The Security Sector of Sierra Leone and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) on 1st August 2023 converged in Freetown to dialogue in a bid to proffer enduring solutions to the associated problems that they conceived are an affront to the peace and stability of the country.
The Dialogue which was organised by CSO Fambul Tok in collaboration with the Security Sector attracted Security Chiefs from the Office of National Security (ONS), the Police, and Military and representatives of various CSOs in Sierra Leone.
National Security Co-ordinator and Head of ONS, Abdulai Caulker in addressing the gathering, recalled how at the end of the country’s civil conflict , a new security architecture was created that identified civil society as one of the six instruments of national power.
Mr. Caulker emphasised the importance of civil society with regard to “national efforts in dealing with an emergency or complex security and governance situations ‘’.
“In the course of the elections , we have had to meet with members of the CSOs , either individually or collectively, to not only update them on our security preparedness for the elections but to also harness their perspectives and contributions to ensuring that we conducted violence-free elections””, the NSCoord said.
He spoke of the various roles played by the civil society organisations in helping to usher in a peaceful outcome of the Polls that he said have been acknowledged nationally and internationally.
He also mentioned the peaceful atmosphere that generally surrounded polling precincts across the country at the time, which encouraged the voters to make their choices at the ballot box, a development that he said drew commendation from both international and local observers.
In that vein, Mr. Caulker said it was critical that in post-elections Sierra Leone, stock-taking of the entire process was undertaken and performance assessments conducted.
However the security chief drew the attention of all to the threats that emanated from social media targeting individuals and groups during the electioneering period, threats that he stressed were peddled by “wicked and hired bloggers whose only aim was to undermine the security of the state and give a false impression that the lives of certain group of people were in jeopardy’’.
He said the reality on the ground, however, has always been radically different from what has been blogged in the social media”.
He said such misuse of social media has increased tensions, created an environment of mistrust, hampering electoral activities, and making life difficult for working staff of Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs).
Mr. Caulker noted that the negative use of social media has threatened the country’s democracy and encouraged people to make up stories for asylum claims.
“I would like to repeat that as a security sector, whilst we reinforced zero tolerance to violence during the election period including cyber bulling and other forms of intimidation, we also underscored free speech as a fundamental element of human rights, ensuring no person or group of persons were chased or issued death threat for expressing their free speech or opinion on crucial matters related to the elections. And up to now, as far as the security sector is concerned, this essential precaution in favour of democratic liberty has not changed. There are no political prisoners”, Mr.Caulker stated.
All parties to the dialogue agreed that the security sector has a critical role to play in developing the CIVIC SPACE as a critical pathway in strengthening Sierra Leone’s hard won democracy.
After detailed deliberations over a number of Thematic issues around CSO engagements with elections in Sierra (including Elections Observation), the following recommendations were adopted:
1) CSOs to continue engagements across Sierra Leone in the National security architecture’s organs of the Chiefdom security committee (CHISEC), District Security Committee(DISEC) ad provincial security committee (PROSEC) and all their processes.
2) Enhance CSO understanding of the National Security architecture through a dedicated platform facilitated by ONS.
3) Security sector to be proactive and facilitate timely investigations of all reported cases of threats of violence during political events including but not limited to subnational and national elections.
4) Security sector to facilitate public information and education during electoral cycles on the legal framework, Roles of elections observers in support of credible elections.
5) Security Sector, CSOs and the public to ensure continued active condemnation of threats of violence against election management personnel including election observers.
6) The security sector to roll out public awareness initiatives and remedies available to citizens from the SLP and other security sector entities to report cases of threat of violence especially during electoral cycles in Sierra Leone.
7) Ensure full application of policies that prevent security actors who openly participate in politics especially during electoral cycles.
8) The reactivation of the constitutional review press with a view of addressing the lacuna in the 1991 constitution of Sierra Leone.
9) Security Sector to consider the establishment of public complaint centres across the country as well as ensure adequate mechanism are in place for witness protection.
10) Capacity building should be facilitated for CSOs on Cyber Legislation, Cyber threats and handling misinformation.
11) Political parties must be encouraged to work with and build trust in election management bodies.
12) The state must endeavour through the security sector to at all times ensure the rule of law is upheld.
13) Political tolerance by state authorities to accept feedback and respect the views expressed by CSOs on security and other National issues
14) EMBs to facilitate timely and correct information sharing prior, during and after elections
A communiqué was then developed at the meeting and signed by Mr. Abdulai Caulker as National Security Coordinator , Mr. John Caulker –Executive Director of Fambul Tok and regional representatives of CSOs.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (07/08/23)
