As 1, 500 troops set to be deployed in Sierra Leone, question about whether Sierra Leone needs foreign military intervention filters through the public. The troops which will come under ECOMOG, the military wing of ECOWAS (Economic Community Of West African States) will provide security for the June 24, 2023 elections.
Signs, according to social commentators, have already shown that the coming elections will not be an easy ride for the local forces. It is also clear that a large number of police and army personnel seem to have taken sides with government, a move that raises questions of neutrality and fair play.
As events unfold, the security forces do not enjoy 100% public trust and acceptance. The North-West regions see the police and the army as enemies and not friends while the South-East treat the army and the police as friends of the state.
The reason is clear: the South-East regions are political heartlands of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party while North-West regions are strongholds of the main opposition, All People’s Congress. Without any hesitation, it is safe to say the police and army forces are lethal in the North-West while they remain docile and weak in the South-East.
It is double standards policing: one for the opposition strongholds and the other for the ruling party areas. This policing style has generated threats that have gone beyond the capacity of the local forces prompting the need for the deployment of foreign troops.
Some Sierra Leoneans support the move while others do not. The opponents argue that the use of foreign soldiers to secure the elections means Sierra Leone cannot take care of its domestic security.
It is also argued that Sierra Leone is a sovereign state with standing army and police forces capable of providing security service to the people of Sierra Leone. But, with the deployment of foreign troops, where is Sierra Leone’s sovereignty?
Concerns about serious human rights abuses have also come to the forefront of the debate if ECOMOG troops are deployed in Sierra Leone. Looking back at the period between 1998 and 2005, it makes good judgment to bring out such concerns.
Although no ECOMOG force commander was made to face justice, it was clear that they committed human rights and war crimes while prosecuting the war. ECOMOG troops sexually exploited women and girls, embarked on extra-judicial killings, tortured civilians including children, mass murders by way of airstrikes in civilian communities among others.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report, 2004 made it clear that “all warring factions in Sierra Leone committed war crimes against civilian population.”
Credence was lent to the TRC claims owing to crimes committed following the restoration of President Ahmed Tejan Kabba to power in 1998. Many of those who were accused of collaborating with the defunct Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC)were extra-judicially executed in public view although they were innocent.
In the process, Sierra Leone lost most of their prominent men and women to war. A prominent APC member, Alhaji Musa Kabia was burned alive in the city heartland. Dogs and vultures fed on his remains.
A prominent muslim scholar in Fourah Bay community in Freetown was also set ablaze on mere finger pointing that he was an AFRC collaborator. Another patriotic Sierra Leonean fondly known as Abu Black was burnt alive in public. He was accused of collaborating with the AFRC regime which ousted President Kabba from power.
Many more Sierra Leoneans crumbled under the barrel of the ECOMOG gun. ECOMOG also played a leading role in the execution of 24 soldiers including Brigadier Hassan Conteh who were speedily tried and convicted of treason by a government-backed court martial.
Major Kula Samba was also among those executed. She was Africa’s first female soldier to face a firing squad. Many condemned the trial calling it a sham. It was also reported that human rights campaigners notably Amnesty International pleaded with the Kabba government to extend an Olive branch to the khaki boys as the country was in a process of healing and reconciliation. But, deaf ears were turned to the appeal.
ECOMOG troops mostly Nigerian military paid a high price for their involvement in sham judicial and extra-judicial killings. The January 6 invasion of Freetown code-named ‘Operation No Living Thing’ was attributed to the execution of the so-called coupists. According to military analysts, the invasion was one of the bloodiest guerrilla warfares ever staged on African soil. The onslaught was tragic in nature and deadly in consequence. No exact statistics for the number of those killed exists to date.
Freetown also suffered one of the worst infrastructural devastations ever seen anywhere in the world. It was bad for ECOMOG forces under the command of experienced generals to be overrun by disorganised bands of guerrilla fighters.
Many said that ECOMOG suffered as perpetrators of human rights abuses. However, their crimes were never investigated by any judicial authority. Those who do not want to see an ECOMOG force in Sierra Leone argued that the police and the army can secure the peace during elections.
Since UNAMSIL (United Nations Assistant Mission to Sierra Leone) handed over security to local forces between 2005 and 2006, the Sierra Leone Police and the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces have policed three general elections in a row.
They provided security for 2007 elections. They also did the same in 2012 as well as 2018. if they provide security for such crucial elections , why not 2023?