By Septimus Senessie in Kono
A civil society organization in Kono, Campaign for Just Mining, has called on government to hold the police accountable for the death of a 14-year old boy and a 35-year-old-Okada rider during the recent mine workers’ strike in Kono. The industrial action was by junior workers of the OCTEA diamond mining company which resulted in the deaths of the two, with dozens more sustaining gun-shot wounds which were blamed on the police. Ahmed Sahr Bockarie, head of the organization was speaking to a cross section of other civil society organizations and the media at the Koidu City Youth Center, on the theme: “Civil Society Engagement on Mining and Development.” He said government should bring to book the police director of operations, Al-Sheik Kamara for allegedly ordering the police to shoot and kill armless civilians during the demonstration. He added that the police director of operations was also on the local SLBC radio praising his officers for their performance. Bockarie said the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Richard Moigbe should also be held responsible “for killing his own people for a foreign apartheid multi-national company”. He described the action of the two senior police officers as “reckless and frustrating,” adding that his organization was calling on the authorities to hold them accountable for their actions. He described the investigation carried out by the police on themselves for the killings and wounding “total rubbish, nonsensical and ridiculous”. He recalled that in 2007, the police also allegedly gunned down two striking mine workers and wounded dozens more for “merely demonstrating peacefully for improved conditions of service” at the time. He said the recommendations of the Jenkins Johnston commission of enquiry report on the strike action and which was followed by a government white paper were swept under the carpet. Bockarie also called for the setting-up of an international and independent inquiry to investigate OCTEA for “always undermining the peace of the Kono people” and the methods they used to acquire land for mining.
