By Joseph Lamin Kamara
The public health emergency declared to stem the spread of the Ebola virus has taken a political dimension, amidst indication from the presidency to maintain the increasingly controversial status quo.
The state of emergency was proclaimed with the view of ending the epidemic, as experts say Ebola is transmitted via human to human contact and the government wanted to prevent such contacts by preventing large crowds. But with the drastic reduction in new cases, many people see no rationale behind maintaining the regulations that have also sometimes appeared to target a section of the population.
Civil societies as well as politicians, and even the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone, have raised such concerns. And most recently, the main opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) joined the list of voices calling for the lifting the emergency rule.
As it is, the current regulations expire on August 6.
The opposition said the present situation in the country couldn’t justify any prolongation of the current state of public emergency beyond its expiry date.
“It should therefore terminate latest on that date,” it said in its statement, issued last week. In the statement SLPP called on all its elected members in parliament to oppose any attempt to extend it.
“Accordingly all SLPP Members of Parliament are hereby directed to ensure that they do not individually or collectively support any attempt, under whatever guise, by the Government to prolong the current state of public emergency whether for the whole country or any part thereof,’ the strongly worded statement, signed by the party`s Acting Publicity Secretary, Philip T. Tondoneh.
SLPP chairman Cheif Somano Kapen later reiterated that position at a meeting between the All Political Parties Association (APPA) and President Koroma at State House last week.
And then this week, the United Democratic Movement (UDM) party came up with a statement toeing the line of the President.
UDM leader Mohamed Bangura criticised the SLPP for the move. He told journalists in the Monday 3rd August press briefing at his party`s Headquarters that failure by the main opposition party to cooperate with the ruling All Peoples’ Congress (APC) led government to extend the emergency laws would undermine the fight against Ebola.
The emergency regulations, first declared on the 31st of July, 2014, has been extended twice.
Since the country began recording far lower numbers of new cases at the beginning of this year, calls for the lifting of the emergency laws have increased exponentially, some of them pointing at economic hardship but many looking at the limited freedoms it imposed, among many other human rights concerns.
But Mr Bangura, who heads a splinter group of Charles Francis Margai’s Peoples’ Movement for Democratic Change that backed the ruling APC in the 2007 elections, warned SLPP against rejecting the government’s effort to extend the gagging laws.
“Parliamentarians of the opposition party should beware that they are representing their constituents in parliament and not their party; therefore they should endeavour to represent them well,” he argued.
He added that SLPP was not the only political party affected by the emergency regulations, pointing out that “some gains have been made in the Ebola eradication campaign since the state of public emergency was pronounced by the government”.
A motion of another extension of the public health emergency was due to be tabled in Parliament on Tuesday. But the National Secretary General of SLPP, Suleiman Banja Tejan-Sie, said in a mobile phone interview, in the late afternoon of Tuesday, that the House had “withdrawn” the motion.
“Parliament will not sit on it again. May be they are waiting for the current emergency to expire,” he said, adding: “The president has the executive power to declare a state of emergency which Parliament can endorse after 21 days. Perhaps the president will declare another state of emergency for 21 days.”
But according to Tejan-Sie, who is himself a lawyer, the current emergency laws will no longer be extended, and another public health emergency can only be declared after the current one, and for only 21 days, after which the SLPP intends to vote against it.
Although he did not state that the motion had been withdrawn, the Director of Communications at Parliament, Cyril Juxen-Smith, confirmed that the House did not sit on the motion.
“Parliament is currently on recess and it was adjourned sine die, last Friday. It can be recalled at any time,” Juxen-Smith said.
UDM`s Bangura though claimed that in spite of SLPP’s stance against the extension of the public emergency laws, members of the APPA had agreed in the meeting with President Koroma to extend the state of emergency.
However, in a letter dated August 1, 2015, seen by Politico, addressed to the president, the SLPP opposed any attempt by the government to extend the state of public emergency.
“The leadership of the Sierra Leone People’s Party has resolved that, for now, the party would not endorse any further extension of the current state of public emergency due to expire on Thursday 6 August, 2015,” a portion of the letter, signed by Chairman Chief Somanoh Kapen, reads.
In the last three months, civil society groups, the human rights commission, the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists and Transparency Internal, as well as international rights groups have all called for the lifting of the emergency laws which they claimed were being used against freedoms of expression and assembly.
On 23 April 2015 the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone issued a statement raising concern over the implementation of the public emergency regulations, citing in particular the Sierra Leone Police`s “discriminatory” application of Section 15 which derogates the Right to Freedom of Assembly and Association”.
“HRCSL observes that some groups of the citizenry have been allowed to assemble and exercise their rights to express their views without hindrance, other groups have been denied the opportunity to do so by the SLP,” the Commission said in a statement.
“All restrictions on human rights under the State of Emergency and other laws must be in accordance with international law and standards, and not be arbitrarily or discriminatorily applied,” noted Sabrina Mahtani, Amnesty International’s West Africa researcher.
“Certain rights, such as the right to a fair trial or prohibition against ill treatment, cannot be derogated even during a State of Emergency. The focus must be the fight against the Ebola epidemic and not stifling of dissent.”
But President Koroma in the State House meeting defended his insistence on maintaining the health emergency regulations.
"I don't need a State of Emergency to do anything, the people don't need it...and our people have endured a lot as we know it and feel it. But we have an elephant in the room which is Ebola," he defended.
APC`s Cornelius Deaveux, Publicity Secretary II of the ruling party, said SLPP only wanted to be mischievous by advising their MPs to vote against any motion seeking to extend the emergency regulations.
Deaveux said with cases still in the country, it is only through the state of emergency that the government can control the people. He cited the latest situation in the northern district of Tonkolili where over 500 people have been quarantined after the death of man of the virus.
“We will want to encourage members of parliament, particularly SLPP MPs, notwithstanding that the Southeast is free of the [Ebola] disease for more than 100 days, to support the motion,” Deaveux told Politico.
When the Ebola Virus Disease broke out in the country on May 25 last year, the government pronounced a state of public emergency in July of the same year, banning all activities including public gatherings to contain the spread of the Ebola virus which has killed over 3,000 people in the country. The pronouncement of the public emergency resulted in the enactment of the Public Emergency Regulations of 2014 which created specific offences for defaulters.
Mustapha Kamara Jnr contributed to this story
(C) Politico 05/08/15
