Sierra Leone is another tragic example of how democracy has been abused, write Khareen Pech and Yusuf Hassan
Khareen Pech
LAST week the former president of Sierra Leone, Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, had still not replied to a deal, proposed by Executive Outcomes, offering special protection to the government.
By Sunday it was too late. After 14 months in power, Kabbah’s government was toppled by a group of young, middle-ranking soldiers who seized control of the conflict-torn, diamond-rich land in a bloody coup d’etat.
The planned Executive Outcomes project would have provided Kabbah and his most senior Cabinet members with a paramilitary anti-riot force of about 500 men and a two- man intelligence unit (staffed by South Africans) who would have been based at military headquarters to give early warning of any coup plots.
Whether Kabbah was unable to afford the expensive protection package, as Executive Outcomes sources claim, or whether he preferred to put his trust in the internationally approved Nigerian peace- keeping forces in Freetown is not certain, but he paid a high price for his indecision.
A year ago, Sierra Leone became the bright hope of West Africa when the military regime handed over power to an elected civilian government and democracy took root after decades of kleptocratic, one party rule.
But that hope has died in the wake of the speedy exit of Kabbah’s government, most of whom are sheltering in compounds protected by an Executive Outcomes subsidiary security company, Lifeguard.
The success of the multi-party elections in February last year was largely attributed to the determination of ordinary Sierra Leoneans who turned up to vote despite brutal attacks by both the government and rebel forces.
In more hushed tones it was also attributed to the persuasive might of Executive Outcomes, which was hired by the NPRC government in May 1995.
Foreign diplomats, mining bosses, certain international aid agencies, Sierra Leonean politicians, and most vociferously, Executive Outcomes itself, all argued that the mercenaries played a significant role in bringing about a measure of stability in the run-up period to elections and in facilitating the military’s peaceful handover.
The exact nature of the role remains to be told. Its military successes are undisputed. Executive Outcomes forces did drive the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel army from the capital city’s doorstep and secured a measure of stability in strategic mining areas. But the war continued in the provinces. Then in March and September last year, Executive Outcomes’s intensive air and ground offensives on rebel bases forced RUF leaders to adopt a peace accord.
In a sense Executive Outcomes outdid itself. With the RUF threat curtailed and a signed peace accord, there was little left for the mercenaries to achieve.
Executive Outcomes did provide intelligence and conducted a rescue mission to extract United Nations observers from a threatened town during elections, and also kept tabs on developing plots within military headquarters at the time.
And it exploited its success in Sierra Leone during international marketing drives. Together with its affiliated British company, Branch Energy, it drummed up tacit support for Executive Outcomes from a wide variety of diplomats, international aid organisations and multi- national companies doing business in Africa.
The theory that private military and security companies can assist in solving conflicts and bring about better investment possibilities to rich but turbulent African countries seemed to be proven in the case of Sierra Leone.
While Executive Outcomes had no difficulty convincing businessmen, it still has not won official approval from international organisations like the International Monetary Fund and the UN.
Faced with a bill of about US$1,7-million per month for about 115 Executive Outcomes soldiers which his government could not afford and which the IMF refused to fund, and facing increasing opposition from the international community, Kabbah was forced to let his mercenaries leave in January 1997.
It was the beginning of the end.