By Alpha Abu
I met Mohamed Tarawallie by chance for the first time in the west of Freetown, some two weeks before the anniversary of Sierra Leone’s peace. He is the President of Sierra Leone Amputees and War-Wounded Association. His two hands had been chopped off in the war and he leads an association of a little over 2,000 members.
I got into a conversation with a man who opened up, much to my surprise. Many in his state often shut out the world. The weight of their predicament is too heavy to bear, they often look pensive or with expressions too hard to read. But Tarrawallie was different; he spoke with much weight in his voice, backed up with intermittent flashes of a genuine smile.
He explained to me how in 1999 he and 18 others that included his two nieces were lined up by rebel forces in the countryside and then had their two hands cut off. The rest of the other captured civilians in their dozens were summarily gunned down. One of her nieces died two years ago from natural causes, the other Mariatu Kamara, was fostered and taken to Canada. She would go on to co-author a book “The Bite of the Mango”. Tarawallie told me she was visiting Sierra Leone this Christmas/new year holidays.
And as we talked, Tarawallie narrated how he came face to face in 2019 with the man who cut off his hands. The encounter happened at a makeshift structure that’s a local restaurant in Waterloo, a teeming settlement just outside Freetown that has quite a concentration of ex-combatants. Tarawallie had ordered food and as he was settling down to his meal, the man who altered his life forever, entered the eatery.
“I looked at him and the flashbacks flooded my brain. The man didn’t recognise me, he sat down and ordered rice with green sauce. I asked that he be given rice and soup instead which costs a little more and I told him I will pay. After he finished eating, I asked if he could remember me. He shook his head in the negative. I then told him you were the one who cut my hands. He was shaking and bowed his head for over ten minutes. He then got up and shuffled out into the sun”.
Sierra Leone as a nation bled for nearly eleven years from a brutal civil war that left tens of thousands dead and thousands maimed. The embattled government of late President Ahmad Tejan Kabba had only one outlet to stop the bloodletting and that was negotiating with rebel forces and reaching an agreement brokered by the international community.
And so on the 18th January 2002, the soft-spoken Kabbah in the full glare of the world media said in our local parlance “De waa don don” i.e. the war is over. But it was at a heavy cost; apart from the dead and injured, almost the entire country was in ruins, the devastation incalculable. With Sierra Leonean refugees from neighboring countries and internally displaced persons returning to their decimated and battered communities, one grim testament of the bestiality of those horrific years was the sight of thousands of compatriots with just stumps where there used to be their hands. They were civilian victims of a brutal campaign of gruesome amputations by the rebels. Some had no hands (double amputees), others had one hand chopped off and they were in their thousands.
Such was the barbarity that it shook the conscience of mankind and was one of the defining factors that propelled the international community to reach an overwhelming consensus for those who bore the greatest responsibility to account for their deeds. Sadly, only 14 men were indicted of which 12 went on trial at a UN-backed war crimes court. The other two, rebel leader Foday Sankoh and his deputy Sam Bockarie died before the trial got underway. Many people had expected a widening of the net to involve hundreds if not thousands of men and women who oversaw or actively facilitated or participated in the atrocities. Most of us the general populace may never know the reasons for the cherry-picking and the wasting of tens of millions of dollars in erecting a court complex in Freetown to try just a handful of people.
Tuesday 18 January this year marked the 20th anniversary of peace. The day passed with hardly any noticeable event at the official level to remember the day. Some organisations held town hall engagements but the picture at the national level was unsurprisingly hardly noticeable. It has been so since the conflict ended. Public officials in successive governments just don’t want to have the day given much attention. The picture is that not of a nation in denial but seemingly wanting to bury the past. Critics view the action of past and present governments as an act of sheer ambivalence.
The argument is that the vestiges of the carnage are still fresh in the minds of people and that authorities don’t want to relive that tragic part of Sierra Leone’s history through public proclamation and staging of events to commemorate the cessation of hostilities. But western nations backed up by their former colonies still commemorate World War 1 and 2.
Even other tragic events like those in Rwandan and Srebrenica are being commemorated every year. They were all horrendous acts of mass killings but are given attention by the leaders of the affected nations and the world too remembers them as well.
Indifference would never help when faced with a tragic past as a country. Sitting governments in Sierra Leone should embrace the idea of giving due recognition to 18th January as a day of remembrance and reflection. It could serve as a yearly platform to assess our journey from the mistakes that led to the conflict, and ensure state institutions are empowered and monitored, for war not to happen here again.
However, Tarawallie in his conversation with me bitterly explained how his association has been neglected since President Kabba’s government documented plans for reparation and a special fund for war victims. He showed me a letter by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice late Fred Carew dated 7th October 2005 and addressed to their association’s president then Alhaji Lamin Jusu Jarka , informing the latter about a cabinet meeting that had approved a string of facilities for the amputees.
‘’Free transportation for amputees on government vehicles/buses, free education for amputees and their biological children, free medical facilities”, the letter reads. The letter also stated that the amputees were to be provided with means of a livelihood through agricultural projects. But Tarawallie claimed they never fully benefitted from those laid down provisions.
Flanked by two of his executive members, Tarawallie said they have been finding it difficult to talk to public officials throughout the years. He said they have lost some 150 members in the last two years. Lack of proper medical care is largely to blame for the deaths but registered gratitude to Handicap International, LVS in Norway, and other international organisations as well as some kind individuals. As an association, they’ve got several funded agricultural projects in parts of the country including a Cashew Farm that attracted the admiration of the European Union mission here. Individually I witnessed two visiting Canadian Philanthropists, Don Smith and Ebbe Marquardsen broke down in late 2010 as they watched double amputee Mustapha Mansaray at his Jui Norgegian built- home, crying in pain. He died in February 2011. The two men never forgot his son Jabati, and were supported in his education by Don. Jabati went to Fourah Bay College and got a Diploma in Peace and Conflict Studies, and then went on to read Sociology. Jabati graduated in 2021 with a degree, supported throughout by Don.
Some amputees could have met kind-hearted individuals like those two Canadians but they could be few.
Tarawallie said he and his members have a feeling the authorities are overlooking them. They said they have no representation in the recently constituted Peace and National Cohesion Commission and much attention given to the naturally disabled like the blind, polio victims, and others. He particularly took a swipe at the Disability Commission and the Sierra Leone Union on Disability Issues, who they accused of deliberately excluding them from their ranks. In a rather emotional tone, he said they never wished for their condition and could not understand why they were being almost “forgotten” by society.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (19/01/22)
