New pressure group pushes for change

A new pressure group, the Very Concerned Citizens (VCC), is calling on Sierra Leone’s government to change the way it deals with the country’s crisis, a VCC member told IRIN. Pios Foray, entrepreneur and owner-publisher of ‘The Democrat’ newspaper, said the VCC felt the government had failed the country and relied too heavily on the support of the international community. “We have a saying here that if someone is helping you and pouring water on your back, you’ve also got to scrub your own back,” Foray said. He said the government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah had not taken full advantage of one of its most valuable tools: the general population. In early May, thousands of demonstrators marched to Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leader Foday Sankoh’s home demanding an end to the war. “They (the government) didn’t take advantage of the situation when there was tremendous goodwill ... they should have put more confidence in the people,” Foray said. During the May demonstration, several people were killed and dozens wounded when shots were fired into the crowd. In the ensuing panic Sankoh went into hiding for about a week before he was caught and handed over to the authorities. In a meeting on 21 July in Freetown, attended by some 150 people, the VCC discussed national security and defence, the political landscape, social conditions and the economic situation in the country. Foray said the idea of forming an interim government next year at the end of the present administration’s term was mentioned. There was a call, he explained, for a neutral, credible and independent body with which the RUF can communicate prior to elections due next year. However, he said, “We don’t want to derail the democratic process, we want to see the government connect itself.” Not all Sierra Leoneans support the idea of an interim government. Executive members of the Council of Chiefs told Kabbah last week that they were disturbed by the activities of those who were making the call, the Sierra Leone News Agency reported on 7 August. Their spokesman, Paramount Chief S.M. Slokoh from Thorllie Chiefdom in the eastern district of Kono said there was no need for an interim government when there was already a constitutionally elected administration. Information Minister Julius Spencer told IRIN that the VCC was made up of people with an “axe to grind”. He said they blamed the government for not ending the civil war, and for incidents such as the 25 May 1997 military coup and the RUF invasion of Freetown in January 1999. Asked if he considered the group a serious threat to the government, he said the authorities were more concerned that the VCC would send “the wrong signal to the international community that Sierra Leone is divided”. The VCC, whose next step is to “develop people’s consciousness, continue with sensitisation, mass education and mobilisation”, includes individuals from the business world, labour movement and medical profession, and former soldiers, Foray said.