Africa Speaks Reasoning Forum

SIERRA LEONE PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC LEAGUE

PDL
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PRESS RELEASE.
DATE-20 MAY, 2007.

Subject: “VIOLENCE IN SIERRA LEONE IS
POLITICALLY- MOTIVATED” .

I have been alarmed by the wave of senseless violence,
the vicious circle of attacks and arson that are
taking place in southeastern Sierra Leone in the last
few months. Scores of acts of vandalism and numerous
personal assaults, deaths and destruction of property
have been reported.

As concerned citizen aspiring to become the next
legitimate President of Sierra Leone, it is incumbent
upon me, my supporters and our Organisation, the
charismatic Sierra Leone People’s Democratic League
(PDL) to demonstrate our opposition to those
unprecedented attacks and bloodshed visited on our
people in the south-east of the country, and to
pressure for the peaceful, transparent, honest and
democratic transfer of power through constitutional
order.

Since the imposition of dictator Solomon Berewa as
flag bearer of the SLPP, Sierra Leone has been
hovering on the edge of political chaos. It does not
take a sane thinking person to know that the ongoing
violence and criminality against our people in the
provinces are essentially a political intrigue
designed by big party gurus of the Sierra Leone
People’s Party (SLPP), and ruthlessly executed by
mercenaries of the former terrorist Liberian United
for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), from
neighbouring Liberia.

I understand and it is no more a secret that the SLPP
has drawn up a list of opponents for liquidation, and
that this list includes real opponents of the Tejan
Kabbah’s despotism and misrule. For the sake of
patriotism and love for the people of Sierra Leone, I
urge the dictator Tejan Kabbah/Solomon Berewa to take
immediate action to destroy such a list and to abandon
the path of violence and terrorism of the Sierra
Leonean people as a method to achieve political gains.

The practice of democracy under the dictator Tejan
Kabbah/Solomon Berewa’s SLPP is so disgraceful and
embarrassing that it not only fails to conform to
accepted norms, but also makes the concept a complete
mockery in Africa. Sierra Leone is besieged with
political miasma where the architects of turmoil hide
behind the façade of international instruments to
pauperise the people into submission. The eruption of
violence in the provinces can only come from big party
gurus of the dictator Tejan Kabbah/Solomon Berewa SLPP
and with the prior approval and encouragement of
foreign powers and instruments hostile to Sierra Leone
in particular, and Africa generally. It confirms our
position that there is no legitimate authority in the
country, and only political prostitutes and gangsters
are mushrooming the country as government. It is the
deliberate action of the SLPP, organized at the top,
which has lead to the outbreak of another violence in
the country.

It is intolerable that no Organisation, let alone the
United Nations, or African Union or the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has issued a
statement condemning this senseless violence used by
the dictator Tejan Kabbah/Solomon Berewa SLPP for
political ends. It is my belief that, no incitement
and condoning of violence can be justified under any
circumstances, and that the SLPP, which has
intensified its brutal attacks on the constitution,
the rights and democratic freedoms of the people of
Sierra Leone has now resorted into hiring foreign
mercenaries to launch dastardly attacks on our people
with the aim of framing-up political opponents. The
political objective of the latest attacks is to
justify the failures of the SLPP against the people.

Sierra Leoneans are not interested in fighting war
again for politicians, and are not willing to be
manipulated into rude tribalism. No Sierra Leonean is
involved in the violence that has erupted recently in
the country. The SLPP knows this very well, and it
cannot deny not knowing who are the attackers, and who
hired and armed them to do the dirty job. I challenge
the SLPP to tell the people of Sierra Leone the
whereabouts of the three trucks of arms and
ammunitions that were reported missing at the Lungi
military garrison late last year. The SLPP should come
out with a statement about its knowledge concerning
the importation of combat green uniforms that were
sent to the south of the country.

I have informed the office of the United Nations
Secretary General in New York and the rest of the
international community about the political crises and
the senseless violence that befell our people. All
efforts to highlight these issues to the public have
been frustrated by the Labour Government of prime
Minister Tony Blair in London and Western diplomats in
the region, including the United Nations, which has
given its backing to the political gangsterism
championed by the dictator Tejan Kabbah/Solomon Berewa
SLPP in Freetown. There has been no statement of
condemnation of the brutal aggression and occupation
of Sierra Leone by Guinean forces; the illegalities of
the dictator Tejan Kabbah and the outbreak of new
violence that have been perpetrated by the SLPP.

As the violence intensified, with the destruction of
lives and property, and desecration of towns and
villages, and want to make this appeal to the
civilized world, member-states of the UN, AU, ECOWAS,
OAS, OIC, NAM, etc to place the question of violence
and political instability in Sierra Leone before the
United Nations Security Council under Chapter 7 of the
UN Charter.

I call for an immediate end to these politically
motivated violence and atrocious attacks designed to
commence another civil war in Sierra Leone.

Sender:

Alimamy Bakarr Sankoh

Chairman and Leader of the Sierra Leone People’s
Democratic League (PDL);
Presidential aspirant for the presidency of the
Republic of Sierra Leone.