Samuel S O
Williams, the ex- AFRC/RUF junta operative who threatened to raze Freetown to
the ground is the new head of the army. The jigsaw pieces fall into place as
the magician at State House completes preparations for violence and
intimidation in November elections.
Posted June
29, 2012
By Tamba Morkway-Sossah
http://tambasosa-troubleshootingzone.blogspo.com
Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai
Koroma, the smoke and mirrors occupant of the top political seat in Sierra
Leone has finally put in place the last piece in the jigsaw that would ensure
that violence and intimidation would be his trump cards against the opposition
before, during and after the November 17, 2012 elections. He has now appointed
S O Williams a key military junta operative during junta oppression and
repression rule in 1997/98 to head the military which effectively puts him in
charge of the country's military forces as well as, crucially, in charge of
those weapons which the State House magician would have us believe would no
longer be used by the OSD - his party's armed wing masquerading as a part of a
legitimate police force.
We had stated before that we do not
believe the State House magician on efforts to pretend that the more than four
million dollar worth of weapons would not be used by the police/security forces
against the opposition before, during and after the November 17 polls. We had
feared that until and unless these weapons, war weapons to boot, were put
beyond the use of the security forces, there's no guarantee that the desperate
cabal hoping for a second term for the magician would not use these weapons
against the opposition, civilians believed by the desperadoes to be against the
magician's desperate bid for a second term.
The appointment of S O Williams to the
military's top operational position clearly demonstrates to Sierra Leoneans and
the international community that Ernest Bai Koroma's affinity and allegiance to
the murderous AFRC/RUF junta remains solid with key operatives given all manner
of appointments in his anti-people government aimed at kicking in the teeth all
those who were opposed to and refused to recognise the murderous, brutal and
extremely violent band of thieves, rapists and human rights abusers.
Allow me to quote a part of the speech delivered by the
opposition SLPP flag bearer Rtd Brigadier Julius Maada Bio for the forthcoming
elections as delivered in London quite recently
"The Police are the key instrument
the ruling Party is using to intimidate and brutalise the Opposition. The
ruling Party has not only influenced the recruitment, promotion and transfer of
police officers, its interference with the management of the Police is most
times undisguised. Evidence abounds of dismissals that are not in accordance
with laid down rules and recruitment that is also at variance with laid down
procedures. Suffice it to recall only one such case. Following the assumption
of power by the APC, ex-combatants who had been involved in gross human rights
abuses during the 11-year rebel war and particularly during the interregnum of
the illegal and unrecognized Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) - (May
1997-March 1998) - have been recruited into the Police by the dictate of State
House and are now part of the President’s Close Protection Bodyguard. These
bodyguards of the President continue to violate human rights with impunity and
bring shame on our country...worse still, the Police are growing trigger-happy
as we move towards the November elections. In the process, there is little left
of their constitutional mandate they have not abandoned. At one point they even
placed an illegal ban on processions and rallies by political parties. So much
have the Police compromised their constitutional role that they are now
perceived by the public as virtually turning the country into a police state,
ever ready to wilt at the first whim of Executive displeasure. And, as regards
the policing of the November elections, the demands are many that if they
should be given a role at all in the electioneering process they should carry
out that role unarmed or they should be combined with United Nations Police
from neighbouring Liberia to inspire public confidence in the credibility of
the process."
I had stated before and I would state it again. Given the desperation of
the thieving vultures, violence-loving culture of the cabal wanting a second
term for Ernest Bai Koroma, the international community, more so the United
Nations must make all necessary arrangements to have UN peace keepers, blue
helmets on the ground to foil the violence that is being planned by the
desperate cabal in Sierra Leone. Now is the time to act. To wait until after
the explosion would be very counter-productive and would urge that the
international community do all it can to get Sierra Leone on its path to true
democracy.
The appointment of a junta operative as
S O Williams as head of the army is not good news for our fledgling democracy.
This was the man who was a key member
of the junta's military operations against civilians who had refused to
recognise the murderous junta. It was S O Williams who, during those trying
times for the people of Sierra Leone, when civilians lived by the second not
knowing what was in the offing against them that he, S O Williams threatened to
raze Freetown to the ground should ECOMOG forces based at Jui move an inch
towards Freetown.
I would again remind my readers about
the startled and unbelieving look on the faces of the ECOMOG officers when they
heard this on the communication system. One of them replied to S O Williams'
threat - "But you are talking of your capital Freetown - you are not
talking of the Nigerian capital...it is your own country and your
capital...."
This is the same man in that junta
outfit that planned quite a good number of horrendous attacks against the
civilian population including such murderous violations like the type
perpetrated against the civilians of Mabaylla during the early days of
September 1997.
S O Williams was a part of the junta
military machinery that launched the murderous attacks of August 18, 1997 when
students and other pro-democrats organised a demonstration against the AFRC/RUF
junta headed by Johnny Paul Koroma. A number of students were killed. Students
were gang-raped in the massive junta crackdown.
S O Williams was at post when
journalists and others believed to be against the excesses of the junta were
arrested, beaten, tortured and locked up in metal containers at Cockerill
military barracks where he had his office in the same building as S F Y Koroma,
Johnny Paul's elder brother who was then the CDS under junta rule.
S Williams knew and condoned the
numerous abuses committed against perceived opponents of the junta and must
have heard of the numerous cases of murder, rape and arson that were being
carried out by the junta and did nothing about it - even when he heard of the
atrocities being committed against the "captured" female students
that were held at the then OAU villas occupied by the likes of Alex Tamba Brima
and Idrissa Kamara aka Leatherboot.
He did nothing about all these
atrocities. S O Williams still has to give account of his role during the
invasion of Freetown by junta forces that left more than five thousand unarmed
and innocent civilians dead with many more wounded and more than a million
traumatised.
I would urge the desperate men and
women of AFRC Mk2 parading as civilians who have no respect for the finer
elements of democracy to take note of a part of President Obama's speech when he was
in the Ghanaian Parliament. He stated amidst great applause that "Africa
doesn't need strongmen, it needs strong institutions" and should be heeded
by the Ernest Bai Koroma cabal that has now found a way of using those weapons
against the opposition. We would also urge them to listen again to that speech,
read and re-read certain sections as quoted below.
"First, we must support strong and
sustainable democratic governments...governments that respect the will of their
own people, that govern by consent and not coercion, are more prosperous, they
are more stable, and more successful than governments that do not....this is
about more than just holding elections. It's also about what happens between
elections.
Repression can take many forms, and too
many nations, even those that have elections, are plagued by problems that
condemn their people to poverty. No country is going to create wealth if its
leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves...or if police can be bought
off by drug traffickers...no person wants to live in a society where the rule
of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery. That is not democracy,
that is tyranny, even if occasionally you sprinkle an election in there. And
now is the time for that style of governance to end. In the 21st century,
capable, reliable, and transparent institutions are the key to success --
strong parliaments; honest police forces; independent judges --an independent
press; a vibrant private sector; a civil society. Those are the things that give
life to democracy, because that is what matters in people's everyday lives.
Across Africa, we've seen countless examples of people taking control of their
destiny, and making change from the bottom up. We saw it in Kenya, where civil
society and business came together to help stop post-election violence. We saw
it in South Africa, where over three-quarters of the country voted in the
recent election -- the fourth since the end of Apartheid. We saw it in
Zimbabwe, where the Election Support Network braved brutal repression to stand
up for the principle that a person's vote is their sacred right. Now, make no
mistake: History is on the side of these brave Africans, not with those who use
coups or change constitutions to stay in power. Africa doesn't need strongmen,
it needs strong institutions.
Now, America will not seek to impose
any system of government on any other nation. The essential truth of democracy
is that each nation determines its own destiny. But what America will do is
increase assistance for responsible individuals and responsible institutions,
with a focus on supporting good governance -- on parliaments, which check
abuses of power and ensure that opposition voices are heard ...on the rule of
law, which ensures the equal administration of justice; on civic participation,
so that young people get involved; and on concrete solutions to corruption like
forensic accounting and automating services -- strengthening hotlines,
protecting whistle-blowers to advance transparency and accountability."
The appointment of S O Williams
effectively means that those weapons now in the hands of the military, (or so
we are made to believe) could now be used in joint operations by the military
and police and as we have suggested before do not be surprised to see new types
of uniforms being issued just before the elections that would make it difficult
to distinguish the OSD from military personnel.
Time to bring in UN blue helmets with a
no-nonsense mandate. There has to be more than the traditional Chapter 7 mandate
regarding the rules of engagement.
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