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Sierra Leone ALERT: Newspaper fined

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 08:59:41 GMT

Friday, November 14, 2008

Awareness Times, a Freetown based newspaper, was on Thursday November 6, 2008 fined 5 million Leones, approximately ($1,700) by the Independent Media Commission (IMC) for failing to publish the imprint of the paper.

According to Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent, a release circulated by the IMC on Friday November 7, 2008 stated that the Commission found that the October 29, 2008, November 2, 3 and 5, 2008 editions contravened provisions of sections 32 (1) and (2) of the IMC Act 2000.

The IMC provisions, in section 32 (1) and (2), state that every newspaper should publish its imprint on the back or front of the paper for identification of its address and ownership, failing which the paper will be fined an amount not exceeding $1700.

In respect of the provisions, the Commission decided that the Awareness Times newspaper be fined 5 million Leones to be paid within 7 days and to conform forthwith with the provisions, failing which further action will be taken against the newspaper as stipulated in the IMC Act 2000.

However Dr. Sylvia Blyden, the Awareness Times publisher said it was not intentional that the location of the newspaper's offices were not published.

"What happened was that the design layout specialist responsible for designing the back page where we usually place our address mistakenly inserted a coloured strip advert over the space where we normally have the office address and this wiped it out. So on the four particular days that the advert ran, the office address was wiped off by mistake. It was a simple inadvertent mistake that other newspapers had made in the past", she said.

The Sierra Leone Journalists Association (SLAJ) has not commented on the decision since the current executive is already dissolved pending elections at the end of November this year.

Media Foundation for West Africa

WEST AFRICA: Weighing free health care for all

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 10:14:09 GMT

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Saturday, October 18, 2008

West African governments considering lifting health care fees for all will soon have a guide to manage the financial impact of the move.

The guide, which the NGO Save the Children expects to launch in November, will show policymakers in developing countries how to estimate resource needs that may arise from abolishing fees.

Groups campaigning for free care for all say even minimal fees can be deadly when they cut off millions of the world’s poorest from lifesaving basic care, while contributing only a small portion to health sector revenue.

But how to lift fees and sustain a health care system remains complicated. “[Countries] do not have the tools to plan for such a policy change and its implementation,” Alice Schmidt, health advocacy adviser with Save the Children, told IRIN.

The five steps in the guide, “Freeing up Healthcare”, are: analyse starting position, estimate how removing fees will affect service utilisation, estimate additional requirements for human resources and drugs, mobilise additional funding and communicate the policy change.

In many West African countries, governments, civil society groups and local and international NGOs are studying how cash-strapped countries with poor health infrastructure – some recovering from years of conflict – can ensure basic health care for all.

In Sierra Leone a health financing task force with representatives of the government and NGOs has been studying the issue for months. The government is looking at options for financing health care; for now, public health care is free only for some groups, including under-five children and pregnant and lactating women.

Nothing less than free

The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) supports the removal of user fees.

The World Bank in its 2007 health strategy said it “stands ready to support countries that want to remove user fees from public facilities,” if the lost resources can be replaced for effective functioning of the health system and if resources go to providing quality services for the poor.

But NGOs say donors must go further, telling governments they will support them in lifting health care fees.

“The evidence that abolishing user fees improves access to health is completely overwhelming,” Anna Marriott, health policy adviser with Oxfam-Great Britain, told IRIN. “User fees block access to health care for millions of people.”

Free, but not for all

The UN’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF), while supporting universal access to health services, does not believe that simply abolishing health care fees everywhere at a stroke is appropriate.

“In many countries where the health system works relatively well, people are already used to paying for care,” said Celestino Costa, health policy adviser at UNICEF’s West Africa office. “Coming in and just saying we’re going to remove all user fees would disrupt the system. In these cases it is worth a look into the best option to ensure that poor and vulnerable are not left out.”

But some anti-fee NGOs say eradication is the only way to go.

“Free health care is critical for children's health,” said Oxfam’s Marriott. “Rather than focusing only on the problems countries face removing user fees, UNICEF should be actively supporting their abolition.”

UNICEF’s Costa said the agency “stands ready to help governments who wish to exempt certain vulnerable groups from health fees,” saying the decision rests with governments. “The most important thing is to see what measures can be put in place, working with the government, to ensure that the poorest groups get full access to proper health care.” He concluded, “It is a complex question, and it depends on the reality on the ground in each country.”

Health experts backing free care said a September 2008 Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) report on malaria concluding that free malaria testing and treatment has dramatically increased the number of people seeking care and surviving is further evidence to cut out user fees.
“Getting malaria drugs into a country is not sufficient,” Seco Gerard, MSF analysis and advocacy adviser, told IRIN. “Access is mostly about cost.”

Gerard said in many settings requiring even a small fee for health services forces an “impossible choice” on families. “It’s so easy to treat malaria. That’s why it’s so revolting to hear the numbers of people, especially children, still dying of malaria.”

Health experts stress that while fees present one barrier, many others remain, such as a lack of equipment and medicines in public health centres and a lack of facilities for remote communities.

Sticking with health fees

In Côte d’Ivoire the government studied the question in 2007, and decided to continue charging fees.

“The government is not considering free health care,” Simeon N’da, communications officer with the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene, told IRIN. “The government subsidises health care and medicines; the fees citizens pay are minimal”, he said, adding that the revenue helps maintain public health facilities.

Some communities in Cote d’Ivoire have enjoyed free health care at MSF hospitals, which came in when the 2002 rebellion sparked widespread unrest and displacement. But MSF is gradually moving out and the adjustment demonstrates some of the challenges of public health care particularly in West Africa’s many post-conflict countries.

IRIN

SIERRA LEONE: Government tightens control of NGOs

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 09:22:05 GMT

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Officials in Sierra Leone are drafting a new law that will tighten controls on non-profit organisations working in the country, joining other governments demanding more accountability from their donors.

Deputy Finance Minister Richard Conteh announced at a press conference the NGO reform initiative on 2 September, saying the non-profit sector has largely escaped government oversight: “We don’t know how much is being spent and what they are doing. The majority of the country’s development activities – channelled through 300 non-profit organisations – have made little difference.”

An 11-year civil war that ended in 2002 paralysed health and education services – damage evident in the country’s relatively low quality of life.

The UN has ranked Sierra Leone last among 177 countries for which it measures access to health care, education and a living-wage income. Less than half of the population is enrolled in school, an average 35 percent of the population cannot read, and the average life span is 40 years. Almost 30 percent of children do not live past the age of five.

If someone in Sierra Leone works every day of the year, they make on average 71 US cents a day, according to World Bank 2007 estimates.

Charles Mambu, the local representative of the West Africa Civil Society Forum, said local non-profits can do more to help speed up the country’s development, but they are often not consulted: “International non-profits have the ability to attract more donor dollars. They have the big staff. The big cars. It is very hard for local civil society to attract that kind of money.”

Mambu added that aid agencies’ selection process for local partners is often not transparent. “Unless you know someone who selects partner organisations, you will not be chosen.”

But spokesman Peter Ngu Tayong with the UN Development Programme in Sierra Leone, which reported spending $67 million in 2006-2007 on youth employment, health, and human rights programming, told IRIN the UN chooses qualified partners based on merit: “All NGOs must first register with the government of Sierra Leone through the Ministry of Finance and Development. Secondly, after a competitive process the best is considered for any collaboration.”

Vrinda Dar, director of non-profit Oxfam UK’s Sierra Leone program, which has been running programs for the past 10 years, told IRIN locals get first priority: “Oxfam International subscribes to the Accountability Charter of the International Advocacy NGOs, and our own Southern Advocacy Guidelines state clearly that local and national organisations have primary legitimacy as advocates in their countries, and that Oxfam is there to support them not to take their place.”

The NGO reforms, to be applied to both local and international NGOs, would require annual activity reports and registration with the government every two years, according to the finance ministry’s Conteh.

The civil society forum’s Mambu told IRIN regulations are needed, but they should not stifle activities: “They [reforms] should not get rid of well- governed NGOs.”

He expressed concern that the government may selectively enforce the regulations based on political leanings. “Civil society and NGOs should not be targeted because of their political beliefs. The government should not use back-door regulations to restrict political dissent.”

IRIN

Sierra Leone UPDATE: News blackout on police lifted

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 08:33:58 GMT

Thursday, October 02, 2008

The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) on September 24, 2008 lifted the news blackout it imposed on the activities of the country’s police over attacks on some of its members by police personnel.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that the lifting of the ban followed the intervention of Sam Sumana, the country’s Vice President, and Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, the Communication’s Minister.

The correspondent said Sumana who is the Chairman of the Police Council, assumed responsibility for the attack and promised to refund the monies and equipment the journalists lost.

After some feet dragging, SLAJ imposed the blackout on September 22, six weeks after the police authorities had refused to implement a recommendation by a committee to compensate the affected journalists. Eight journalists were violently attacked by policemen at the State House in Freetown on August 13, while on assignment.

The Media Foundation for West Africa

Sierra Leone UPDATE: News blackout on police

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 08:27:56 GMT

Monday, September 22, 2008

The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) on September 22, 2008 imposed a news blackout on police activities as part of a campaign to demand justice for journalists who were violently assaulted by personnel of the Sierra Leone Police Force in August.

On August 13 police personnel deployed at the country’s State House in Freetown, the capital, assaulted eight journalists covering a meeting between the two major political parties: the ruling All Peoples Congress Party (APC) and the main opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP).The journalists in the process lost equipment, including cameras, cellular phones and audio recorders.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that at a meeting on September 20, SLAJ members unanimously resolved that the blackout should remain in force, until the police provide adequate compensation to all the affected journalists.

The SLAJ said the police have failed to comply with recommendations of a committee that was set up to investigate the incident.

SLAJ said should the police fail to act on the request, it will further extend its action to the government, since some supporters of the ruling party also assaulted the journalists on the same day at the ruling party’s headquarters.

The Media Foundation for West Africa

SIERRA LEONE: Dwellers refuse to leave flood-prone slums

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:13:10 GMT

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

More than 10,000 slum dwellers have been affected by an 11 September storm that tore down dozens of makeshift homes in Kroo Bay, one of the city’s largest slums, according to a government evaluation completed on 15 September.

Saidu Alieu Turay, Chairman of the Kroo Bay health committee, said it was the worst flooding he had seen in the 20 years he has lived in the community. “Eighty percent of the community could not sleep in their homes that night.”

He called on the government to help them relocate.

Refusing to flee danger

The government’s national director of disaster management, Mary Mye-Kamara, told IRIN the government has tried to relocate residents from flood-prone slums in recent years, but they either refused or simply returned when water levels receded.

“They demand to move, but this is just lip service. ‘We can no longer live here’ they say, but guess who is back the next day? They blame flooding on people living at the top of the hill for dumping trash in the drainage, but that is not the problem. They simply live in dangerous flood-prone areas.”

Flooding occurs almost every year for people who live near sea level in hilly Freetown.

Sprawling communities filled with aluminium-sided hastily-constructed homes are clustered near the mouth of the Rokel river, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean.

Mye-Kamara says massive rural to urban migration in recent years, deforestation and poor drainage makes the city’s coastal communities the most vulnerable.

“Freetown used to have more trees, but people have cut them down for money. Trees no longer hold the soil in place, so everything washes downhill and clogs drains. A few years ago, the government offered to help move residents [in flood-prone zones] to areas further from the city centre, offering agricultural tools and seeds to support new livelihoods for them. They were not interested.”

She says her office can only coordinate assistance; it cannot force people to evacuate if there is no government law requiring people to leave areas that are potentially unsafe, or even deadly.

She says 2007 flooding in the slum area of Falcon Bridge led to at least one death when a resident was caught for hours under a boulder. “You would never imagine people lived in this slum. It was completely inaccessible. There were people living under a cliff. The constant rains had eroded the rocks, some of which finally tumbled onto their homes.”
She says the rescue took hours. “But if you were to go back today, I bet the number of people living there has doubled. People will not leave.”

Mye-Kamara says people tell her they do not have money to relocate, and do not know how they will make money outside the city centre.

Disaster policy in pipeline

The disaster management director told IRIN that her office has drafted a national disaster policy, completed near the time of presidential elections in September 2007. She explained the presidential elections set back discussions until now. “The government was not focused on disaster at the time, so the draft was placed aside for reconsideration.” said Mye-Kamara.

“We expect the new government [of President Ernest Bai Koroma] to review it soon. It is in the pipeline to be endorsed.”

When asked how government endorsement will help prevent future flood crises, Mye-Kamara responded, “This forces the government to deal with flooding. All we [Office of Disaster Management] can do is raise awareness, and coordinate donor assistance and response. We have no power to carry out forced evacuations. But if we have the blessing of the government, we can move people.”

Mye-Kamara says flood prevention will cost less than flood response. “Coming out of a civil war [1991-2002], the government has limited resources. It has so many competing concerns and it cannot afford to keep helping people rebuild their homes.”

She added the Office of National Security has convened a meeting for international and local partners working in disaster relief, which is scheduled to take place on 18 September, to discuss solutions to the perennial problem of flooding.

Weak early warning system

One element of the national disaster policy draft is the creation of an early warning system.

Currently, the National Meteorological Department is responsible for national weather monitoring, but its director, Sombi Lansana, said his department is overstretched and focused on aviation weather forecasting.

“We have only two forecasters and both of them are at the Freetown International Airport at Lungi. Aviation weather forecast is round the clock; even when we are not expecting flights we need to have one forecaster on site who will be communicating with the control tower in case there is a need to divert flights here if a neighbouring country is experiencing bad weather,” he explained to IRIN.

Lansana said the weather department’s rain gauge is not working, so he could not give measurements for rainfall on 11 September, other than to say, “It was the heaviest daily rainfall we’ve experienced this year.”

IRIN

SIERRA LEONE: Violent memories still haunt war orphans

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 06:56:24 GMT

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Theresa, a vivacious 16-year-old girl, last saw her parents when they were dragged away from her in a crush of people fleeing into neighbouring Guinea after a rebel attack on their town during the civil war (1991-2000).

She never found them again, and lived out the war and its aftermath in refugee camps, begging and selling her body to soldiers and men for scraps of food and money.

Today Sierra Leone is at peace and Theresa is living with an aunt in Koindu, a town in southeastern Sierra Leone that was a major rebel stronghold during the civil war.

She has a two year-old child, but does not know who the father is, because she has had many sexual partners since returning home.

She said her life has rarely felt like it was worth living. “I feel like I have no purpose, like there is no meaning to it,” she said. “I have no idea who the child’s father is. I have to struggle just to get clothes for us. I beg to eat.”

Alice Behrendt, who has studied the suicide risk of children in Togo, Burkina Faso, Liberia and Sierra Leone for the non-governmental organisation Plan International, said Theresa’s sense of hopelessness is common among war orphans, and even children who did not lose their parents during the war.

CLICK to read the story of other Sierra Leonean war orphans, brothers John and Mustapha and Joshua

High suicide risk

“Of all the countries I have studied, by far the most dramatic suicide rate was in Sierra Leone,” she said.
In Koindu, of the 180 children surveyed by Behrendt - 90 orphans and 90 other children - 59 percent had witnessed a suicide, and 70 percent had considered or attempted suicide themselves.

Among the orphans, only eight (out of 90) were not deemed a suicide risk.

“It’s not just the orphans who are at risk, because many children who did not lose their parents are living in environments where they are abused or which are violent in some way,” Behrendt said.

“The main difference for the orphans is that they generally have less self-esteem, lower social skills and more depression. There are more signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, more bedwetting and conduct problems.”

Female orphans were also likely to be involved in transactional sex she said. Fifty percent of the teenage girls interviewed by Plan International had got pregnant at some point and many had sexually transmitted diseases. “The girls prostitute themselves to survive. Some do it to pay their school fees.”

Communities are well aware of the problem, Behrendt says. However, local solutions have little in common with Western-style counselling and support mechanisms. Anyone found attempting suicide is punished either with a beating, or even by being taken to the police.

Lawrence James trained as a counsellor with a different NGO that used to work in Koindu; currently he receives funding from Plan International to visit suicidal orphans.

Breakdown of social relations

He blames the breakdown of social relations during the war for the total lack of support for the orphans. “People have lost their cultural values and their sense of community,” he said.
In a town where most people still live in burned out shells of ruined buildings with torn plastic and dry leaves as roofing, there is not enough to go around families, let alone to share with orphans.

“Poverty is the order of the day here,” he said. “Families just can’t cope with taking in another child - they want to focus on their own and themselves.”

James and two colleagues, Fatmata Bah and Mustapha Abdulai, work at improving relationships between orphans and their carers when they have them, and Plan International sometimes subsidises school fees so children can go to school.

Probing how children feel

The three counsellors also focus on helping the children build up the mental toughness to put their violent pasts behind them. Some of the children not only lost their parents in the war, but saw them killed, or were even forced to kill them themselves.

Often the counsellors are the first to probe how the children feel about what happened to them and those around them during the war. For the first week of treatment, the children usually just cry without talking.
Just getting them to speak about what happened to them is therefore seen as a victory.

But while family mediation and support can help, James says the good the counsellors can do is limited by the lack of economic opportunities or hope of a better life for the children.

Behrendt, the project manager, said as far as Plan International was concerned Koindu was just the beginning. The next step was to widen the catchment area to include children in more parts of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

“There really is a story on every corner here,” she said. “Sometimes it feels like the towns are full of children that need help.”

IRIN

IMF Executive Board Completes Second Review Under PRGF Arrangement for Sierra Leone, Approves Extension of Arrangement and US$7.2 Million Disbursement

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:19:34 GMT

Thursday, July 10, 2008

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has completed the second review of Sierra Leone's performance under a Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) arrangement. The Executive Board also approved a one-year extension of the PRGF arrangement to 2010.The completion of this review allows for the disbursement of SDR 4.4 million (about US$7.2 million), which would bring total disbursements under the arrangement to SDR 13.5 million (about US$22.1 million).

The Executive Board also granted waivers for the non-observance of three quantitative performance criteria on the basis of corrective measures taken and the temporary nature of the deviations from the quantitative targets.

The PRGF arrangement for Sierra Leone was approved on May 10, 2006 in an amount equivalent to SDR 31.1 million (about US$50.9 million), to support the government's 2006-08 economic program. The extension of the program from three years to four years should provide sufficient time to achieve the program objectives (see Press Release No. 06/94).

Following the Executive Board's discussion, Mr. Murilo Portugal, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair, said:
"Economic growth in Sierra Leone remained robust in 2007 and early 2008, led by solid agriculture and mining production and buoyant activity in the construction and service sectors. Inflation, though rising, was relatively contained in the face of surging global food and energy prices. Performance under the PRGF-supported program was mixed in the second half of 2006 through much of 2007. Significant revenue shortfalls, exacerbated by delayed external budgetary assistance, had complicated budget execution. These developments contributed to a severe compression of priority spending and the accumulation of domestic arrears. The strong commitment of the authorities to address the sources of these setbacks and move forward with key structural reforms in the period ahead is welcome, and the recent improvement in program implementation is encouraging."

"The proposed fiscal stance for 2008 seeks to recapture the momentum lost in mobilizing domestic revenue, and strikes a good balance between expanding poverty-reducing and infrastructure spending and preventing the accumulation of public debt. The authorities are committed to staying the course, with wide-ranging measures to make the National Revenue Authority more efficient and broaden the tax base. Firm control over expenditure commitments by ministries, departments, and agencies will provide critical support to the objective of domestic arrears clearance while creating fiscal space to address essential social needs."

"The Bank of Sierra Leone will focus on strengthening its management of liquidity and monitoring closely developments in the monetary aggregates, given the need to contain the second-round effects of rising import prices for food and fuel."
"First steps have been taken to advance structural reforms, in particular in public financial management and the financial sector. The authorities will work to ensure transparency in all public procurement contracts, strengthen the Anti-Corruption Commission, and improve the financial viability of public utilities in order to promote good governance, accountability, and sustained high growth," Mr. Portugal said.

The PRGF is the IMF's concessional facility for low-income countries. PRGF loans carry an annual interest rate of 0.5 percent and are repayable over 10 years with a 5½-year grace period on principal payments.

The International Monetary Fund

SIERRA LEONE: Sex crimes continue in peacetime

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:46:37 GMT

Friday, June 20, 2008

Eight years after a civil war in Sierra Leone that became notorious for the extent of rape and violence committed against civilians, social workers fear that rape is more of a problem in post-conflict, democratic society than it was during the war.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which runs four “Rainbo Centres” - counseling and treatment clinics for raped and battered women in Sierra Leone - recorded 1,176 attacks on women around the country last year. Its staff say these numbers are just the tip of the iceberg.

“When we started work just after the war it was to provide medical and psychological counseling to women who had been abused during the war, but the new cases have just not stopped coming,” said Hannah Kargbo, a nurse who treats abused women.

“Some of the perpetrators were children during the war and were exposed to rape and sexual violence then and just carried on doing it,” she said. The highest numbers of cases come from areas where large numbers of ex-combatants are gathered.

Stigmatisation

“The ministry of health just cannot give it the attention it deserves with [other priorities, including] such high levels of child and maternal mortality,” explained Alan Glasgow, the head of the IRC in Sierra Leone. “They want to, but the resources just aren’t there.”

Even when facilities do exist – like the IRC-run Rainbo Centres - people are very reluctant to come forward and talk about what has happened to them.

“Being raped is stigmatised by society in Sierra Leone,” said Eunice Whenzle, head of the Rainbo Centre in the capital Freetown, who says that even the question of what constitutes a sexual assault is a very complex issue in Sierra Leonean society.

Marital rape is still not considered a crime. It is also still normal for society to blame the victims for what has happened to them, usually for how they dress or comport themselves, social workers say.

Protection of women

Getting a clear statistical picture of the problem is hindered by the country’s still devastated health infrastructure, fractured local government and other humanitarian priorities.

While the number of rapes is unclear, the extent of the problem is acknowledged by officials at all levels as alarming. “Rape is endemic and pervasive,” said one senior UN official, who requested anonymity.

Police officials said most police stations and police sub-offices receive at least one complaint of rape every day.

According to the human rights group Amnesty International (USA), increased rape and domestic violence in post-conflict situations has also been recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo, former Yugoslavia and Northern Ireland.

“Studies suggest that domestic violence continues to intensify after conflict and is worse than it was during the conflict,” Amnesty says, urging added attention on protection of women and girls in post-conflict states.

“When states fail to take the basic steps necessary to protect women from domestic violence or allow these crimes to be committed with impunity, they are failing in their obligation to protect women's rights,” it said in a report on post-conflict violence.

Rapists go free

But in Sierra Leone impunity for rapists is still the norm. Of 896 Rainbo Centre clients that sought legal action against their attackers in 2007, just 13 perpetrators received a conviction.

Partly to blame is society’s pressure for silence from the attacked. “The victims think that if other people get to hear about the attack they will be mocked and blamed,” Whenzle said.

Fear of stigmatisation is especially acute among the young girls and teenagers who make up the bulk of rape victims. According to the IRC, between January and December 2007 some 65 percent of the victims it treated were under 15 years old. The youngest client was 2 months old.

“The young ones refuse to go back to school after the attack because they think other children will tease them about it,” explained Whenzle. “Some of the girls completely retract from society, refusing to eat or engage with anyone.”

Even when girls and women do come forward and try to get a legal conviction against their attacker, they face large financial and administrative obstacles to getting the necessary medical exams and certificates, and then an interminable wait for justice.

“The court system is incredibly slow,” said Whenzle at the Rainbo Centre in Freetown. “We try to explain to people that it is nonetheless better to let the justice system run its course, otherwise these crimes will go on and on, but mostly people settle out of court.”

“As a result, rapists go free, and sometimes the same girl is even raped again by the same man.”

Failure

Even when victims overcome the social and financial barriers to getting their case heard, the criminal justice system has largely failed to successfully prosecute sex crimes.

“There is no stigma attached to being a rapist in Sierra Leonean society, only to being raped,” Whenzle said.

In some cases, girls are even obliged by their families to marry the man who raped them. “These are mostly uneducated people and their family’s think just giving the girl away is the best thing to do.”

More commonly however, the rapist will offer to give money to the victim’s family as a form of punishment. “Ultimately money becomes more important than the child’s welfare,” Whenzle said.

Amie Kandeh, a gender-based violence expert at the IRC in Freetown, agreed. “There is a total lack of support in society for holding perpetrators accountable,” she said.

“We saw rape and sexual violence used as a tool during the war, and now it is morphing into this culture’s society as something that is understood and even accepted,” said Glasgow, the IRC head.

Source: IRIN NEWS http://irinnews.org

Sierra Leone ALERT: Opposition radio station shut down

Sat, 17 May 2008 11:54:43 GMT

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Unity Radio, a station run by the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), was on May 8, 2008 shut down on the orders of the Minister of Information and Communication, Alhaji Ibrahim Ben Kargbo.
Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA)’s correspondent reported that the closure according to Kargbo, was due to the installation of an illegal antenna which disturbed the transmission of other radio stations, and the fact that SLPP did not go through the right procedures to register Unity Radio.

The statement by Kargbo followed a release by the Secretary General of the SLPP, Jacob Jusu Saffa, which alleged that the party had done nothing wrong, and that the Ministry of Information and Communication did not have the authority to shut down Unity.

Saffa claimed that any interference with frequencies should be reported to the Independent Media Commission (IMC), which has the authority to notify the station. The Ministry, however, had no business interfering, Saffa asserted.

According to Saffa, the shut-down was a deliberate attempt by the government to silence the opposition of Sierra Leone. This was denied by Kargbo, who claimed that the closure was instigated by other radio stations which had lodged official complaints on frequency interference by Unity to the ministry.

According to the correspondent, the Chairperson of the IMC, Bernadette Cole, said that the Ministry’s decision to shut down Unity Radio was flawed and that the complaints from the affected radio stations should have been processed by either the IMC or the National Telecommunication Commission (NATCOM) which is responsible for issuing out frequencies.

In the statement by Kargbo, the Minister made it clear that if the SLPP radio goes through the proper channels and remedies the frequency interference, the government would have no reason to uphold the shut-down.

Media Foundation for West Africa