WHO IS THIS ALIEU YOU TALK ABOUT. AM I SUPPOSED TO BE HE? OR ARE YOU JUST SUPPOSING THAT I MAY BE HE. SEEMS LIKE YOU JUST DONT LIKE HIM DREAD!!!! YOUR PROBLEM NOT MINE, LEAVE ME OUT OF YOUR THINGGAMAJIG WITH WHOEVER ALIEU IS. YOUR LAST NAME SOUNDS CORNY. ARE YOU GAY? JUST ASKING. BUT HOWS EVERYTHING THAT YOU HAVE SAID SO FAR RELATES TO WHAT I ADDRESSED. OH WELL ANOTHER DUMMY JUST SPOUTING OFF DE SAME OLE SAME OLE CRAP. GO GET SOME SEX MAN MAKES YOU FEEL MORE RELKAXED AND LESS UPTIGHT AAAAAAAAA HOLE. FAGGOT THIGGAMAJIG. OOPS WRONG WORD. HOMOSEXUAL MORE LIKE IT.

MAN GO TO HELL

Subject: Re: HINGA NORMAN SWEARS KABBAH
From: Prophet
To: All
Date Posted: 15:47:19 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 64.26.98.90

Message:
The beginning of the end of the SLPP. About time.

Subject: Re: HINGA NORMAN SWEARS KABBAH
From: PMDC
To: All
Date Posted: 15:53:15 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
If this was written by Norman, then I am not impressed. He is still SLPP. Norman should join the PMDC now, or else I will stop sending fumds to him. Enough is enough. This letter is so weak and unimpressive? Ungrateful Mende/Kamajor? Ay Norman, do not be a part of this tribalistic group concisiting of Foray.

Subject: Re: HINGA NORMAN SWEARS KABBAH
From: Concerned
To: All
Date Posted: 16:01:38 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-rtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.101.8

Message:
I am worried and concerned about what is going on in my country. If Kabbah is not careful, he will bring another war to Sierra Leone.

Subject: Re: HINGA NORMAN SWEARS KABBAH
From: Truth
To: All
Date Posted: 17:12:39 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-129-137-151.range86-129.btcentralplus.com at 86.129.137.151

Message:
It will come - only this time, the 10% messing up the lives of the 90% will die. Wherever they flee , they will be taken out.

I advise many to stay away during the elections. That is when things will erupt because of self-interst in all the parties. We do not have political fora that put the country above all else. Only fervent prayers can save us.

Subject: Re: HINGA NORMAN SWEARS KABBAH
From: CORRECTION
To: All
Date Posted: 16:05:25 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Sierra-Leoneans will bring war to salone, and not Kabbah. Kabbah is in his 70's and he has nothing to lose. Those Sierra-Leoaneans who want to destroy salone because of politics will be the ones suffering all over again.

Subject: Re: HINGA NORMAN SWEARS KABBAH
From: Truth
To: All
Date Posted: 17:18:20 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-129-137-151.range86-129.btcentralplus.com at 86.129.137.151

Message:
kabbah will have something to lose - do you believe in tomorrow - that your yesterday and today will path a way so noble tomorow. If kabbah dies now - not even kanji daramy will mourn him. kanji wants out but Pa Kabbah thinks his schemmings will work with the coming govt. SB marrah and the lagawos were hungry old men and they fell for his schemes. Kabbah had the opportunity to make Sierra Leone and himself honourable and better people but he chose the amassment of wealth. Do not think he will enjoy the last days of his life. I pray he finds leaders who will forgive and rehabilitate him.

Subject: Re: HINGA NORMAN SWEARS KABBAH
From: CORRECTION
To: All
Date Posted: 16:14:27 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
sierra-leoneans will bring war to salone and not Kabbah. there will be no war in salone.

THERE WILL BE NO WAR IN SALONE
THERE WILL BE NO WAR IN SALONE
THERE WILL BE NO WAR IN SALONE

TAKE YOU MUNKU BLAID EN GO JUMP NA SAMBA GUTTER. DIRTY COLOMBO.

Subject: Re: HINGA NORMAN SWEARS KABBAH
From: Truth
To: All
Date Posted: 17:19:50 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-129-137-151.range86-129.btcentralplus.com at 86.129.137.151

Message:
Do not be so defensive and dismissive. If you construct chaos you will breed chaotic elements.

Subject: Re: HINGA NORMAN SWEARS KABBAH
From: CORRECTION
To: All
Date Posted: 17:26:53 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Ok, bra. War will affect majority of the poor in salone. Only fools woll take part in a war. Who will destroy his country because of one man.

Do you know that the Un has already given Kabbah a job after his retirement? Majority of my poor folks will be killed and all the gains made so far will be reversed, but Truth will still be writting on the internet in the safety of his bedroom.

Subject: Re: HINGA NORMAN SWEARS KABBAH
From: Concerned
To: All
Date Posted: 16:11:07 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-rtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.101.8

Message:
KABBAH'S politics will bring war again. You just wait.

Subject: Re: HINGA NORMAN SWEARS KABBAH
From: Gbom Swear
To: All
Date Posted: 16:44:06 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host-155.robertsoncollege.com at 66.46.23.155

Message:
Pa Kabbah needs to be very careful.Now its Hinga Norman in the docks who knows what will happen to him tomorrow.Politics especially in sierra Leone has a funny way of rewarding our leaders...check out what happened to the likes of S.I Koroma,J.S Momoh,Kamara Taylor,S A J Musa,Valentine Strasser.

Subject: Re: HINGA NORMAN SWEARS KABBAH
From: Truth
To: All
Date Posted: 17:24:44 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-129-137-151.range86-129.btcentralplus.com at 86.129.137.151

Message:
My friend, you have profound wisdom. he who does not forgive others will not be forgiven. VAL was stupid and really dumb. I would have expected Kabbah to have set a precedent in his case by forgiving him and help in his rehabilitation to society again. Kabbah worked for Sierra Leone under VAL!! Kabbah will need our pardon to show him that his legacy was ruined because he was unable to look outside of his present condition.

Subject: Re: HINGA NORMAN SWEARS KABBAH
From: FORGIVEMNESS
To: All
Date Posted: 17:29:49 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Why does Val need forgiveness from Kabbah for? The gov't paid Val his pension about four years ago. Your Val is busy dring beer after beer at STOP PRESS. I saw him in Freetown last year, and even his friends keep buying stout for him. VAL nor to serious man. If he had done well for himself in England,at leat he should have finished his course.

Subject: SAM FOray is sick
From: SAM
To: All
Date Posted: 15:35:12 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 199.219.129.91

Message:
This sick old failed man SAm foray most be ship ro senegal to bed with his IDOL.
His love for attention is so great that he can say anything for people to notice...I see why Hinga Norman will be incacerated...HOW DARE THIS FOOL BRING ISLAM INTO THIS ISSUE? WHAT SENEGAL BEEN ISLAMIC STATE OR TEJAN KABBA BEEN VICE PRESIDENT OF SOME ISLAMIC ORGANISATION HAS TO DO WITH HINGA NORMAN...THIS FOOL SHOULD BE CAUSION...THANK YOU ALL...

Subject: Guinea ...Our troubled Neighbour!!
From: KLA
To: All
Date Posted: 15:30:19 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 164.82.85.3

Message:

Recent events in the Republic of Guinea, could best be described as problematic. Things look like they are falling apart. The Toure/Conteh era may be on a road Terminus. The familiar echoes of Change with her aura of deja vu, to others States in the MRU.

Resource rich Guineans are being proded to clear the way for some big game MRU resource Hunters. Guinea is the holder of some huge OIL and Natural resources wealth.

What do events in Guinea hold for Salone and the other
MRU partner?More Stress on fragile post War economies!

"Guinea's two powerful labour confederations, backed by 14 opposition parties, launched the strike to protest against government corruption and the decision by president Lansana Conte in December to free two of his associates who had been facing trial for embezzlement.

The strikers, who have paralysed the West African nation, are demanding Conte's resignation saying he is unfit to rule.".....

"LONDON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Alumina prices in Europe have risen this week on expectations of tighter supplies after a general strike in Guinea grounded trains carrying bauxite for export, traders said on Friday.

Guinea, in West Africa, is the world's biggest exporter of bauxite, which when refined becomes alumina -- the raw material used for making aluminium, the light metal used widely in cars, aircraft, buildings, packaging and consumer goods.

Traders estimate alumina prices are between $250 and $280 a tonne from $230 last week. " reuters.

Some of us have been concerned about events unfolding in Guinea, with the potential of impacts felt beyond the MRU....

Follow link to more on what looks like historical changes in Guinea.....Call it people power Guinea style
mes amis!!

TSTM
XX

Subject: Kabs, impose stringent measures
From: Concerned
To: All
Date Posted: 15:22:51 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-rtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.101.8

Message:
Kabs and Moderator, do you think this character Portia should be allowed to remain on this forum ?Whoever the person is is trying to cause mischief.

Kabs, you are trying to be democratic but do you think Sylvia Awareness Times will let ghosts come to her forum to insult her , like this portia mask is doing ?

I hope you give us the same opportunity to abuse those who we dislike.

Subject: Re: Kabs, impose stringent measures
From: Portia S
To: All
Date Posted: 15:42:55 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 70.237.0.17

Message:
"I hope you give us the same opportunity to abuse those who we dislike."

Why don't you go ahead. Are you that Concerned that you are now becoming yourself, that is, Kabs-Kanu aka Concerned?

If this is not Kabs himself, then I believe Kabs HAS a sense of humor so much that he would never ban anyone, even those that insult him. It is called FREEDOM OF SPEECH.

So buzz off.

Subject: Re: Kabs, impose stringent measures
From: KABS KANU
To: All
Date Posted: 15:48:09 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-rtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.101.8

Message:
Don't worry.Kabs Kanu is a free born and willnot use masks like you but will come out with his real name.

I will continue to allow democratic discussions but I think what CONCERNED is saying is that we should make a distinction between participation and mischief--And his/her suggestion is duly accepted.

Subject: Re: Kabs, impose stringent measures
From: Discipline
To: All
Date Posted: 08:51:53 01/20/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 64.26.98.90

Message:
Rev. Kanu, I think you should act against that person who is turning your forum into a cesspool of insults coming from his lie-lie names. Let me tell you, bra, he has put on masks and called himself Truth, Portia, Or Makey, Portia, Baba Oreilly, and many more. Bottom line is, mischief-making is not freedom of speech. Disturbing the peace of the forum is not freedom of speech, either

Pay no attention to yhis hypocrite appeal to you not to ban him so you can show you have a "sense of humor". Ad dae tell you bra, either your forum enforces rules against bad behavior or your forum would itself become a den of bad behavior. As Concerned said, no other forum would allow such misbehavior without disciplining the perp.

Subject: Re: Kabs, impose stringent measures
From: KABS KANU
To: All
Date Posted: 20:08:14 01/21/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: h167-156-253.63.chubb.com at 167.156.63.253

Message:
You are right, buddy.I am giving him the long rope. Thanks for your concern.

Subject: Re: Kabs, impose stringent measures
From: Concerned
To: All
Date Posted: 15:56:48 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-rtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.101.8

Message:
It is only in this forum that mischief-makers like you are allowed ?No other forum with stringent measures will allow you to ost.Just look around you. But I don't think you should take advange of the generousity of this forum.

BTW, your comments deviate from the topic. And please syop accusing me of being Kabs.I condemned Kabs at Sylvia's forum when he went overboard and did the same here.

So go siddon safful with you craiss.

Subject: Make some quick bread : Sonike interpreter needed
From: KABS KANU
To: All
Date Posted: 13:42:40 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-rtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.101.8

Message:
Good Afternoon!

I was hoping you might be able to help me. I need a Sonike (from Gambia) interpreter for an assignment on Wednesday, January 31st @ 2:30 PM in Philadelphia. Do you know of anyone who speaks this language? This would be a paid assignment and we would train the individual. I would appreciate any help that you can offer me.

Thank you,
MaryAnn Adams
AVANTE Language Services, Inc.
8012-A Castor Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19152
215-725-0100 Office
215-725-0300 Fax
www.avantelanguage.com

Subject: Re: Make some quick bread : Sonike interpreter needed
From: KLA
To: All
Date Posted: 14:49:16 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 164.82.85.3

Message:
I think you still have time to contact the Gambia or Senegalese Diplomatic Delegations either in New York
or D.C.

The US state Dept, peace corps and like moded organizations may be of help.

Commence with a thorough internet search for relevant leads.

Tstm
XX

Subject: The All Peoples Congress Crisis: No End In Sight?
From: J. LAMIN ISCANDRI
To: All
Date Posted: 13:07:47 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
The All Peoples Congress Crisis: No End In Sight?
Posted by Claude Cooper ceekaycooper@yahoo.com on Jan 19, 2007, 23:00

The year is 2007 and the most significant event as far as this country, Sierra Leone is concerned, is the July 28th Presidential and Parliamentary elections. I have said in the past and I am going to state it here again that the issue of the coming election should not be downplayed by and Sierra Leonean.
This is primarily because this election is not only going to provide Sierra Leoneans with the opportunity of ensuring a peaceful change of regime but produce representatives that will be always be held accountable by the people.

As a people we want a sober election, one that will be truly reflective of the peoples’ wish. If this is to happen, the one thing that needs to be ensured is the participation of opposition political parties.
It is clear that neither the government nor any individual has the potential of stiffling opposition parties, which is why many people welcome the United Nations Integration Office in the country and its comments about political events.

Disappointingly, what is happening with one of the opposition parties is not encouraging. The leading opposition political party, the All Peoples Congress (APC) seems to be torn apart by intra party fighting.
Whilst it might be seen that the crisis within the APC is purely an intra-party matter and as such outsiders have nothing to do with it, many however feel duty bound to be commenting on the issue because this type of ‘madness’ is not only going to end up disintegrating that partly but will also deny this nation a formable opposition to the ruling party.

As a political commentator, I am aware of the dangers we will head for when a ruling party has no threat. There is need for opposition parties to be keeping those in power on their toes so as to work in the interest of the nation as a whole.
As it is now, everyone is very much aware of the fact that this crisis within the APC has dragged on for too long. Painfully, there seems to be no end in sight as far as this crisis is concerned.
It is also painfully that this so called crisis erupted within a political party that has refused to be put under control.

If such an issue cannot be resolved at the party level, what then makes the All Peoples Congress a political party?
Perhaps those quarrelsome people within APC need to search for Essentials of Government by Oladipo Venn for an understanding of what a political party should be.

This conflict even became a national and international concern as was demonstrated by the intervention of then UNAMSIL with the aim of resolving it before its departure from the country.

There again the hawkish members of the APC did not give any chance for the matter to be resolved. The intervention infact only happened after a protracted court battle between the pro and anti-Ernest Koroma.
There is concern about two things, firstly that this crisis has lasted far beyond any mind would have imagined, and secondly, the need to know who is going to be the beneficiary, if there is going to be any at all, of this unending conflict.

As this conflict continue to drag on, one is made again to ask why the war against Ernest Bai Koroma. What has he done that is so grievous that he should deserve such a war waged against him?
This is important because, Chinua Achebe once remarked in his popular novel, Things Fall Apart that anger against a kinsman should be felt in the flesh and not in the bones. Why is this anger about Ernest Bai Koroma felt deep down in the bones?
While interest is particularly in Ernest Bai Koroma there is also concern that this ongoing crisis has the potential of disintegrating the party. The direct effect of this on the nation will be the absence of a credible opposition to the running party.

Additionally if Ernest Bai Koroma is perceived by a vast majority of the membership of the APC as the most suitable leader of that party, this war waged on him will end up depriving that party of good leadership.
Are these not a cause for concern?
There is need to return to the question why this fight against Ernest Koroma. From all over findings one of the crimes of Ernest Koroma is that he is perceived by those political vultures as an outsider. To them Ernest Bai Koroma has no business being in the APC. This perception is only held by the few that are actually fighting him, and whilst the current gang fighting him believes in hard-heartedness, Ernest Bai Koroma is admired even beyond his APC party for his gentility. In fact even members of the SLPP are convinced that he is the gentlest politician to enter into Sierra Leone politics after the late Sir Milton Margai.

Viewing Ernest Koroma from this angle and the perception of those fighting him that he is too gentle a man to be part of them, one might be tempted to believe that they might be right, in the sense that while Ernest Koroma very much appears to be a gentleman in all his dealings those that have ganged-up against him are hard core fighters who believe in neither subsuming nor accepting defeat. What they have not stopped to ask themselves is what good can ever come out of such a fight?

Thus the first and most propagated crime reportedly committed by Ernest Koroma is that the so called hard core APC sees him as an outsider, who has intruded into their political realm. For those people, Ernest Koroma, even at his age and inspite of all his achievements, is still a young man to take leadership of the APC.

Not that those fighting him do not believe in his leadership but they feel he is a young man, belonging to the APC new generation, and therefore should not be given any breathing space to pursue his political and national ambition.
Painfully, while their so called young man is fighting tooth and nail to climb the political leader, those that are supposed to be his own kinsmen have grabbed his legs and are drawing him back. In such as dangerous situation, who will gain? Or is it that as long as they cannot become the APC presidential candidates, nobody else should be allowed to enjoy such?

Is this how a political party should operate so that if it is not one of them it will never be Ernest Bai Koroma?
One would have been so surprised about this war against Ernest Bai Koroma if time has not been taken to look deep into this manner. The fact is and shall always be that Ernest Koroma is being fought against by his own northern brothers. In fact to be regionally specific, his Bombali district kinsmen.

One fundamental reason advanced, though tacitly, by the war mongers is that Ernest Bai Koroma is not a “Full Blooded Themne”. To those ‘Kakatua’s’ Ernest Koroma’s father was a Limba. This in their estimation and interpretation means that he is not a full blooded Themne.
Those spearheading the fight believe that only full blooded Themne (mother and father Themne) will be allowed to head the APC. It is certainly difficult to actually tell the significance of such as far as national politics is concerned.
What is the use of somebody’s tribe or region when the person has the qualities that should make him or her leader?

Ernest Bai Koroma is therefore fought by his own brothers because they consider him an intruder into their political realm and also because he is not a full blooded Themne. For these reasons those allegedly aggrieved with him want to ensure that either he is entirely thrown out or the party or the party is not allowed to exist.
There are few issues however to note about this. Firstly it will be better if those fighting to depose Ernest Koroma as leader of the APC realize the fact that at the time of creation, no one ever exercised any form of control as to who must be the parent or what tribe a man has to belong to. If this is the situation what will be the justification of ganging up against an individual because of his tribe or region?

Additionally, even if those fighting Ernest Koroma still consider him as a good man, it would have been better if time has been taken to look at the man’s track record. Apart from the fact that he is largely seen as a successful business entrepreneur, one that he can take to bring innovation into the politics of Sierra Leone, age is on his side.

There is no denying the fact that the success of businesses such as that which Ernest Koroma has been engaged in definitely requires innovation and forward looking. This is one great thing that can be injected into the Sierra Leone politics.
Perhaps it would be appropriate to state here that modern public management definitely requires somebody with not only political/liberal ideas but economics as well. Government today, especially if it has to be good governance, has to be about service delivery, hence the reason why someone with economics background would be required.

At least men if Ernest Koroma had not studied economics as a subject, and his long involvement in his business venture today placed him in a comfortable position business certainly succeeds as a result of initiative, which can also be transferred into politics.
Viewing this therefore it is the belief of marry that even if Ernest Koroma’s brothers are still seeing him as a very young man, he should have been given chance for them to see what innovation he would have brought into the APC.

The other issue is that it is painful to learn that most of these people involved in this matter are really supposed to be intellectuals that are behaving like mediocre. This is because every one should have loved to hear concrete reasons other than ‘age’ and ‘tribe’ as to why they think Ernest Bai Koroma should not lead the party.

At least the identities of most of these people who are determined not only to tear APC apart and subsequently kill the opposition are known, and interestingly most of them do pretend that they no longer have interest in the fight against Ernest Bai Koroma. However, none of then have been able to make a public declaration of their withdrawal as far as this matter is concerned.

It has also not been demonstrated in their actions yet they still continue to pretend that some of them have long dropped that matter.
So the question is, why are they still involved in this matter? What is it that they actually want? What do they hope to actually achieve out of all this?
As we continue to thoroughly monitor this event, one is made to wonder whether there are at all elders of the party.

Is there a body that those ‘Kakatua’s’ can listen to? What then is the meaning of their political party or association?
Many in the party are aware of the fact that few elderly statesmen in and out of the APC have been trying their level best but to no avail. For most of us, we cannot sympathize with the APC members because of this. In fact the failure to resolve this matter is a weakness on the part of the party members.
How for goodness sake can a whole political party allow a handful of so called disgruntled people to hold that party to ransom?

After all this is why one would now believe that those so called disgruntled are determined to destroy that party. Perhaps they know what they are going to gain by such action. It is therefore more than time for the rest of the membership of the APC to rise up against the excesses on the part of these few people.

Listen to some of the theories that some of these war lords brought back APC into existence when it was thrown into the political wilderness.
Is this enough justification to deprive someone of leader and put the party into disarray? If this can be justified what then can people like Mana Kpaka, Charles Margai to name but a few, will say about President Kabbah?

After all while Mana Kpaka remains committed and loyal to the SLPP in all the years, Charles Margai single handedly brought back the current SLPP into being.
Did the Mana Kpaka’s or Charles Margai say President Kabbah was in the diaspora and cannot become leader of the SLPP? Where then did these APC war lords get this idea that it is only they who re-registered the party that must be leaders of the party?

Perhaps I would not have actually bordered about this issue if it didn’t seem like undermining effective opposition. Whatever one might say, when one listens to parliamentary debate, one would readily agree that APC has got materials. When you listen to the Kemoh Sesay’s, the Hafsatu Kabbah, the Dumbuya’s, the Dauda Kamara, etc, one would readily agree that the indeed have political materials.

Their only problem in parliament has been the small number and that is why they have not been able to enforce issues. Painfully, it is this small number of the APC that those hawkish members of that parliament want to further reduce.

In all this political skirmishes, it would have been worthy to listen to those political vultures that want to devour that party if they had gone out and produced a formidable alternative to Ernest Bai Koroma.
Perhaps the impossibility of doing so has largely been due to the simple fact that in the rank and file of the fighters, there is no body that can measure up to Ernest Bai Koroma.

Therefore, if that is the situation, why continue to fight this individual who wants to, and has the support, take this party to higher heights?
If this war continues to be waged on Ernest Koroma, it is an indication that the fighters have been so blind by their hate for their brother that they are now prepared to kill the party they claim to own.

Perhaps one might be made to believe that either the APC is unfortunate or Ernest Bai Koroma must have made the wrong decision of going to join his brothers in the APC. After all, people in the opposition parties have great admiration for Ernest Bai Koroma. In fact it is an opinion entertained in many quarters that if only Ernest Bai Koroma was in the SLPP, people like vice President Berewa would never have been considered for the leadership of the party.

Why is Ernest Koroma totally resisted by his own brothers? When will they learn that they are making a grievous mistake, or they want to wake up at the wrong hour

Subject: The Norman-Fofana-Kondewa Families Fund
From: PATRIOT
To: All
Date Posted: 11:11:23 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:

The Norman-Fofana-Kondewa Families Fund

Good Greetings Leonenet Family Members:

As you already know, Chief Hinga Norman has been sent to Dakar, Senegal for medical care, thanks to the good work of Chief, many other good folk in Sierra Leone, and many folk on and off Leonenet in the Diaspora.

We had been anticipating this day, albeit not in the manner in which the yuki-yuki special CUT has handled the event. Nonetheless, be assured that our folk in Dakar, Senegal will do all they can to make sure that Chief Norman gets the best medical care and be treated with the dignity that he deserves.

Now, as you have done in the past, we need your urgent financial contribution, so that we can send either Rev. Alfred SamForay or Karmor Mohamed Tarawally to Senegal to assure Chief Norman that we in the Diaspora have not abondoned him, Moinina Fofana and Alieu Kondewa. The person who goes will also help effect activities that had already been planned.

So, please, please, please, send your very generous donation via check or money order like the proverbial yesterday to our very trustworthy brother at the following address (please write his name on the check or money order):

Mr. M. S. Mansaray
441 Hialeah Drive Cherry Hill, New Jersey 08002

You can reach Mr. Mansaray via the following means:
Telephone: 856.495.9577
E-mail: mansaray1@comcast.net

May Allah/God Bless you Ten Thousand Times for all your good help.

In Peace Always,
Abdul Karim Bangura/.

Subject: Re: REMEMBER KORIBONDO
From: coppor color
To: All
Date Posted: 14:46:22 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
yes sir we will be sending some dried up blood of our family members killed by kamajor atrocities, our dried up salty tear drops, our pain and suffering AND OUR NOT SO DISTANT MEMORIES OF OUR LOVED ONES

Subject: YAYA JAMMEH DON CRAISE
From: BRA ENVIABLE
To: All
Date Posted: 08:15:24 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-dtc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 205.188.116.198

Message:
Dis Gambay boy don craise. President Yaya Jammeh of Gambia is the latest African reincarnation of Idi Amin. At least in miniature, President Jammeh behaves and sounds like Idi Amin. He is on record as saying that he can "lock people up in prison until they die."

Well, his megalomania has taken another step. Now he believes he can cure the deadly human scourge, AIDS.
Next stop? He will probably invade Senegal as Amin did by invading Tanzania.
That, of course, will mark the end of an idiot that overthrew one of West Africa's {BEST} respecter of Human Rights, Sir Dawda Jawara.
Jammeh as doctor?
As Nigerians will say, "Na waah oh!"

Subject: Community demands Sierra Leone People's Party T-Shirts
From: Town Crier
To: All
Date Posted: 08:01:32 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: dialup-4.184.80.146.dial1.weehawken1.level3.net at 4.184.80.146

Message:
Community demands Sierra Leone People's Party T-Shirts
By John Mansaray
Jan 18, 2007, 23:14 Email this article
Printer friendly page
You May Click Here To Read or Discuss Views About This Article

Inhabitants of the No. 9 Community at Lumley in the far east of Freetown a part of the Western Urban Constituency 15, have requested for over two thousand (2000) SLPP T-shirts from the SLPP secretariat as an indication of their support and loyalty to the party and its Leader, Vice President Solomon Berewa, in the wake of the forthcoming Parliamentary and Presidential elections in July this year.

This demand was made during a recent visit by to the residence of Vice President Berewa by a delegation, headed by SLPP Member of Parliament and Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Elizabeth Alpha Lavalie, herself a resident of the No. 9 Community.

Making the requests, Hon. Lavalie maintained that it is out of their burning desire to have themselves conspicously identified with the SLPP so as to discourage any other party from making any attempt at canvasing in their community. "We really want to make ourselves known as true loyalists of the SLPP and Vice President Berewa", Hon. Lavalie stated. She assured that the No. 9 community is fully SLPP noting that this came about as a result of the impression the party has made on the community over the years.

Hon. Lavalie on behalf of the community therefore extended an invitation to the Vice President to visit the community for what she said was "give you our blessings so as to reinforce the victory which already awaits you after the 28th July elections".

Responding, VP Berewa thanked the delegates and the No.9 Community for their show of fortitude in support of him and the SLPP. He said the community had not mistaken at all in showing out their support for him and the SLPP because according to him, "the SLPP is the only political party that is on the right side of history in the interest of Sierra Leone". He assured them of continued development assistance.

© Copyright by Awareness Times Newspaper in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

You May Click Here To Read or Discuss Views About This Article
Top of Page

Subject: Re: Community demands Sierra Leone People's Party T-Shirts
From: CADMUS
To: All
Date Posted: 09:20:20 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-130-53-235.range86-130.btcentralplus.com at 86.130.53.235

Message:

How encouraging! Good for you SOLO B.

Subject: Re: Community demands Sierra Leone People's Party T-Shirts
From: M. Alieu Iscandari Esq
To: All
Date Posted: 14:53:13 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
Once again you show the dearth of knowledge you possess with regards to the geography of Freetown. Lumely is NOT in the EAST of Freetown. In your haste to use your unanlytical mind set to wave the flag I bet you didnt even realise the serious geographical error in the story which of course makes the story...... well another planted story. The People of Lumley that I know are staunchly anti SLPP.

Stay Blessed

Subject: Re: Community demands Sierra Leone People's Party T-Shirts
From: CADMUS
To: All
Date Posted: 15:23:03 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-130-53-235.range86-130.btcentralplus.com at 86.130.53.235

Message:
ALIEU ISCANDARI,

Thank you for the information about Freetown...I must confess,shamefully as it may appeaer that I do not have a comprehensive knowledge of Freetown especially in terms of political divide.
One thing I am sure of, though, is that Support for SOLO B is growing fast which ever part of Freetown we put to issue.

ALIEU, SLPP will happily take the votes in Freetown, whereever they come from,East, West North or South.

It is not a blind support for SLPP, I just find it encouraging that people would demand so many T/Shirts from SLPP from just one area.

Subject: Re: Community demands Sierra Leone People's Party T-Shirts
From: M. Alieu Iscandari Esq
To: All
Date Posted: 17:33:10 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
"ALIEU, SLPP will happily take the votes in Freetown"

they sure will, because its gonna be a few available to them

Subject: Re: Community demands Sierra Leone People's Party T-Shirts
From: J. Lamin Iscandri
To: All
Date Posted: 14:57:55 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Instead of worrying about your party's inability to solve its internal problems, you are all over the place writing trash. Your party is as useless as you.

Subject: Re: Community demands Sierra Leone People's Party T-Shirts
From: M. Alieu Iscandari Esq
To: All
Date Posted: 17:38:05 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
Your party is as useless as you.

Bless your heart sir/madam.

Subject: Re: Community demands Sierra Leone People's Party T-Shirts
From: SoMoi
To: All
Date Posted: 09:17:43 01/19/07 ()
Email Address: Kemfatique@yahoo.com
Entered From: at 193.220.2.141

Message:
“PMDC won’t survive”...says ruling SLPP Minister
The SLPP government Minister of Lands, Country Planning and Environment, Dr. Bobson Sesay who doubles as the National Campaign Chairman and Regional Chairman of the SLPP party says the PMDC will not survive the July 28, 2007 elections. “I say so with all confidence because the PMDC is a party of disgruntled people; a party where every body has a case against someone in the country…this is the main reason why they won’t survive up to July 28, let alone win the election,” Dr. Bobson Sesay stated. However, critical national newspapers have dismissed Dr Sesay’s claim as ‘empty political ranting and wishful thinking’. The Peep Magazine writes: - “Dr Sesay and the SLPP government are behaving as if they are possessed by the ostrich mentality. Even when they see the writings clearly on the wall -that the people are definitely fed-up with them- they continue to believe that as long as they do not see or recognise the people’s feelings then that feeling does not exist. This year, the incidents of 1967 will repeat itself. Sadly though, history is meant to teach us to avoid past mistakes, but as it is, this government has refuse to learn.”

Subject: Re: Community demands Sierra Leone People's Party T-Shirts
From: brokeoseminister
To: All
Date Posted: 09:59:36 01/19/07 ()
Email Address: brokeoseminister@yahoo.com
Entered From: at 206.113.148.2

Message:
Bobson Sesay nor even know say he don los on 3 fronts:

1. Ee don los the race for running mate with the SLPP. The pa want da madinga bobo.
2. Ee don los the frame up charges against Luseni.
3. Even we nar gbonkolenken nor want am for represent we.

Subject: Re: Community demands Sierra Leone People's Party T-Shirts
From: ok dok
To: All
Date Posted: 11:20:47 01/19/07 ()
Email Address: okdok@yahoo.com
Entered From: at 24.66.94.142

Message:
Bobson Sesay is well upstairs to downstairs but only those who hate SLPP never want to hear people saying the truth.
T.Shirts is a good idea for supporters.

Subject: Re: Community demands Sierra Leone People's Party T-Shirts
From: M. Alieu Iscandari Esq
To: All
Date Posted: 14:50:19 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
T.Shirts is a good idea for supporters.

That is if T shirts will translate into votes. I dont believe so.

Subject: Re: Community demands Sierra Leone People's Party T-Shirts
From: ok dok
To: All
Date Posted: 19:14:31 01/21/07 ()
Email Address: okdok@yahoo.com
Entered From: at 24.66.94.142

Message:
A just press the light to see if you will comment.

Subject: Awareness Times : Norman blasts Special Court
From: Town Crier
To: All
Date Posted: 07:59:05 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: dialup-4.184.80.146.dial1.weehawken1.level3.net at 4.184.80.146

Message:
Chief Hingha Norman Blasts Special Court for Sierra Leone
By Sayoh Kamara
Jan 18, 2007, 23:23 Email this article
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You May Click Here To Read or Discuss Views About This Article

The Special Court for Sierra Leone in the early hours of yesterday, 17th January 2007 flew out two of its detainees; Chief Sam Hinga Norman (CDF) and Issa Sesay (RUF) to Dakar, Senegal apparently for medical treatment but Chief Hingha Norman has now exclusively revealed last evening to Awareness Times that he is very bitter against the Special Court whom he emphatically states has not taken him into any hospital but have instead "dumped me into the worst jailyard in Senegal".

However, the Special Court Spokesman, Peter Andersen denied the allegation when contacted last night.

"Chief Norman and Issa Sesay are in the VIP [Very Important Persons] wing of a military hospital in Dakar." Andersen told Awareness Times. When pressed further to name the military hospital, Andersen refused to do so appealing for understanding from Awareness Times because of what he termed as "obvious security reasons."

However, in an exasperated mood, Chief Norman stated unequivocally to Awareness Times during a facilitated telephone call between this newspaper and the Chief in Senegal that, the place himself and Issa Sesay had been taken to was, "very much unsatisfactory and not conducive for human living".

Chief Norman said they had been taken not into hospital as expected but that they had been "dumped" into what he termed as, "the worst jailyard in Senegal" pointing out that if they are not taken from where they are at present to a conducive place, preferably a hospital of international standard for his surgical operation to be conducted, he would, "resist any attempt at performing the surgery until I am removed from where I am at present to a place that is environmentally conducive for a surgical operation."

It now appears that the sudden transfer was done with the complete ignorance of the Norman family and his lawyer Bu-Buakei Jabbie who told Awareness Times yesterday that he (Jabbe) was surprised that Chief Norman was taken out of Sierra Leone without his knowledge. However, Special Court’s Peter Andersen posited that since it was a "medical issue" and not a "legal issue", the court did not need to inform the lawyers for Norman or Issa Sesay before flying them out for medical treatment.

Chief Norman himself explained to this newspaper that he and Issa Sesay were suddenly whisked from their cells very early in the morning on Wednesday to the Lungi Airport and put on board a helicopter which shuttled them to Dakar in Senegal after they were assured that they were going to be admitted into hospital.

According to Chief Norman, they had agreed with the Special Court for Sierra Leone to be taken to "a reputable hospital that meets the international standards set in the statutes of the Special Court but not to a squalid environment like we are in now", he angrily told Awareness Times, and therefore threatened, "If I am not removed from where I am now, I will embark on an indefinite hunger strike for the attention of the international community and the people of Sierra Leone as a way of highlighting my plight", he noted.

He went on to express fear for his life and disclosed, "As I speak to you now, I have not seen any Doctor. Nobody has spoken to me and since I arrived early this morning I have not been given any food to eat", adding, "We are being treated like virtual prisoners in a condition far worse than we were in at the Special Court in Sierra Leone."

He therefore called, "Because of all these unprecedented happenings, I want to tell Sierra Leoneans and the world through you Awareness Times that I, Chief Sam Hinga Norman, am very much afraid for my life as it is put in the hands of people I do not trust to administer any form of medical treatment on me", he stated.

Juliet Norman speaks with Awareness Times Editor last night

A daughter of Chief Norman, Juliet Norman who also spoke exclusively to Awareness Times pointed out that as a family, no one was informed or contacted about the transfer of her father. "I only came to know about it when I got an unexpected call from an unknown person in Senegal that my father wanted to talk to me", she said.

She explained that the family had earlier requested from the Special Court that they be informed whenever they want to take him any where for what ever medical treatment, noting that they had suggested that at least a member of the family be allowed to accompany him.

"I was therefore shocked to hear from Papa that he was in Senegal and was in a place that is a jailyard and not a hospital", Juliet told Awareness Times.

Juliet Norman drew a hypothesis emphasizing the concern of the Norman family, which suggests that her father may be about to be treated like the late Foday Sankoh.

"Perhaps because of fears that he might say things which some people never wanted to be known by the Sierra Leone people, he was first put in what they called "catatonic condition" only for him to die later. I am therefore very much concerned over my father’s welfare and life especially in the kind of conditions he now finds himself", Juliet said.

According to Juliet Norman, she does not believe that her father was actually taken to Senegal for an operation.

"How could they have smuggled him out of the country like he was already a condemned prisoner that is being taken to the gallows?" she commented.

The Family of Chief Sam Hingha Norman at the Awareness Times offices last night

Miss Juliet Norman on behalf of the Norman Family (who all accompanied her to the Awareness Times offices last night) and on behalf of her father called on the international community especially Human Rights bodies to impress on the Special Court for Sierra Leone to bring back her father to Sierra Leone or to take him to international standard hospital and to also ensure the presence of at least a member of their family where ever he was to undergo his operation.

She said she was making this call because "I am not actually sure whether Papa would receive the kind of attention a surgical patient deserves if he is forced to be operated on. I truly do not have any confidence that he would be treated accordingly", Miss Norman asserted.

The daughter of Chief Sam Hingha Norman at the Awareness Times offices last night.

Since agents of the Special Court arrested him on 10th March 2003, Chief Norman has been complaining of pains in his right thigh, which he attributed to a fall in the vehicle which was transporting him to the Special Court. He had complained that his hands were handcuffed behind his back and his right foot chained which made it impossible for him to gain his balance in the speeding vehicle when he had to fall heavily on his right side.

The operation that is to be performed upon him is expected to be a hip replacement operation.

In a passionate appeal last night to Awareness Times, Chief Norman pleaded for this newspaper to ensure that the world got to know of his plight.

"I hope that you will not allow yourselves to be intimidated into not letting the world know of what has happened to me in Senegal." he pleaded.

© Copyright by Awareness Times Newspaper in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

You May Click Here To Read or Discuss Views

Subject: Re: I WONDER HOW SHE KNOWS THIS. LOL
From: M. Alieu Iscandari Esq
To: All
Date Posted: 14:31:34 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
Juliet Norman drew a hypothesis emphasizing the concern of the Norman family, which suggests that her father may be about to be treated like the late Foday Sankoh.

"Perhaps because of fears that he might say things which some people never wanted to be known by the Sierra Leone people, he was first put in what they called "catatonic condition" only for him to die later. I am therefore very much concerned over my father’s welfare and life especially in the kind of conditions he now finds himself", Juliet said.

Subject: Re: I WONDER HOW SHE KNOWS THIS. LOL
From: Ee Bayeh Bisin
To: All
Date Posted: 08:08:18 01/20/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cpe-69-206-234-17.nyc.res.rr.com at 69.206.234.17

Message:
Golley, Sankoh, Charles Taylor,Milosovich, Norman and Saddamm are classified under the category of Simple Criminals

Posturing as Political Wannabees..

Any person who gains mileages or fame and Power for personal Gratification at the expense of innocent Lives are SCUMS OF

THE EARTH WHO DESRVE THE WORST FORMS OF RETRIBUTION OR DEMISE!

Were it not for Political hurdles Like The Lome Accords Most of their Likes existing in our Communities Today would have Long EXPIRED!

Subject: Re: Awareness Times : Norman blasts Special Court
From: Norman in need of a psychiatrist
To: All
Date Posted: 12:43:11 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: pool-138-88-134-236.esr.east.verizon.net at 138.88.134.236

Message:
What I think this Norman fellow need is a psyhiatrist.
At one point he wanted to go on a hunger strike and at another, he is scared for his life. I now see why he was taken to Senegal even though the authorities are refusing to tell the specifics.

Subject: Re: Awareness Times : Norman blasts Special Court
From: Truth
To: All
Date Posted: 11:43:43 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-129-137-151.range86-129.btcentralplus.com at 86.129.137.151

Message:
We are all mediocres. For heaven's sakes, let those who believe their human rights are being violated to pester the undermentioned contacts as they have the resources to help Norman. Giving money to whomsoever will be a silly waste of time, space and finance. Thousand voices speak better than money.

New York

Press Desk
Tel: 1 212 216 1832
Fax: 1 212 736 1300
Email: hrwpress@hrw.org

Minky Worden
Media Director
Tel: 1 212 216 1250
Fax: 1 212 736 1300

Emma Daly
Press Director
Tel: 1 212 216 1835
Fax: 1 212 736 1300

Address:
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor
New York, NY 10118-3299 USA
Tel: 1 212 290 4700 (Main Number)

London

Tom Porteous
London Director
Tel: 44 20 7713 2766
Fax: 44 20 7713 1800
Email: porteot@hrw.org

Urmi Shah
Press and Information Officer
Tel: 44 20 7713 2788
Fax: 44 20 7713 1800
Email: shahu@hrw.org

Lance Lattig
Media Editor
Tel: 44 20 7713-3660
E-mail: lattigl@hrw.org

Eleanor Hevey
Associate
Tel: 44 20 7713 2782
Fax: 44 20 7713 1800

Address:
2nd Floor, 2-12 Pentonville Road
London N1 9HF, UK
Tel: 44 20 7713 1995 (Main Number)

Berlin

Marianne Heuwagen
Director
Tel: 49 30 2593060-12
E-mail: heuwagm@hrw.org

Wolfgang Buettner
Assistant
Tel: 49 30 259306-10

Address:
Poststraße 4/5 10178 Berlin, Germany
Tel. 49 30 259306 10
Fax. 49 30 259306 29
berlin@hrw.org

Brussels

Juliette Le Doré
Associate
Tel: 32 2 737 1490
Fax: 32 2 732 0471

Address:
Avenue des Gaulois, 7.
1040 Brussels, Belgium
Tel: 32 2 732 2009
Email: eupress@hrw.org

Subject: Re: Awareness Times : Norman blasts Special Court
From: AR GAINSE
To: All
Date Posted: 11:52:24 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Truth,

Nor waste you time. These norman supporters are just unbelievable. They are freaking liars. Even, independent minds like me who support Norman are getting tired of their whinning. Sam Foray sounds like are freaking idiot, and he keeps changing everyday. Just a couple of minutes ago, he said norman had some preliminary tests this morning in a Dakar hospital, and things are going on smoothly. I think I now believe the special court and these stupid tribalistic Norman supporters lack credibility.

Let me make it clear that not every Norman supporter is a tribalist(majority are decent and good people), but the likes of Sam Foray just make me wanna puke. Foray and his likes are disgusting human dogs.

Subject: President Kabbah's mistakes and miscalculations - Vanguard
From: Town Crier
To: All
Date Posted: 07:56:32 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: dialup-4.184.80.146.dial1.weehawken1.level3.net at 4.184.80.146

Message:
President Kabbah’s Mistakes and Miscalculations
- Thursday 18 January 2007.
Commentary

By Yankuba Kai-Samba, Brussels, Belgium.

President Kabbah’s judgements on security and peace were shown to be flawed and costly to innocent lives. His recent welcoming of the ECOWAS initiative to base its logistic depot in Freetown should not be left to his decision alone. His overt support and obsession to get Solomon Berewa to succeed him as president has made him an instrument of division in our country and he should go now.

In October 2006 The Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS) agreed to support a sub-regional peace keeping force with its logistic depot situated in Hastings,Freetown. At first glance, this seems a good move, when perceived from the past conflicts, the potential for more and the inability of domestic authorities to stop it. The president of Sierra Leone, Ahmed Tejan Kabba, has welcomed the ECOWAS initiative. But the country needs to know how such fundamental military commitments will impact on long-term peace and security, if the project comes to fruition and is fully implemented.

Meanwhile, the Speaker of Sierra Leone parliament, Mr Edmond Cowan, has made a cautionary remark against the deployment of foreign military bases in Sierra Leone without parliamentary approval. It can be deduced, therefore, that any commitment entered into by president Kabbah, without the necessary parliamentary approval will have no constitutional validity. Moreover, I believe that the security of a sovereign nation should not be delegated or compromised with foreign forces, unless such a project is able to recognise that there are viable competing internal political dynamics at play, hence an extensive debate and consultation on this initiative is required. Changes in the political dynamics can happen and when they do, they bring with them new challenges. Thus any strategic issue which involves military activities, must, therefore, solicit wider concerns to include other political parties, the sovereign army and civil society groups.

A debate in parliament and in the country should evaluate the ECOWAS initiative and not leave it to the judgment of president Kabbah, because in the past, his judgements on security matters were, to my mind, very poor. President Kabbah, as commander in chief of the armed forces was told in 1997 that a coup was planned and imminent, but did nothing, only for him to escape in a helicopter to Guinea when it happened. I was in Freetown as a Just Cam (JC) when the coup took place and was deeply affected by that experience. I was even shocked when amid the incessant gun fire in Freetown, I heard president Kabbah tell the people of Sierra Leone in his first interview with the BBC, from his hiding place in Conakry that, he knew of the planned coup three days in advance.

It cannot be stressed any further that this was a palpable negligence and a grotesque incompetence that casts serious doubt over president Kabbah’s leadership ability to make quick judgements and take effective, appropriate actions to avert serious crises. Two questions flow from this apparent incompetence. Firstly, why did President Kabbah fail to al3rt the unsuspecting public of the planned coup when he knew about it, so that people could have prepared some means of safeguarding themselves? And furthermore, why as head of the army did he also fail to act to preempt the coup he admitted to have knowledge of?

Strategic errors and vindictiveness
At the height of the RUF offensive President Kabbah was unable to trust even his own advisers. His judgement was imprisoned by his lack of prior political experience - he never made a political statement or was never quoted until he was recruited by the NPRC Strasser regime to help with constitutional issues. He was trapped by indecisions over viable policy options to end the war. He projected himself as a reconciler but miscalculated the strength of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) who remained impervious to negotiation and were determined to oust him from power.

The president accommodated the RUF through his policy of reconciliation, which he demonstrated by doses of appeasements, notably, the blanket amnesty he granted them. But his decision to drop the Executive Outcome mercenary group at a critical time when their superior weaponry seriously depleted the fighting and logistical capability of the RUF was a costly blunder because it helped the rebels replenished their arsenals and to regroup.

The signing of the Lome Accord by president Kabbah was the culmination of his failures to act robustly and decisively when given intelligence reports. A good number of people believed that had president Kabbah listened to the right advice and acted accordingly, he could have contained the rebels and forced a settlement largely based on his terms. As it happened, it was the RUF that forced peace on President Kabbah. Many also believed that the president’s policy of appeasement dangerously weakened his capability to mount the necessary co-ordinated assault on the aggressors despite the huge material, diplomatic, technical and financial support from both international and domestic sources.

The late secretary to President Kabbah, Sheku Bayoh, may his soul rest in peace, was privately critical of his boss’ handling of the war and thought the president was not receptive to credible advice. I spoke with Sheku Bayoh at State house before and after I held audience with President Kabbah days before the coup took place. I was not surprised when I learnt that subsequent to the coup Sheku Bayoh sought refuge in Ghana rather than join President Kabbah and the rest of his cabinet in Conakry. I believe it was because of president Kabbah’s weaknesses and his poor judgement that drove Sheku Bayoh to seek refuge with the AFRC Junta.

The history of human conflict has shown time and time again that force is a necessary component when dealing with an intransigent and brutal aggressor if peace were to be secured. The President’s reliance on reconciliation in the face of the merciless enemy onslaught was a tactical mistake that cost the lives of many brave men and women who fought and restored democracy and peace in Sierra Leone.

Before President Kabbah signed the Lome Peace Accord, he asked Dr Peter Tucker, his chief adviser at the time, to come up with recommendations- articulating his government’s position. But when President Kabbah realised that Dr Tucker’s views were contrary to his, (to sign the accord no matter what) he reacted badly and sacked Dr Tucker even though Dr Tucker’s advisory position was sponsored by DFID. President Kabbah had decided by himself to comply with the entire rebels’ demands, short of surrendering the presidency to them. But this was not properly communicated to the nation and parliament, partly because there was a glass ceiling between the presidency and the people he was supposed to defend. It was mainly the sycophants and job hunters who attracted the president’s attention at such a period of critical decision making.

Dr Tucker’s views strongly refuted the blanket amnesty and the rationale in signing an accord, in which the RUF could share power from a position of strength. Alarmed by the real prospect that the rebel would exploit the generous offer to seize power, he (Tucker) wrote to all parliamentarians urging them to reject the blanket amnesty, an exercise that greatly infuriated president Kabbah. Precarious as it was, the Lome accord placed the rebels a step closer towards seizing real power, since this was their reason for going to war. Without any evidence of a countervailing strategy shown by president Kabbah to forestall further troubles that could emanate from the signing of the shaky deal, it was deemed unsustainable by any good strategist. Moreover, the appointment of the rebel leader to the position of vice president and in charge of the diamonds, the very resources he utilised to fuel the war, was not only a strategic folly but an exercise that was deemed by many to be morally repugnant.

Constitutional violation.
It was through Dr Tucker that I first learnt during a meeting in London to discuss the Lome Accord that president Kabbah had violated the 1991 constitution when he bypassed constitutional avenues to sign the Lome Accord, which brought in Foday Sankoh as his vice president. Dr Peter Tucker is an Oxford trained lawyer and an architect of the 1991 constitution. Several other commentators with legal training, including Charles Margai, PMDC leader, Adikalie Foday Sumah and Dr S I Kamara - PMDC USA, have accentuated this position and several others have accused president Kabbah of multiple violations of the Sierra Leone’s constitution.

Weaknesses led to costly end
President Kabbah’s peace overtures to the rebels, through the repeated blanket amnesty, did not end the war as some people had perceived, but it motivated them instead. This was especially true because the president had abundant resources at his disposal, which he could have deployed to gain military supremacy over the aggressors and thus compel them to a settlement. Moreover, he did not fully utilise the fighting potential of the Civil Defence Forces, because he was advised that they could also pose future security threats to his presidency. However his fixation with reconciliation, which the RUF was not interested in, was misdirected and overplayed, hence we saw a rebel movement revitalised with a corresponding increase in brutalities each time the president granted amnesty to them. On 6th January 1999, as a consequence of the Lome Accord, the rebels invaded Freetown. It was estimated that at least 6,000 people were killed in Freetown alone; a carnage that was accompanied by mass rape and destruction of properties.

My view is that the victims and relatives of that carnage should hold president Kabbah personally liable and seek compensation from him when he leaves office, because it was his flawed decision against all plausible advice to sign the Lome Accord, plus his unwillingness to apply the appropriate strategy that contributed immensely to the rebels’ second successfull invasion of Freetown.

Notwithstanding that, president Kabbah could find himself confronted with multiple state enquiries unless Solomon Berewa is not defeated in the 2007 presidential election. For the purpose of accuracy and accountability the state will demand to know his stewardship of the economy and handling of the war that needlessly killed so many; his failure to carry out his pledge to tackle corruption; his alleged constitutional violations; his questionable deals with foreign financial predators involving our country’s natural resources; the controversy surrounding the alleged sale and purchase of the Sierra Leone High Commission in the United Kingdom; the illegal occupation by Guinean troops of Yenga; the usurpation of our immigration system that encourages illegal migrants from Guinea for the purpose of illegal mining of diamonds and piracy in Sierra Leone etc.

Why Solomon Berewa?
Many people of all walks of life and political divides across the country and in the Diasporas are genuinely curious to know why president Kabbah is investing so many resources on Berewa’s bid for the presidency.

Throughout this campaign for leadership, president Kabbah had gone into an extraordinary length to get Solomon Berewa elected as president, oblivious about the damage and disunity his overt backing for Berewa would cause the party and the country. In my honest opinion, president Kabbah has become an instrument of division in Sierra Leone and should, under these circumstances, do the decent thing and resign because he has become a lame duck president, no longer serving any useful purposes but only there to facilitate and promote Solomon Berewa’s presidential ambition.

A presidential deception on signing Lome accord?
Relations between Dr Peter Tucker and President Kabbah broke dawn for no other reason than President Kabbah’s intolerance with Dr Tucker’s objection to the blanket amnesty; even though he(Tucker) ultimately proved to be right. Do not sign a deal with rebels from a weak position; instead use all the resources at your disposal to force the rebels to a negotiation table, it was emphasised. Dr Tucker took temporary voluntary exile in the UK where he joined forces with the late former Sierra Leone High Commissioner to UK C P FORAY (may his soul rest in perfect peace), Mathew Ganda etc and formed the Movement for Human Rights, Justice and peace (MHRJP) with Dr Tucker as the chair, C P Foray as deputy and this author as secretary.

The movement aimed to help president Kabbah broker a sustainable peace based on justice. We believed that peace without justice could not be sustained and that the campaign to try the rebel leaders for conducting a senseless brutal war against the people of Sierra Leone must be critical to peace and reconciliation in Sierra Leone.

A meeting was underway at the late C P Foray’s High Commission’s residence in London when president Kabbah telephoned from Freetown and spoke to C P Foray, apparently acting on a tip off about the meeting.I learnt from that telephone conversation that president Kabbah had told C P Foray three weeks prior to the signing of the Lome deal that he would never sign such an accord with the rebels. But it was shortly after saying that, it emerged, that president Kabbah went ahead and signed with no substantive amendment. President Kabbah and Solomon Berewa, then Attorney General addressed the Sierra Leone community in London during which C P Foray repeated his misgivings on the Lome Accord in the presence of former UK development minister Clare Short.

President Kabbah was angered and embarrassed by C P Foray’s frankness from the high table. Like Dr Tucker the blanket amnesty created a serious rift between C P Foray and president Kabbah. C P Foray confided to us his intention to resign from the High Commission’s post to mount a political challenge to president Kabbah’s irresponsible leadership, but we advised him to wait for President Kabbah to sack him instead. As expected, president Kabbah did sack C P Foray but in a rather vindictive and humiliating manner. To me, president Kabbah’s sacking of C P Foray has a lot to do with the tensions triggered by the disagreement over the Lome accord and president Kabbah’s perception that C P Foray harbours a leadership ambition. Indeed C P Foray had leadership ambition and contemplated on declaring for the SLPP.

Threats ignored
Upon hearing of our misgivings over the peace deal and our movement’s campaign to put him on trial for war crimes, the late rebel Leader Foday Sankoh who was now president Kabba’s deputy went on the Sierra Leone Broadcasting service radio and threatened members of the MHRJP with the “long arm of the RUF“ for opposing president Kabbah’s peace plan. On the instructions of Dr Tucker, I wrote a letter to president Kabbah urging him to condemn Foday Sankoh for publicly issuing threats to our lives. President Kabbah ignored our letter. I was then convinced that President Kabba lacked vision and political convictions.

Indecisions and Betrayer?
President Kabbah was not explicit on what to do with the rebels in terms of bringing their leadership to justice, even though he knew the UN, Amnesty International and other rights bodies had rejected his policy on blanket amnesty for those responsible for the greatest human rights violations in the Sierra Leone war. However, his speeches to our stake holders and the Sierra Leonean community in London, suggested that he was inclined to adopt the South African concept of truth and reconciliation above international war crime trials. But president Kabbah did not demonstrate the strength and conviction to push it through to the people of Sierra Leone.

Besides, he was conscious of the fact that a trial of those with the greatest responsibility for violation of humanitarian laws, in the type of war that visited Sierra Leone, could lead to an open ended scenario and possibly drag in others from all unexpected quarters. One might ask: Did the president really want Hinga Norman to be tried for war crimes out of malice or did he lack the strength and courage to have resisted the international pressure? Why should other countries be so adamant in forcing a sovereign government to hand over Hinga Norman, regarded by many as a hero, to stand trial for war crimes, when he himself had fought alongside international armed contingents that were tacitly sanctioned by the international powers themselves to restore the democratically elected government in Sierra Leone?

Vice President Solomon Berewa shed some lights to these questions when he addressed his American audience during his sensitization tour. Solomon Berewa, who played a pivotal role in the Lome Accord stated to his audience that his government was pressurised by the donor countries to hand over Hinga Norman; adding that they, (donor countries) had threatened to withhold funds if his government did not comply. Surely, when a government sacrifices the liberty and freedom of a comrade in arms, widely recognised to have valiantly fought for the freedom and peace which they enjoy today, then serious questions must be asked about future military arrangements by the present government.

Kabba prolonged the war, the people and international community finally brought peace in Sierra Leone.
A critical look at president Kabbah’s approach to the resolution of the conflict in Sierra Leone could show that rather than shorten the war, President Kabbah actually prolonged it through his policy of appeasement, indecisions- underpinned by internal strategic weaknesses of his own making. Fundamentally, the president inherited a state apparatus-the army, civil service etc that was not going to be loyal to him overnight. He needed the appropriate political skills and statesmanship to usher strategic changes without alienating the sensitivity of others. This, I believe he failed to do, but instead reverted to the old order and rewarded some of his staunchest advisers and kept them in key strategic positions. This, his administration called reconciliation. I call it political appeasement that could undermine true democracy.

Others have also asserted that the "SLPP led government" brought peace in Sierra Leone. I do not subscribe to this view though I accept that peace finally came with the current government in power. To understand how peace was finally restored in Sierra Leone, one must transcend party political propaganda and desist from attributing the peace we have today solely to the sitting government; a government that purported to be an SLPP government.

Let me explain what I meant by ’purported SLPP government’ before I move on. Because the constitution of Sierra Leone allows the executive president to appoint any qualified person he likes outside parliament to his cabinet, the current president has misused and overstretched it. Substantial numbers of President Kabbah’s appointees that formed his government were drawn from non-party members; those traditionally opposed to the party; opportunistic politicians; failed and rejected APC ministers and outsiders who, with the support of president Kabbah have elbowed out genuine committed supporters.

As for the actualisation of peace, it was the unusually horrific application of brutality on the civilian population by the rebel movement that paradoxically brought peace to Sierra Leone. For no civilised country in this century could have tolerated the kind of violence inflicted in Sierra Leone; a violence that was characterised by the chopping of children’s limbs and other unspeakable atrocities specifically targeted at the civilian population.

The world was shocked by the unprovoked attacks on civilians, with the hunted government of president Kabbah powerless to halt the carnage, led, indeed, to the application of the doctrine of responsibility to protect- thanks to the former UN Chief Koffi Annan. This doctrine calls for international intervention in a failed state and when a government is either unwilling or unable to protect it citizens in the face of unmitigated violation of humanitarian laws. The war in Sierra Leone provided a typical case for international intervention. When Her Majesty’s government sent 1000 fighters in Sierra Leone, it cited that very phrase for intervening and specifically because of the gross human rights violations, which the weak administration in Freetown could not prevent.

In today’s increasing conflicts in which unarmed civilians are targeted, the doctrine of responsibility to protect is increasingly being adopted and is gaining international moral acceptability as opposed to the long held closeted principle of non- interference in internal affairs. It was this doctrine that helped bring peace to Sierra Leone and not the policy of reconciliation or appeasement principally associated with the SLPP government.

Thus for anyone to attribute the achievement of peace in Sierra Leone solely to the SLPP government and turn this in to an electioneering issue is bogus and disrespectful to the suffering people of Sierra Leone. The government should accept that it did not have the capability to end the war and recognise that it was the complex international political dynamics and diplomatic manoeuvring coupled with the admirable resilience and steadfastness shown by the ordinary people of Sierra Leone against the evil junta that swayed international intervention that finally ushered peace in Sierra Leone.

ECOWAS logistic depot in Freetown, not a solution
It is against these backgrounds that Sierra Leoneans should participate more actively in any arrangement on their behalf that could impact on their security. The ECOWAS agreement to base its logistical depot in Freetown for its peace keeping force offers an important dimension to regional response to conflict in the sub-region. Others may view the peace-keeping force as a logical adaptation to enforce the doctrine of responsibility to protect in troubled states. But the difficulties, I perceive, is that it is almost inconceivable, even with the best of intentions, for ECOWAS to provide a coherent-sustainable mechanism in terms of policies, finance and logistical capabilities as a regional body that will be independent of world politics. Thus it is quite possible that the basic premise this initiative espouses (regional peace keeping force) will paradoxically be unraveled by- on the one hand- the internal contradictions and political conflicts from within the sub region and international political dynamics from the developed world- depending on whose interest was at stake, on the other.

Furthermore, such military commitment will present a confused situation with a potentially dangerous representation in which an individual affected sovereign country can assert the principle of non -interference in their internal affairs and thus place her in direct conflict with peace keepers. In Sudan-Darfur for instance, the authorities continues to frustrate the AU peace keeping forces; their presence there has not prevented the ethnic cleansing described by the USA officials as genocide. The commander of the AU peace keeping force in Darfur had complained of lack of logistics and other resources to enable his forces carry out their duties effectively.

What this shows is that peace keeping operations are inherently problematic and only become credible when there is unanimity backed by resolute commitment by the countries involved. President Kibaki of Kenya, as chair of the sub-regional East African group known as IGAD, has been having difficulties getting the other countries to send peace keepers to Somalia. So far no coherent response is forth coming. These countries are obviously concerned about committing their troops into a quagmire situation given Somalia’s perennial conflict. Only Uganda, it is reported, has offered 1500 troops but this is subject to parliamentary approval. Practical difficulties, therefore, when added to political and strategic constraints among various countries can hinder peace keeping efforts as the unfortunate situation in Darfur has shown.

With 7,000 A U troops as well as 10,000 UN personnel in Darfur, gross human right abuses still prevails. There are hundreds of thousands of USA, British and other forces in Iraq fighting for “democracy” in the Middle East, but their presence there is the very reason for the escalation of the war; a bitter irony officially acknowledged by the USA. In Ivory Coast, French troops have been based there for decades, yet their presence did not prevent the country sliding into serious conflict. When Sierra Leone agreed to have the ECOMOG forces on its territory, the rebels stepped up their offensive and became nastier in their tactics.

What is needed in Sierra Leone is a sincere and responsible leadership with a clear vision and honest determination to remove those forces which created the conditions for disenchantment that led to conflict in Sierra Leone. Having a military depot in Freetown could make our city a sitting target and could not provide for our national security. Sierra Leone should take this on board before assenting to military commitment of the kind welcomed by president Kabbah.

Inappropriate Comment is not a presidential prerogative.

President Kabbah has shown that he has a problem trusting the people he governs. “Sierra Leonean mentality“, the president reportedly said is “very dangerous”. If ever such negative views and inappropriate comments about the people president Kabbah governs influenced his judgement and policies, then God help our people in Sierra Leone. In any mature democracy president Kabbah could be censored for breach of trust. How can a leader govern a people he did not trust and then describe them collectively as “very dangerous”? One question Mr President: When you said Sierra Leoneans are “very dangerous” does that include you as well since you are a Sierra Leonean? I don’t mean to be rude but as a Salone Man, I am genuinely offended by that kind of generalised attack.

About the author: Yankuba Kai-Samba(photo) is a former SLPP Secretary General for UK and Ireland,former Secretary of the Movement for Human Rights Justice and Peace in Sierra Leone and former Secretary of the Movement for the Restoration of a Multi-party system in Sierra Leone.
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Subject: Teachers ruled out of voter registration --Christian Monitor
From: Town Crier
To: All
Date Posted: 07:51:14 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: dialup-4.184.80.146.dial1.weehawken1.level3.net at 4.184.80.146

Message:
Teachers ruled out of voter registration
National
Written by Edward B. Kargbo
Tuesday, 16 January 2007
Chairperson of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), Dr. Christiana Thorpe has ruled out the recruitment of school teachers as voter registrars in the 2007 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

Dr. Thorpe heads the National Electoral CommissionSpeaking in an interview with United Nations Radio in Freetown Monday 15th January, Dr. Thorpe said that the voter registrars were going to be fully employed from February to June this year and that the services of teachers would not be employed since their absence would disrupt academic work. ‘We don’t want to disturb the educational system,’ she said.

The NEC Commissioner also stated that she has been ‘bombarded’ with several questions regarding the exclusion of teachers but that her Commission has taken this stance to allow normal academic work to continue in the schools while voter registration is going on.

She stated that in the past teachers were recruited during elections, thereby leading to the disruption of normal classes.

‘The voter registration recruitment is underway and by the end of this month, the registrars will be ready for deployment in their various locat1ons,’ she said.

Subject: Hunger is unacceptable in 2007- Christian Monitor
From: Town Crier
To: All
Date Posted: 07:48:19 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: dialup-4.184.80.146.dial1.weehawken1.level3.net at 4.184.80.146

Message:
Hunger is unacceptable in 2007, says Pope
News from the Vatican
Friday, 19 January 2007
Benedict XVI says that the scandal of hunger calls for a change in ways of living, as the planet has sufficient resources for all its inhabitants.

The Pope made these comments today during the first part of his address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, in which he expressed his concerns about the situation of the world at the beginning of 2007.

The Holy Father said: “Among the key issues, how can we not think of the millions of people, especially women and children, who lack water, food, or shelter?

“The worsening scandal of hunger is unacceptable in a world which has the resources, the knowledge and the means available to bring it to an end.”

“It impels us to change our way of life,” the Pontiff continued, “it reminds us of the urgent need to eliminate the structural causes of global economic dysfunction and to correct models of growth that seem incapable of guaranteeing respect for the environment and for integral human development, both now and in the future.”

The Bishop of Rome invited “the leaders of the wealthiest nations to take the necessary steps to ensure that poor countries, which often have a wealth of natural resources, are able to benefit from the fruits of goods that are rightfully theirs.”

Benedict XVI made two requests: to resume “the trade negotiations of the Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organization,” and to continue and accelerate “the process of debt cancellation and reduction for the poorest countries.” “At the same time, these processes must not be made conditional upon structural adjustments that are detrimental to the most vulnerable populations,” he added. The Pope also expressed concern regarding the “difficulties in negotiations over conventional weapons and weapons of mass destruction” and “the rise in global military expenditure.”

“Security issues — aggravated by terrorism, which is to be utterly condemned — must be approached from a global and far-sighted perspective,” he noted. The Holy Father also mentioned the lack of support for organizations dealing with “humanitarian crises.” They need “greater support, so that they can be equipped to provide protection and assistance to the victims.”

Emigration is another of the Pontiff’s concerns, as “millions of men and women are forced to leave their homes or their native lands because of violence or in order to seek more dignified living conditions.”

“It is an illusion to think that migration can be blocked or checked simply by force. Migration and the problems to which it gives rise must be addressed humanely, with justice and compassion,” he said.

The Bishop of Rome expressed his alarm over “the continuous attacks on life, from conception to natural death,” which take place in the world.

Benedict XVI said: “Such attacks do not even spare regions with a traditional culture of respecting life, such as Africa, where there is an attempt to trivialize abortion surreptitiously, both through the Maputo Protocol and through the plan of action adopted by the health ministers of the African Union — shortly to be submitted to the Summit of Heads of State and Heads of Government.

“Equally, there are mounting threats to the natural composition of the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman, and attempts to relativize it by giving it the same status as other radically different forms of union. “All this offends and helps to destabilize the family by concealing its specific nature and its unique social role.”

The Pope mentioned “[o]ther forms of attack on life” which “are sometimes committed in the name of scientific research.”

“There is a growing conviction that research is subject only to the laws that it chooses for itself and that it is limited only by its own possibilities,” the Holy Father explained. “This is the case, for example, in attempts to legitimize human cloning for supposedly therapeutic ends.”

Credit zenith.org

Subject: SLPP retreats to strategise
From: Town Crier
To: All
Date Posted: 07:45:46 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: dialup-4.184.80.146.dial1.weehawken1.level3.net at 4.184.80.146

Message:
Ahead of elections... SLPP retreats to strategise
National
Friday, 19 January 2007
The ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party secretariat has circulated invitation letters to senior members for a retreat at the Lagoonda Entertainment Complex, Aberdeen on 21 January.

Berewa is Vice President and leader of the SLPPA source within the party’s secretariat disclosed that the purpose of the meeting is for members to hang heads and put strategies in place as to how the party could clinch victory in the July polls.

The source further revealed that an uneasy calm is presently bedeviling the ruling party’s political camp as the election date slowly closes down, especially with the emergence of Charles Margai’s PMDC and a seemingly ‘regrouped’ All People’s Congress party. The meeting will be attended mainly by executive and other senior members of the party. Representatives from the party’s young generation and women’s wing will also be in attendance, the source said.

The SLPP has been accused by the opposition of breaching the constitution by engaging in secret campaigns in some of the provincial areas, especially in its southern and eastern strongholds even before the final whistle is being blown by the National Electortal Commission.

Subject: A Drowning man will catch at a straw
From: M. Alieu Iscandari Esq
To: All
Date Posted: 14:35:30 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-ntc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 207.200.116.198

Message:
AND SOMETIMES EVEN IF THE SHARP END OF A KNIFE IS GIVEN TO THEM THEY WILL CLING ON TO IT. (Overheard at Tokeh this christmas)

They really need to strategise particularly with a "foot in the mouth" JJ Blood and his ignorant biased paternalistic, partisan rantings.

Subject: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: Mohamed A. Jalloh
To: All
Date Posted: 06:31:59 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-rtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.101.8

Message:
[The following recent exchange is presented here, courtesy of SALONEDiscussion@yahoogroups.com, in the continuing effort to empower fellow S/Leoneans, by sharing with them different perspectives on topical issues affecting our country. In this case, the topic is the recent street lighting initiative of the SL government] The name of my correspondent is disclosed with his prior, written permission].

--- In SALONEDiscussion@yahoogroups.com, MohmJ@... wrote on Jan 19, 2007:

In a message dated 1/18/2007 9:27:07 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, AIscandari@aol.com writes:

I remembered when it was like that and even more so when I left sierra leones 28 years ago for these shores. But then again I also remember that my ticket by Pan am was 250 leones and the exchange rate was 75cents to the US dollar. Gosh ow have things changed in these past 27 years.

Whats street lighting going to do for us when every other facet of our society has broken down so badly that it needs a total overhaul.

Alieu:

I commend you for putting the latest shameful, self-serving posturing by the current SLPP government into its proper perspective.

Whereas our patriotic friend, Akindele, is correct in pointing out that any improvement in the searing hardships needlessly inflicted by the SLPP government upon millions of hapless S/Leoneans over the past ten years is worth acknowledging, you are also correct in your assertion that such minuscule remediation of the SLPP government's copious record of destruction of the standard of living of millions of S/Leoneans should not be cause for excessive celebration by the victims of SLPP malfeasance.

As you accurately noted, prior to the current SLPP government assuming power in SL in 1996, our country enjoyed a much higher standard of living, even under the notoriously corrupt APC government of former President Siaka Stevens. Your statement echoes a point I made in the opening paragraph of my 2005 article, "How the IMF Fooled the Sierra Leone Government into Impoverishing Sierra Leone." http://news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_2005980.shtml

Clearly, the catastrophic deterioration of the standard of living of millions of S/Leoneans following the APC government's ill-advised collaboration with the IMF detailed in my above-cited article is eclipsed by that unleashed over the past ten years by the even more clueless SLPP government of President Ahmad Kabbah and Vice President Solomon Berewa. Indeed, what makes the incompetence and corruption of the Kabbah-Berewa administration so unconscionable is that it has received more aid in a shorter period of time than any indigenous government in SL's history.

Granted that the SLPP government ruled SL during a national criminal enterprise that has been misnamed a civil war -- however, by the time it took over power in 1996, that 10-year long "civil war" was already half over. Yet, the current government has received massive, unprecedented foreign aid during and after the end of that atrocity. But what does the SLPP government have to show for the hundreds of millions of dollars it has received from international donors for the benefit of millions of S/Leoneans?

A few street lights.

Not electricity in the houses of people and the businesses that would employ them. Not potable water that is required to sustain a healthy life for millions of S/Leoneans. Not an economy that provides jobs for millions of unemployed S/Leoneans. None of that -- just a few street lights in a country that, before the advent of the current SLPP government, enjoyed all those facilities that have virtually completely disappeared under the SLPP's decade-long incompetent and corrupt administration.

To add insult to the pervasive, multi-faceted injury it has inflicted upon SL and millions of S/Leoneans, the SLPP government now brazenly seeks to continue its decade-long victimization of the people of SL for at least the next five years under the yoke of its Vice President Solomon Berewa, the self-admitted faithful follower of the chief architect of their suffering -- President Kabbah.

Which, of course, evokes a point that I have repeatedly made here and elsewhere: The stakes in the impending elections in SL have never been higher for the people of SL.

Sincerely,

Moh'm

--- In SALONEDiscussion@yahoogroups.com, AIscandari@... wrote:
>
> aki,
> now I understand why you are so excited. do you belong to that generation
> that was not opportuned to see constant and consistent electricity in Freetown?
> I am not excited. Like I say I witnessed this lighting and I drove all over
> freetown on the day that the lights were turned on at Kissy road, kissy street
> (um San Abacha Street) siaka stevens street and krootown road. I remembered
> when it was like that and even more so when I left sierra leones 28 years ago
> for these shores. But then again I also remember that my ticket by Pan am
> was 250 leones and the exchange rate was 75cents to the US dollar. Gosh ow
> have things changed in these past 27 years.
>
> Whats street lighting going to do for us when every other facet of our
> society has broken down so badly that it needs a total overhaul.
>
> peace

Subject: Re: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: Baba Oreilly
To: All
Date Posted: 11:14:09 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 70.237.0.17

Message:
"Which, of course, evokes a point that I have repeatedly made here and elsewhere: The stakes in the impending elections in SL have never been higher for the people of SL."

Which beg the questions, Moh'm: What direction (or choice) should the Sierra Leonean electorate go if not the Berewa-led SLPP? Is Margai a more viable alternative? Obviously, you and I would agree that the APC has yet to fully metamorphosed into its new-ness, what they would have us believe. Do you have THE solution to our current CRISIS?

I respect your views very much

Subject: Re: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: AR GAINSE
To: All
Date Posted: 11:54:25 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
TURTH,

You are my hero. With all Mohm's boto bata, and labo labo, what did he do at SLPMB? STEAL THE PROPLE'S MONEY. Do you know why this loud mouth hates Paul Kamara soo much? Paul exposed his thievingg ass during his thieving days at SLPMB. Na BIG BIG BANGA TIFF MAN.

Subject: Re: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: Lie Gainse Me
To: All
Date Posted: 13:18:38 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: static-70-21-126-109.res.east.verizon.net at 70.21.126.109

Message:
boto bata man, YOU MUST BE ONE OF THOSE LEONENET REFUGEES ON COCORIOKO WHICH LEONENET'S JOHN MUSA DESCRIBED LIKE THIS:

"When Mr. Jalloh finds ample evidence to confound his detractors with logic in any argument on Leonenet, they dredge up the same egregious criminal charges
against him or mock his academic achievements; something we often see on Leonenet.

Whether we like it or not, Mr. Jalloh is a brilliant man. This conclusion is not by his own standards, or mine, but by those of the University of Sierra Leone and others outside Sierra Leone."

Nar jealous, "boto bata man"? Eef you gainse for yerri di true wae Mohm don dae talk bout den salone tiffman dem -- from APC to NPRC to yu Kabbah-Belewa SLPP tiffman dem, GO BUTT YU LIGHT ADE NAR CONGOSAH BENCH.

IF YOU BIN KNOW MOHM YU GO KNOW SAY NOR BODI NOR ABLE FOR SET HIM MOT WAE EE READY FOR TALK TRUE.

Subject: Re: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: Truth
To: All
Date Posted: 17:38:16 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-129-137-151.range86-129.btcentralplus.com at 86.129.137.151

Message:
Talk at a point of advantage - let the masses know you care for the nation and not only yourself. What is brilliance? It is a cross-cultural relative term. Professor Jalloh knows not what he thinks he knows. Wisdom or profound thought is the key to life. Professor jalloh's deep-thought faculty functioneth not. I have no bones to pick with Professor - my only contention is that he bites more than he is able to chew. Let him show professionalism on this forum. Some of us are wanting to learn from you elders - to emulate you or waka nar unu footsteps. i was in juinior primary when Professor jalloh left the country (as evidenced from startement on this forum). i expect much maturity and professionalism from him. It does not cost a penny to say your words with tact to get or impacvt the change you want. To be too 'GLOOMY' is pessimistically suiciadal. Give us hope and not despair - this is my bone with my immatured professor - ranting with no focussed objective.

Subject: Re: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: Baba Oreilly
To: All
Date Posted: 17:50:11 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 70.237.0.17

Message:
"I have no bones to pick with Professor"

Well, Mr. truth. Don't you think you should give Jalloh the benefit of the doubt and allow him to take the mickey and tell us what he thinks/feels about our country?

It is wrong to marginalize him and call him immature when IMHO think we should all learn from each other. Right, let him give us hope. But the name calling has to stop. Kabs has done us good by giving us the virtual podium to express our opinions. Let us take it in strides and do justice with it.

I was myself vexed simply because Kabs used his forum to get back at someone we don't even know, a guy named Victor Sylver. the reality is, we can transformed this forum from a cuss-cuss place to a forum where we can engage one another and show some love.

I love you all,

the one and only Baba Oreilly.

Subject: Re: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: Truth
To: All
Date Posted: 17:54:15 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-129-137-151.range86-129.btcentralplus.com at 86.129.137.151

Message:
I concede - i am becoming like us - This is what anger can do. I do not like to see the opportuned treat the opposite with contempt - just for bluff - I do not like it. Will halt my discharges and show understanding - thank you for bringing me to my real state.
Stay bless and peace be with you

Subject: Re: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: Baba Oreilly
To: All
Date Posted: 18:00:57 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 70.237.0.17

Message:
Truth,

You need to stop. You almost brought tears to my eyes and I know I am not the emotional type. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

Kabs, please let us clean this place. THIS IS 2007! I challenge you to make this a better place. The Mohms and Truths of this world will come together and help our country.

That is the dream, make the dream come truth (a lyric by DADDY SAJ - THE SORRIEST PART)

Subject: Re: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: Truth
To: All
Date Posted: 18:14:14 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-129-137-151.range86-129.btcentralplus.com at 86.129.137.151

Message:
As a reasonable person with deep thinking - your words with tact persuaded me to stop.

Subject: Re: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: Truth
To: All
Date Posted: 12:11:43 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-129-137-151.range86-129.btcentralplus.com at 86.129.137.151

Message:
On a more serious note - Moh'm has to learn some responsible thinking. His actions are undiplomatic and has a lot of inciting undertones. To the silly, what he writes will inflame him but to the wise and cautious - one has to look at the motives of his writings. I have investigated moh'm and found him to lack professionalism. You can fight by confronting kabbah through a dialogue about your concerns prior to overtly rebuke him. Some people are special, special because they have mastered an art to change things - make those who are bad become good. If kabbah has no sense or notice of tomorrow coming call him and ask him why is he doing what he is doing. i honestly tell you - he will sleep at night and reflect on the things you have said. EVERY MAN'S POTENTIAL DEPENDED ON HIS INNER CIRCLE (those closest to him) IF THEY ARE WEAK THE MAN (LEADER) CANNOT CREATE ANY MEANINGFULLY BENEFICIAL IMPACT. moh'm - you are not a child and you are not a educationally backward - use some tact to help save the many Sierra Leoneans suffering. Another way to pursue your not-so-clear direction is to have a medium that serves as an organ of communication between you and the President's office, the Finance ministry, TonyBlair, George Bush and major stakeholders in Sierra leone. If I have your kind of money you brag about I will each year sponsor a target group of students to help continue what you have or believe you have for Sierra leone. Stop your nonsense and do something better for mother Sierra leone who nurtured you to stand tall today. give hope and not despair.

Subject: Re: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: Bella-Buster
To: All
Date Posted: 13:40:23 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: static-70-21-126-109.res.east.verizon.net at 70.21.126.109

Message:
So, you want MohmJ to stop writing the truth and use a back channel to talk to a corrupt government, so that they can deny that MohmJ ever told them the truth?

Bo, paddi talk sense.

If you found a tiffman in your house busy looting your house, would you let him loot your belongings while you go and first look for his best friend so that you can tell his best friend to tell the thief to stop looting your belongings? Or would you scream "tiff, tiff," so the whole neighborhood can hear and come to your aid?

You will go look for the thief's best friend. But a sober person would not.

We applaud MohmJ for his courage in telling The WHOLE WORLD the truth about those criminals in siera leone who have been busy looting the riches belonging to the people of Sierra leone for their selfish purposes.

I say, MohmJ, KEEP SPREADING THE TRUTH.

DO NOT FALL FOR ANY SLPP PLOT TO BUY YOUR SILENCE!

Subject: Re: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: Truth
To: All
Date Posted: 17:51:04 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-129-137-151.range86-129.btcentralplus.com at 86.129.137.151

Message:
What impact has Moh'm's statements made to change Kabbah and others in the last nine yrs. he is just inflaming an already fragile ground. the innocents are suffering. moh'm can start off by creating an impact on his readers. Words with no practical audiance are useless. I guess you missed my point when I suggested a more docile approach in tackling leaders - they continue what they do and the innocent will suffer. let Professor jalloh begin to influence even his governor in his state on how Sierra leone foreign and finacial policies should be. Moh'm's emptiness is brought to this forum because we are all empty and have no influence in our diasporan countries. let Moh'm set up a trust fund to help the young men of Sierra leone tomorrow. Whe professor jalloh dies who will actually think of him. he has the time, space and finance now let him use it to be a role model.

I do not think the SLPP will want a man like Moh'm - even the Club he was bragging about the other day (The Million Dollor Round table) are not impressed by his toothless rantings - he is a toothless sky monkey - he makes his world so high and forget that young men and women in Sierra leone will be delighted to be filled with wisdom from the thoughts of the likes of Professor Jalloh.

Subject: Re: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: Baba Oreilly
To: All
Date Posted: 17:56:43 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 70.237.0.17

Message:
Can we make this less of a Mohm debate and more of a "what's wrong with Sierra Leone and can we get out of this mess" issue.

Kabs, can I be a moderator just for next week? I know you didn't like my take on the Victor saga, and no, I am NOT who you think I am, but you and I can work TOGETHER. What say you?

One and only Baba Oreilly

Subject: Re: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: Concerned
To: All
Date Posted: 01:15:51 01/20/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac837ba4.ipt.aol.com at 172.131.123.164

Message:
Your take on Victor Sylver shoud have taken into consideration both sides of the story.

Subject: Re: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: Truth
To: All
Date Posted: 11:52:30 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-129-137-151.range86-129.btcentralplus.com at 86.129.137.151

Message:
Baba Oreilly, Moh'm rants a lot. He will never see Sierra Leone. He has had his field day and what matters to him now is to vent venom where understanding and explorative reasoning should prevail. i have no respect for a man that see his brothers go hungry and boast about his laurels and eating with the cheats that hold us in chains. he can never be accepted by them and he has no altruism to see that his theoretical AI is practically transmitted to help the whole. C'est un egoist (the french will say). A set fire - in our local norm.

Subject: Re: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: Analyst
To: All
Date Posted: 10:49:07 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: static-70-21-126-109.res.east.verizon.net at 70.21.126.109

Message:

'Indeed, what makes the incompetence and corruption of the Kabbah-Berewa administration so unconscionable is that it has received more aid in a shorter period of time than any indigenous government in SL's history.

Granted that the SLPP government ruled SL during a national criminal enterprise that has been misnamed a civil war -- however, by the time it took over power in 1996, that 10-year long "civil war" was already half over.'

Mr. Jalloh, until i read what you wrote, i never realized that the SLPP regime endured only HALF of the rebel war! The NPRC, I realized, ruled us for four full years during the rebel war. So, I am thinking that all this time that the SLPP GOVERNMENT has been saying that they inderited a ten year war, THAT IS A LIE.

Then, I read the other thing you said that this SL[PP GOVERNMENT HAS TAKEN IN MORE FOREIGN MONEY THAN any other government in salone! What do ou think about the SLPP blaming the APC for the wretched state and condition of our salone people when they had all these advantages of tons of money and only half the war period, and then they made life worst for our people.

Subject: Re: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: Truth
To: All
Date Posted: 11:56:51 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-129-137-151.range86-129.btcentralplus.com at 86.129.137.151

Message:
I honestly will tell you that - the so-called donors are milking themselves. How can they see what is ahppening and yet continue to pour money in a relatively hopelss cause. The irony is - they control the budgets and nothing gets done. the kabbah's are only eating the crumbs. The bush and blair governments are of the highest con order - simple - they are all theives and someday their wealth will choke them. Nothing lasts forever - only a noble man and his good deeds.

Subject: Re: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: No Apologist
To: All
Date Posted: 13:27:41 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: static-70-21-126-109.res.east.verizon.net at 70.21.126.109

Message:
You call that honesty? The people of Sa Lon do not care whether the SLPP thieves eat crumbs or the entire carcass belonging to Sa Lon. A thief is a thief. We have known for 40 years that the SLPP's leader, president Tejan Kabbah is a thief. The 1967 Beoku-Betts Commission of Inquiry banned Kabbah from ever holding public office in Sa Lon for stealing Sa Lon's money at SLPMB when he was permanent secretary at the Ministry of Trade.

So, honestly, tell me, how did a man banned from public office in Sa lon become the SLPP's leader for the past ten years? I'll tell you how. The SLPP is full of thieves, so Kabbah fit right in among his fellow thieves!. Honestly. So, stop blaming white men for black men's thieving. Scratch that. Make it for SLPP's thieving of nSa Lon money.

Subject: Re: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: Baba Oreilly
To: All
Date Posted: 13:51:08 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 70.237.0.17

Message:
why do I have this feeling that you guys are talking to yourselves. Because of the ability to use different handles, you write and THEN respond to yourself. That is tantamount to going insane, you know. Please let us give Mohm the benefit of the doubt and engage him in his own turf -- economics, instead of dismissing his assertions. He himself will learn from this, his own sense of dismissing others notwithstanding. Gentlemen, hold your horses.

Mohm, I am still waiting for your response regarding the direction we take in the next election.

Subject: Re: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: Leonenetter
To: All
Date Posted: 15:40:16 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 64.26.98.90

Message:
"why do I have this feeling that you guys are talking to yourselves. Because of the ability to use different handles, you write and THEN respond to yourself."

Hmmmm. Sounds like a confession to me, bra Ahmed Koroma! Or, should I say, bra Stokes!

But, again, I may be wrong. Or, I may be right. But you sure sound fishy to me -- what, with all your fake names, and flip-flopping all over the forum. But, of course, that's to be expected: Fish flop. Fish flip. Teeheeteee

Subject: Re: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: Baba Oreilly
To: All
Date Posted: 15:50:31 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 70.237.0.17

Message:
"Hmmmm. Sounds like a confession to me, bra Ahmed Koroma! Or, should I say, bra Stokes!"

Now you are really fishing. Baba Oreilly is Aloma Pikasso. I can be reached at, okay...never mind

Let us revert back to the point we were, that Mohm should answer the question regarding the direction we should take on the next election. but you wouldn't let us, would you?

Subject: Re: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: Busted
To: All
Date Posted: 16:06:03 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-mtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 64.12.117.8

Message:
"I can be reached at, [FLIP] okay...never mind [FLOP]"

You are so predictable! But, of course, you still have to learnt that about yourself.

Subject: Re: WHAT DOES THE RECENT FREETOWN STREET LIGHTING DISPLAY MEAN?
From: Baba Oreilly
To: All
Date Posted: 16:10:23 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 70.237.0.17

Message:
"But, of course, you still have to learnt that about yourself"

Busted:

There is a one and only Baba Oreilly. He doesn't FLIP-FLOP. He loves his enemies more than his friends. He loves Kabs-Kanu too. You are just jealous.

Subject: KABS IS RIGHT
From: CONCERNED
To: All
Date Posted: 01:17:49 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: aca1016b.ipt.aol.com at 172.161.1.107

Message:
READ www.sierraherald.com

Subject: MEET BBC'S VICTOR SYLVER
From: ROBIN WHITE
To: All
Date Posted: 00:05:13 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
The one and only Mighty Victor Sylver of Anti- AFRC fame.

Subject: Re: MEET BBC'S VICTOR SYLVER
From: norshineh
To: All
Date Posted: 14:07:40 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: s64-180-100-93.bc.hsia.telus.net at 64.180.100.93

Message:
Victor looks very sad and crazy here. 'Producer' here is just a big name for office boy. Victor sorry.

Subject: Re: MEET BBC'S VICTOR SYLVER
From: Portia S
To: All
Date Posted: 10:35:15 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 70.237.0.17

Message:
Victor Sylver looks more calm and professional than what Kabs would have us believe. I like him.

A cool brother.

Subject: Re: MEET BBC'S VICTOR SYLVER
From: Concerned
To: All
Date Posted: 12:19:38 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-rtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.101.8

Message:
He looks more calm and professional in that picture where he looks like a mabayla boy? Even a sawpit boy looks better. That is enough to show that you are not pro-Kabs. I am not pr-kabs myself, but I am concerned about the malicious boto-bata Victor keeps writing about Kabs, Gibs, Culture Shaw and my sisyer, Yinka.

Subject: Re: MEET BBC'S VICTOR SYLVER
From: Portia S
To: All
Date Posted: 13:54:03 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 70.237.0.17

Message:
I am talking about his picture not the man's fight with Kabs. I am neither pro- nor anti-Kabs. What am I, a batoliner?

Personally, I think Victor is more handsome than Kabs. The last time I saw kabs' picture he looked like Eddie Murphy in the naughty Professor. Hahahaha

Just joking

Subject: Re: MEET BBC'S VICTOR SYLVER
From: KABS KANU
To: All
Date Posted: 13:52:55 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-rtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.101.8

Message:
CONCERNED,

I don't really care if he looks like a Sawpit boy. All I want is that he leaves me alone. I don't know if he exists.

I don't understand this type of trouble. You don't care even known if somebody exists but he keeps mentioning your name in Boto-Bata, as you rightly said And this Paloma guy keeps writing under different names to defend him.

Where is our legal right to be left alone ? If he looks professional as this guy is saying , why not act professional and talk only to those who know that you exist ?

Subject: Re: MEET BBC'S VICTOR SYLVER
From: Lover Boy
To: All
Date Posted: 01:45:49 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: aca1016b.ipt.aol.com at 172.161.1.107

Message:
If KABSS KANU OR HIS BROTHER FUCKED VICTOR SYLVER'S WIFE, THIS CONFLICT WILL NOT END NOW.

Subject: THE VICTOR SYLVER FURORE
From: BRA ENVIABLE
To: All
Date Posted: 23:33:09 01/18/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-rtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.101.8

Message:
KABS, Why have you become unusaully agitated over the bad blood that has apparently locked you in exchanges and counterblasts with Victor Sylver? I have never meet neither one of you fellow Sierra Leoneans. My knowledge of Victor Sylver is so dim that the recollections I have of him are only traceable to the days when he was a stringer in Freetown for the BBC African service. What is more than clear, though, is the fact that Victor Sylver has become your "hobby-horse," the man whose name stirs hypertensive reactions out of you.

KABS, you are a great brother with a big heart. Your progressive thoughts have provided Sierra Leoneans with a forum to discuss isues and, at least emotionally, reconnect with home from afar.

Why would a great brother like you let sentimentality get the better part of you? Why not put the Victor Sylver issue to rest by ringing down the curtain on anything he {allegedly} says about you? If I were you, I will let it go by consigning the Victor Sylver "palaver" to the dustbin. Rikishi nor dae pay. Unu take am easy.

Subject: Re: THE VICTOR SYLVER FURORE
From: KABS KANU
To: All
Date Posted: 01:13:28 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: aca1016b.ipt.aol.com at 172.161.1.107

Message:
Bra Enviable,

I never knew Sylver before.I have no time for him and I dont even know that he exists but since I set up COCORIOKO that miserable man has been so envious of me that he has been attacking me for no reason in his rag-The worst Sierra Leone news portal of its kind online.At first I ignored him for long but people kept calling me or writing me to point out things he was writing against me. I did not know until he wrote in another article he has removed expressing suspicions about me and his wife.

Bra Enviable, he attacked me for long and when I responded just once, guess what ? He wrote my hosting company to threaten them with a law suit, with the intent of having them cancel our contract to continue hosting the newspaper.

Victor Sylver is a very jealous and envious person.Just go to his website.All you read is about Seaga Shaw, Gbanabome, Sylvia Blyden and Kabs Kanu. He calls us beasts, vermin etc.

Why ? Why ? Why ? I don't even know that he exists .Why can't he leave me alone ?

Subject: Re: THE VICTOR SYLVER FURORE
From: BRA ENVIABLE
To: All
Date Posted: 07:36:32 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-dtc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 205.188.116.198

Message:
KABS, You can either go down in the gutter with him, or prove you are above pettiness by moving on to more decent things.

Subject: Re: THE VICTOR SYLVER FURORE
From: BRA ENVIABLE
To: All
Date Posted: 23:35:42 01/18/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-rtc-ae04.proxy.aol.com at 152.163.101.8

Message:
I meant to say "I have never MET neither one of......."

Subject: What Will Falling Oil Prices Mean?
From: TIME MAGAZINE
To: All
Date Posted: 21:55:43 01/18/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
What Will Falling Oil Prices Mean?
Thursday, Jan. 18, 2007 By DAREN FONDA A motorist fills up at a pump in Miami.
Joe Raedle / Getty

Last year, when oil was fetching more than $75 a barrel and Congress was thinking of slapping the industry with a windfall tax, the prospect of falling energy prices seemed as remote as Kim Jong Il winning the Nobel peace prize. China and India, with their booming economies, were supposed to consume every last drop of oil the world could produce, guaranteeing shortages for the rest of us. And with instability mounting in the Middle East as well as in major oil-producing countries like Nigeria and Venezuela, it was only logical to predict many years of tight supplies — and ludicrous profits for the ExxonMobils of the world.

In one respect, not too much has fundamentally changed since then; China's economy is still racing along, car bombs are still exploding in Baghdad and Americans are still hooked on their gas-guzzling SUVs. But one crucial thing is changing: oil prices are actually falling. Crude oil futures fell below $50 a barrel Thursday afternoon, their lowest level since May of 2005. Gasoline prices are down too, to around $2.25 a gallon on average, from a peak of just over $3 last summer. It's all good news for the economy, since lower energy prices traditionally help tame inflation and could ease pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. Paying less at the pump leaves motorists with more cash to spend on everything from movies to microwaves. And no one is happier than the airlines, whose cost of jet fuel has plummeted 11.5% in the last month alone.

So if so much has stayed the same, why haven't oil prices? Analysts say there are a variety of reasons, starting with the weather. The current deep-freeze in the Midwest aside, this winter has been unseasonably warm, curbing demand for heating oil. "A third of the winter season is over and we haven't seen any normal consumption patterns on the East Coast," says Irene Haas, an energy analyst with Canaccord Adams in Houston. Haas also points out that an additional 1.5 million barrels of daily oil production is slated to kick in this year from countries such as Angola, Azerbaijan, Brazil and Canada; that much new oil from non-OPEC nations hasn't hit the global pool in three years, and it should easily counteract the production cuts OPEC is planning. The extra capacity also means oil traders may be less inclined to bid up prices at the first signs of political turmoil in hot spots around the world. "What's changed is the perceived cushion we have to respond to political events," she says.

None of this is welcome news for oil companies, of course. While they're still raking in billions in profits, the stock prices of the majors, from ExxonMobil to Chevron, have declined in recent weeks, since lower oil prices will invariably translate to lower corporate revenues. The silver lining: oil companies may be able to cut their costs by spending less for field services and drilling projects, helping shore up their bottom lines. "When pricing is weaker you tend not to get as aggressive with drilling," Haas says. Nonetheless, she adds, "it will be a challenging year" for the industry.

The longer-term problem for oil companies is that the wild swings in petroleum prices are spooking the auto industry. After years of paying lip service to improving fuel economy, automakers finally seem intent on producing alternatives to the internal combustion engine. That was apparent at the Detroit auto show this month, where GM and Ford unveiled advanced battery-powered concept cars such as the Chevrolet Volt and Ford Airstream. Even if the Detroit automakers don't build those models — and they probably won't — they know they need to get higher-mileage vehicles on the road, be it hybrids, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, next-generation diesels or some combination of them all. If they don't, they'll lose another generation of American drivers to the Japanese, whose hybrid technology alone has a five-year headstart on Detroit's. For the petroleum industry, it's one more unwelcome sign that America just may get serious about kicking its oil habit

Subject: "Hinga Norman, Sesay, are not in Prison"-----Special Court S
From: PATRIOT
To: All
Date Posted: 21:00:49 01/18/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
"Hinga Norman, Sesay, are not in Prison"-----Special Court Source.
By Gibril Koroma - Thursday 18 January 2007.
A usually very reliable source at the Special Court in Freetown has denied rumours that Special Court indictees Samuel Hinga Norman(photo) and Issa Sesay are in a notorious prison in Senegal.

The source, who wants to remain anonymous, said special court detainees are normally not allowed to talk to the press and that Norman’s phone number in Senegal was given to the press by a special court employee contrary to the court’s rules and regulations. The source maintained that the two men are in a hospital, not in prison.

This is confirmed by professor Abdul Karim Bangura, a Norman supporter based in the US who is asking for donations on leonenet for people to to be sent to Senegal to monitor Norman’s condition.He said Norman is in a hospital.

Stay tuned for more on this issue.

Subject: Salone gold
From: KLA
To: All
Date Posted: 13:23:54 01/18/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 164.82.85.3

Message:

Here is the Gold!!

TSTM
XX

Subject: Gambian leader Jammeh, claims cure for HIV/AIDS, asthma
From: HIS MAJESTY
To: All
Date Posted: 13:19:41 01/18/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Gambian leader Jammeh, claims cure for HIV/AIDS, asthma

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Banjul, Gambia (PANA) – Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, claims he can cure HIV/AIDS and asthma, and would start treating 10 people living with HIV at his residence here Thursday, State House officials said.

"Since 1994, there are many Gambians who know what I can do. A lot of people have been treated in silence and under conditions of strict confidentiality," Jammeh was quoted as telling a gathering at the State House Thursday.

"I am not speculating on my medicine. There are living witnesses to what my medicine can do.

"Now, I have the mandate to cure people publicly. I can treat asthma and HIV/AIDS. Within three days the person should be tested again and I can tell you that he/she will be (HIV) negative," he added.

Banjul - 18/01/2007

Subject: Re: Gambian leader Jammeh, claims cure for HIV/AIDS, asthma
From: tetina
To: All
Date Posted: 17:12:02 01/18/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 208.181.176.138

Message:
Now I know this guy is realy crazy. Oh Africa.

Subject: Re: Gambian leader Jammeh, claims cure for HIV/AIDS, asthma
From: Yaya Fanusie
To: All
Date Posted: 18:47:13 01/18/07 ()
Email Address: futatoro@gmail.com
Entered From: adsl-75-17-57-242.dsl.pltn13.sbcglobal.net at 75.17.57.242

Message:
Tetina,.
For over forty years now I have been recommending that all every candidate who wants to be president in any African Country should be subjected to a battery of Psychiatric and Psychologic tests to show that they are not suffering from some form of mental sickness.
For Sierra Leone, you guys need to check Solomon Berewa.
I have seen so many red flags coming from that fellow that you guys are in for a shocker should he be elected.
Yaya Fanusie

Subject: Re: Gambian leader Jammeh, claims cure for HIV/AIDS, asthma
From: Tetina
To: All
Date Posted: 14:15:37 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: s64-180-100-93.bc.hsia.telus.net at 64.180.100.93

Message:
That's very funny and also sad, bra Yaya. Somebody told me a lot of our politicians in Sierra Leone smoke taffy. And we all know that taffy can sometimes lead to psychosis.Too bad.

Subject: Re: Gambian leader Jammeh, claims cure for HIV/AIDS, asthma
From: Truth
To: All
Date Posted: 12:23:04 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: host86-129-137-151.range86-129.btcentralplus.com at 86.129.137.151

Message:
Yaya, I have to beg to differ. Berewa is a sane man - all he will require is a committed 'INNER CIRCLE' to bring Sierra Leone to a glorious future. Through dogged determination and ambition to be something he was able to find hiomself in the clutches and talons of a wicked man who all who supported him to become our leader have paid their price - he frustrated them and died with broken hearts and dreams. No evil man escapes the wrath of mother earth.

Subject: Re: Gambian leader Jammeh, claims cure for HIV/AIDS, asthma
From: Yaya Fanusie
To: All
Date Posted: 15:24:44 01/19/07 ()
Email Address: futatoro@gmail.com
Entered From: adsl-67-125-23-113.dsl.pltn13.pacbell.net at 67.125.23.113

Message:
Truth,
You know the biological fact that a fish starts to rot from its head.
Just glance at Berewa; he sure looks like "rotten bonga fish haade"
Yaya Fanusie

Subject: Sierra Leone in 105m dollar road-building deal with Arab nat
From: PRESIDENT TEJAN KABBAH
To: All
Date Posted: 12:54:03 01/18/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: ac202-050.resnet.stonybrook.edu at 130.245.202.50

Message:
Sierra Leone in 105m dollar road-building deal with Arab nations
1 hour, 53 minutes ago

FREETOWN (AFP) - Sierra Leone's government has signed a deal worth 105 million dollars with Arab partners to rebuild a key road linking the agricultural eastern Kenema and Kailahun districts.
ADVERTISEMENT

Development Secretary Kona Koroma said Thursday "donors approved the total cost of the project, estimated at 105 million dollars (81.1 million euros), but due to financial constraints, they adopted phase one of the project which covers Kenema and Pendembu," state radio reported.

For that initial phase to restore 80 kilometres (about 50 miles) of the road in the west African country, which emerged in 2001 from a 10-year civil war, the donors have already made 50 million dollars available, the report said.
Participants include the Kuwaiti and Saudi Funds for Development, the Arab Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Islamic Development Bank and the

OPEC Fund, whose representatives approved feasibility and engineering studies at a meeting in Freetown.

Sierra Leone's government will be contributing 2.5 million dollars.
The Arab Bank's African regional adviser, Ahmed Nuir assured "the Sierra Leone government of our commitment to the completion of the project."
Freetown has also asked the Kuwaiti Fund for Consultancy Services to submit a list of contractors who have had experience in Africa to the state-run Sierra Leone Roads Authority for consideration.

Work on rehabilitating the road is due to start in December and be finished by 2010.
Sierra Leone's Finance Minister John Benjamin told AFP the meeting "marks an important milestone in the infrastructure development in Sierra Leone," noting that the project "serves as an important road network linking Sierra Leone and other countries in the sub-region, especially Liberia, Guinea and the Ivory Coast."

"Kailahun and Kenema districts, regarded as the breadbasket of the country, are well known for the production of cash crops and diamonds," Benjamin said, adding that the rebuilt road "will once again open the Koindu International market, improve standards of life and contribute towards peace and socio-economic development."

Subject: SLPP exposes PMDC's attempt to discredit elections
From: CONCORD TIMES
To: All
Date Posted: 12:25:00 01/18/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 71.250.218.196

Message:
Sierra Leone: SLPP Exposes PMDC's Attempt 'To Discredit Elections'

Concord Times (Freetown)

January 17, 2007
Posted to the web January 17, 2007

Abdul Karim Koroma
Freetown

Publicity Secretary of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), Hon. Victor Reider Tuesday said his party has unearthed the Peoples Movement for Democratic Change's (PMDC) hidden attempt at discrediting the electoral process ahead of the 2007 elections.

"It has come to the notice of the SLPP that members of the opposition parties and a cross-section of the press have embarked on a systematic calumny campaign to discredit the electoral process by giving the impression that the SLPP is harassing and intimidating opposition party members," he fumed.

He explained that Concord Times newspaper Monday has as its lead story captioned "PMDC alleges harassment, intimidation: Regent Chief orders to beat up Margai".

Hon. Reider referred to allegations by PMDC Southern Region public relations officer, Lagacy Sankoh, as baseless and unfounded.

The PMDC executive recently claimed that the ruling SLPP has been intimidating PMDC supporters in the southern province.

Dismissing the allegation Hon. Reider maintained, "The aim of the opposition is to deceive voters while it gives the impression that the forthcoming elections will be characterised by harassment and intimidation," adding that the opposition is building a case to justify further claims because they know they are going to loose the elections.

"The Regent Chief of Njama Kowa Chiefdom, Moyamba is Mr. Alie and not JP Lappia as was alleged. There is a procedure through which local taxes are collected in Chiefdoms. Usually a tax evader is expected to be fined and not to be brutalised," he said, adding that there were no evidence to prove that the so-called Mr.

Margai was ruffled as was shown on photograph.

Subject: Update on Case with Victor Sylver
From: KABS KANU
To: All
Date Posted: 12:03:18 01/18/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 71.250.218.196

Message:
First of all, I want to thank Messrs Craiss Dog and Fair Man for defending me against a relentless individual who, I am glad others have said it, has completely misunderstood my complaint to you people. I decided to bring Sylver's "Advantage" to you because I wanted to avoid the same situation that happened between me and the Awareness Times Sister ( Mudslinging), which many of you disapproved . I thought that for once instead of running to my newspaper to attack, I must demonstrate more maturity and self-control by sounding your opinions first before reacting. I know that there are very mature and sound people on this forum and I could do with their input. Secondly, I also know that I have many friends on this forum and they could make reasoned inputs (Thanks to those of you who sent me private mails ).

Fair Man, I decided to let that individual continue to defame and spoil my name and complaint just to show people on this forum that I too can be a victim of defamatory statements and they are not the only ones who get attacked. I know who the person is , but he is entitled to his opinions about me. Those who accuse me of handling things hypocritically can now see that even I mself I am not immune from attacks on this forum.

Anyway, back to the topic. I went to town yesterday and copied to my hosting company all the defamatory articles Victor Sylver has been writing against me and others whom he regards as THE AXIS OF EVIL, BEASTS and JUNTA COLLABORATORS (Without providing any evidence whatsoever ) . It made a great difference from the response I got later , which I will hold closely to the chest for now.At least, the hosting company has seen that Victor Sylver started everything, is obsessed with me(Even when I do not know that he exists ) and made damaging, false, misleading and malicious comments against me and others. My lawyer thinks that the best action against Victor is a class action suit involving me, Gbanabome, Shaw and Sylvia . I will come to that later.

It is obvious to me that whenever Victor Sylver is unable to compete with somebody, he seeks to destroy the person by going directly to his hosting company, place of work or sponsors to complain against the very things he too does. He did it to Seaga Shaw. He has seen that he cannot compete with me at any level whatsoever .Instead of responding to me directly as others have been doing, he went directly to my hosting company thinking erroneously that if they drop me , that will be the end of COCORIOKO . When he could not compete with Shaw and EXPO TIMES, he had All Africa .Com stop carrying our articles and he tried to stop Shaw's sponsors from continuing to provide support for the newspaper( In vain). Victor Sylver is a coward and a whimp who cannot stand the heat of the kitchen.

I am bringing all these things to your notice now because when I get ticked off by Sylver, none of you would be able to stop me. I have evidence that he demanded money for some of the reports he sent to the BBC while in Sierra Leone. As a matter of fact, he received bribes for that Mabayla report which he is so obsessed about after Shaw and Gbanabome contradicted his misleading and dishonest accounts. I think it is unprofessional for a journalist to receive bribes.

For now, I will keep my cool and wait for those of you who have inputs . I don't care about the individual trying to spoil my complaint by taking it out of context and attacking me.Most of you know that Victor is demented and mentally disturbed and that his news portal , instead of covering news like the other papers ( Cocorioko, Awareness, Patriotic, Christian Monitor)is only good at making character assassinations.Go through that paper now and see how much space Sylver devotes to news and how much to attacks on me, Gbanabone, Shaw and others. You all know all these things.I am therefore not bothered by the one man who has cut in front of you all to try to present my complaint in a different light. IT IS THE TRUTH THAT PREVAILS ULTIMATELY.

Subject: Re: Update on Case with Victor Sylver
From: tetina
To: All
Date Posted: 17:32:33 01/18/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 208.181.176.138

Message:
Kabs, it will be a great idea to sue Victor Sylver once and for all.You guys should come together and do it.He has no evidence for what he has been writing in his rag.People like that should be severly punished to set examples.

Subject: KRe: Update on Case with Victor Sylver
From: KABS KANU
To: All
Date Posted: 18:46:29 01/18/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-dtc-ad04.proxy.aol.com at 205.188.116.198

Message:
I am planning to send a note to Gibril and shaw to find out if they will agree with me for us to take a collective action .I dont know whether they ever offended Victor but I never did. When he was sick, I sent him a note of sympathy.When his wife's cousin died, I also sent a sympathy note but I did not know that all along he was nursing this grudge that probably I or my brother" played fast" on his wife. I did not know until he brought that issue up in an article he has deleted. If he is sure of his allegations, why not keep the article on his website ? Why delete it ?

Sylver is a shameless and whacky person. He does not take snobs .Hell hath no fury like........

I am contacting Shaw and Gibril shortly.

Subject: Re: KRe: Update on Case with Victor Sylver
From: Baba Oreilly
To: All
Date Posted: 10:39:23 01/19/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: at 70.237.0.17

Message:
"I am contacting Shaw and Gibril shortly."

I see. Birds of the same feather? Gibril can NOT sue himself out of a paper bag. Enough.

Why are you so obsessed with the man? I went to his web site but can't find anything about you save f