VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHFN #0049/01 0351443
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 041443Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY FREETOWN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3149
INFO RUEHMV/AMEMBASSY MONROVIA 0001
RHEFHLC/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHDC

UNCLAS FREETOWN 000049 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM SL
SUBJECT: SIERRA LEONE:  DAILY CONCERNS OUTWEIGH 
RECRIMINATIONS AGAINST FORMER COMBATANTS 
 
¶1.  Summary:  There are no government reprisals in Sierra 
Leone against former combatants, and reprisals at the 
individual or communal level appear to be minimal, if any. 
The populace is focused on surviving in the present, not 
settling old scores.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  For Sierra Leoneans today, the decade of brutality 
1991-2001 (which Sierra Leoneans simply call "the war") is an 
ever-present memory, since so many Sierra Leoneans lost 
members of their family and bear severe physical and 
psychological scars.  One of the remarkable things about 
Sierra Leone, however, is the relative absence of an urge to 
retribution.  Poloff took the occasion of a long discussion 
February 3 with senior opposition figure Al-Haji Kanjesesay 
to explore this surprising phenomenon.  Kanjesesay, who 
presided over Disarmament and Demobilization (DDR) activities 
for the decade prior to the change of government in 2007, 
agreed that the memory of the war is a key factor for 
present-day stability in the face of grinding poverty, the 
sagging economy, and widespread dissatisfaction with the 
government, as if Sierra Leoneans, from every political 
persuasion and region and ethnic group and religion, share a 
common cry from the heart, that anything is better than 
returning to those bad days of violence.  He cautioned that 
this is not a shared motive that will last forever, if 
economic and governance trends continue downward, but it is a 
key restraining factor among people who went through the war 
(i.e., not the very young), and it is important in 
understanding why there is so little retribution against 
former combatants.  Sierra Leoneans today are focused on 
survival in the present and do not give much thought to the 
past, however brutal it was. 
 
¶3.  There are other factors that account for the absence of 
retribution.  The war affected the whole country but had 
severest impact in the south, from whence came both the most 
violent rebel group RUF and the political party of President 
Tejan Kabbah, who emerged in control, and who made a sincere 
and concerted effort, with considerable outside assistance, 
to promote reconciliation (including establishing a Truth and 
Reconciliation Commission), and succeeded in restraining 
retributive tendencies within his party.  If retribution had 
been the order of the day, it would have been wrought also 
against a large swathe of the army, which had mounted coups 
against the elected government and, at one juncture, 
cooperated with the RUF, and against the numerous local 
militias that had also participated in violence and 
brutality.  There were fingers to point in every direction 
and there would have been no end to it. 
 
¶4.  It was important that RUF leader Foday Sankoy was 
eventually captured and removed from the scene, and his 
removal was key in lancing the scourge.  Moreover, some of 
the former combatants were teenagers and younger children, 
and there is a widespread recognition in Sierra Leone that 
they, in particular, cannot be held responsible.  Another 
factor was the burgeoning of the population of Freetown after 
the war and the mixing up of ethnicities therein.  Most of 
the villages of the country spilled population into the 
capital city, where there is no pattern of segregation along 
regional or ethnic lines, so the city's population explosion 
has also helped in leveling animosities. 
 
¶5.  At the election of 2007, Kabbah stepped down, and his 
southern-based party (Sierra Leone People's Party, SLPP) some 
of whose die-hards might with his departure have wanted to 
turn the screws of retribution, was voted out of power.  The 
northern-based All People's Congress (APC), which ruled the 
country for over two decades prior to the war, returned to 
power and has less motive to dredge up the violent past than 
the SLPP. 
 
¶6.  In the years after the war, there was some grumbling 
about the process of disarmament and reintegration that took 
place after the war, as packets of cash and tools were handed 
out to former combatants being enticed to settle down to a 
peaceful life.  To some Sierra Leoneans, it seemed that 
killers and murderers and mutilators were being rewarded 
while everyday people got little.  However, as Kanjesesay 
recounted, as early as 1998 the system for handling 
combatants and victims was separated, yet there was always a 
parallel focus on both, and an emphasis on total community 
development as a way to restart the lives of both combatants 
and victims.  Religious leaders and reconciliation 
organizations were extremely active.   By 2004, the Truth and 
Reconciliation Commission disbanded and there were no more 
officially-designated internally displaced people. 
Reparations have continued to be paid to victims through the 
National Commission for Social Action.  Large numbers of 
people remain "displaced" in the sense of coming to the 
capital city and remaining.  But, as Kanjesesay (an 
 
opposition figure with motive to paint the present government 
in the worst light) points out, with all of Sierra Leone's 
problems, retribution against ex-combatants simply "is not 
happening." 
 
¶7.  Embassy is aware of no exactions taken by the present 
government against former combatants.  At the social or 
village level, the situation is more complex and difficult to 
fathom, and we hear of shunning, but the instance of physical 
retribution against former combatants appears to be 
infrequent, and increasingly so.  For the handful of 
ex-combatants still residing overseas, should they return, 
they would face the same economic challenges as the general 
population, but likely would not be subject to repression or 
retribution based on their previous activities during the war. 
FEDZER