We may forgive but we must never forget – Lord Russell of Liverpool
The Japanese obviously committed many atrocities and other war crimes on allied Prisoners of War, especially the British and Americans. The experience of Chinese and the Koreans under Japanese invasion and or occupation is a story of its own. Today America’s strongest ally both politically and economically in the area is Japan. After the war and the establishment of peace there were concerns raised in some circles particularly in Britain that the Japanese must not get away lightly for their actions. One of the strongest opponents of any COMPROMISE with Japan was Lord Russell of Liverpool. He practically led a crusade against any peace deal. When it became inevitable that peace with the former enemy was not only desirable but necessary, he published a book with the title, “We may forgive but we must never forget.” (Photo: Dr. Sama Banya)
Today we in the opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party SLPP will reopen our rehabilitated and refurbished party headquarters on Wallace Johnson Street. It is not the first time that the office has been rehabilitated and refurbished at great expense; the difference is that this time round the funds was provided from the Peace Building Fund. This was brought about as a result of the peace that was brokered between the ruling APC party and the opposition SLPP, which was spearheaded by the Executive Representative of the UN Secretary-General and the rest of the international community. It followed the last APC attack and mayhem. It would be recalled that no sooner had Christiana Thorpe illegally handed over the runoff election result to the then opposition candidate Ernest Bai Koroma than elements of APC supporters attacked our headquarters building. They looted and vandalized everything including our Unity radio equipment. Apart from a casual visit to the site by the new Vice President, neither the APC government nor its party did anything to compensate us. Perhaps they relied on the statement of the Inspector-General of Police Brima Archer-Kamara that the havoc was done by our supporters who he alleged were compensating themselves because we had failed to reward them for their past services. Such was the detestable callousness the head of our Police force many of whose men along with soldiers all of them in uniform, who were dancing in the streets in celebration of the APC victory.
If the APC felt that we were not only down but out, they were disappointed because our general membership led by Dr. Alusine Fofana, Kelloh Jalloh and others, soon galvanized itself into action. Our building was completely rehabilitated and refurbished much to the astonishment of our opponents. Through the generosity of former President Tejan-Kabbah a new radio transmitter with equipment was installed. Then elements of the APC leadership got jittery at the effectiveness of Unity radio which rubbished every vile propaganda emitted by the voice of the red sun. It was getting embarrassingly serious for them. In a desperate move the minister of information and communication banned the station under the pretext that our transmitters were illegally occupying state land up Leicester Peak. Of course it was not true that we were illegally up Leicester Peak; the minister who had been President of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists SLAJ was just being petty. It took a series of meetings and President Koroma’s intervention before we resumed broadcasting. We invited the head of state to relaunch the station at an impressive ceremony at the Miatta Conference Centre. We did this because we believed that by leaving our boy with the village bully, he would be in safe hands. Would the APC again attack a project which had been launched by their own leader? Events would soon prove how naïve we were in our thinking. There was yet another vicious attempt to destroy the station; the cries of the poor operator went in vain even though the metropolitan police station was just in front of our headquarters and the central police station less than a stone’s throw.
We were invited to state house and instead of addressing the issue of unprovoked aggression by their supporters, the meeting turned into accusations of how the announcers call for help sounded inciting. I was censored for suggesting that if the attacks did not stop we would not restrain our own supporters from hot pursuit. Hints of possible banning were made by the Vice President. On our way out we were molested with urine thrown at us. The attack on the journalists who went to the scene made headlines. The last attack was even more violent; the first stage was attempts to set the building on fire, but instead two vehicles, one of which belonged to the Secretary-General were set on fire. The building was however looted and vandalized and the radio equipment carted away. There are video tapes of the police standing by doing nothing while some of them were seen among the attackers. That was not enough; the following morning a batch of APC supporters, led by one of the President’s bodyguards Idiss Kanu, commonly referred to as Lederboots again attacked the building. This time our women who sought refuge within the building were physically and sexually attacked. The findings of a Presidential commission were a sham; they admitted attacks on the women but they could not tell whether they were raped. I have deliberately made no mention of the role of the Independent Media Commission IMC in all this It simply abrogated its constitutional function to the Vice President.
It is with great pride and a spirit of determination to bounce back come 2012 that this rehabilitated and refurbished party headquarters is being reopened.
LONG LIVE DEMOCRACY. LONG LIVE SIERRA LEONE. ONE COUNTRY, ONE PEOPLE
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