President Koroma falls out with a top diplomat over allegations of political interference United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon closed the door on a bitter dispute with the government of President Ernest Bai Koroma by recalling his Executive Representative for the UN Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Leone, Michael von der Schulenburg, on 2 February. Koroma had grown increasingly angry at what he and his supporters saw as UNIPSIL’s unwarranted interference in local politics. The UN believed it was defending the peacebuilding process and helping to pave the way to free and fair elections.
In an internal memorandum of 22 December which was leaked to Reuters on 13 February, Schulenburg warned that the UN’s credibility and its record in Sierra Leone would be undermined if it caved in to the pressure to remove him. ‘There can be little doubt that the decision by the President to force my early departure will be seen – rightly or wrongly – by virtually every Sierra Leonean as an effort to remove a potential obstacle to his re-election and as opening the door to manipulating the election outcome in his favor,’ he went on. The government denies any role in forcing Schulenburg’s recall.
In post since 2008, Schulenburg initially had excellent relations with Koroma, the two men apparently having mutual respect and speaking every day on the telephone. Yet relations deteriorated after Schulenburg criticised government plans – at first in private to Koroma – to hold inquests into extra-judicial killings of 29 people in 1992, at the start of the four-year rule of the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) military junta. In 2004, Sierra Leone’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended drawing a line under the killings (AC Vol 53 No 1). Koroma agreed not to pursue the inquests and renewed that promise privately to Ban when he visited the country in June 2010, a UN source said.
The issue of the inquests then lay dormant until 31 July 2011, when Julius Maada Bio won the nomination as candidate for the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party in the November 2012 presidential election. The governing All People’s Congress then revived calls for the inquests. Brigadier General (Retired) Bio, who ended military rule to usher in elections, was a member of the NPRC at the time of the killings. Some observers said that Koroma had earlier been ready to abandon the inquests since he believed that Bio would lose the SLPP nomination to former Mines Ministry official Usman (‘Usu’) Boie Kamara. The APC perhaps believes that Bio is a strong challenger to Koroma in the poll and wants to use the inquests against him. Schulenburg’s earlier call not to pursue the inquests made him the target of a wave of abuse from the government and its supporters. Some accused him of mentoring and financing the opposition; others compared him to Adolf Hitler. Ban took the revival of the inquests issue as a breach of Koroma’s personal commitment, UN sources say.
The next stage in the row came as Schulenburg presented his Seventh Report of the Secretary General on Sierra Leone to the UN Security Council in September.
Maada Bio’s apology for the crimes of the NPRC junta should be accepted, he said, welcoming the fact that ‘some of those who have been involved in previously undemocratic governments are now taking part in today’s democratic political life.’ He continued, ‘I applaud the clear and unambivalent words by President Koroma in his 50th anniversary speech that Sierra Leone has learned a bitter lesson and will not repeat past mistakes. I feel these words could guide the political discourse in the country. The 2012 elections must not become hostage of the past.’
BANGURA GOES TO NEW YORK
Nevertheless, on 21 September, Koroma arrived in New York at the head of Sierra Leone’s delegation to the 66th UN General Assembly, only nine days after Schulenburg’s report to the UNSC. The conflict continued to escalate. Mohamed
Bangura, leader of a new party, the United Democratic Movement, came to New York at the same time. The government denied claims that he was in the UN delegation. Bangura is widely believed to be very close to Koroma and to have received funding from the APC to found the UDM so it can act as a stalking horse on certain issues. While in the United States, Bangura complained about Schulenburg’s alleged interference, claiming he had proof of the UN official’s support for the opposition.
The APC later distanced itself from Bangura, criticising his attack on Schulenburg but significantly, say analysts in Freetown, not disowning the allegations against him. An APC spokesperson merely said he did not know the truth about them.
In mid-December, the UN took the Sierra Leonean media to task for their insistent and unrelenting attacks on Schulenburg, with Canada’s UN Ambassador, Guillermo E. Rishchynski, calling them ‘most uncalled for and unfortunate’, adding that they ‘undermine Sierra Leone’s image’. Many of the media concerned are strong supporters of the President.
The UN had hoped to avoid changing ambassadors but the rancour continued to build. At November’s mining investment forum in Freetown, Schulenburg and Koroma pointedly ignored each other. The UN representative had previously publicly criticised the terms of a mining contract the government had signed, which observers took to refer to the deal with London Mining, and that may also have angered Koroma (AC Vol 52 No 13).
At the mining meeting, Schulenburg continued to call for greater transparency in government dealings with mining and oil companies. He considers this crucial to Sierra Leone’s future stability. In a confidential memo seen by Africa Confidential, he warned Ban of the risks of the country’s public spending going out of control unless there was better discipline in mining and petroleum revenue management. ‘Unrealistic expectations’, he wrote, ‘could lead to imprudent public investment decisions and a failing budgetary discipline that in turn would create only new dependencies.’
There has been criticism of the government spending in anticipation of revenue it had not yet received and which may be lower than predicted. Two weeks after the investment forum, in early December, Foreign Minister Joseph Bandabla Dauda asked the UN to recall Schulenburg, we hear. The government denies playing any role in the Ambassador’s recall.
The UN made private efforts at reconciliation but Koroma could not be swayed, a UN source said. Rishchynski, who is also head of the Peacebuilding Commission Configuration for Sierra Leone, sent word to Koroma that he was coming to try to mend fences. Then, though, the government leaked to the local press that Schulenburg was going back to New York. Koroma refused to discuss the matter with Rischynski and left the country shortly after the diplomat landed in Freetown. Schulenburg’s formal recall followed shortly after.
The post is now effectively a lame-duck position for the UN. Ban has been looking for retired officers or those about to leave UN service to take it up. Announcing Schulenburg’s recall, Ban thanked him for his ‘open and fruitful work with all sections of the Sierra Leonean society including with political parties and stakeholders [and] his effective cooperation with the Peacebuilding Commission’.
