By Sallieu T. Kamara
I was at the Kambui Restaurant in Kenema recently watching one of the football matches of the just-concluded FIFA World Cup held in Brazil when police on patrol bolted me out of the blue.
The place was jam-packed with revellers, football fans and diners, all having a jolly time with friends and loved ones. This breezy and relaxed atmosphere was suddenly shattered by the manner in which the police railroaded into the club. They terrified everybody with their physical appearance and mannerism. They entered the place from all directions using every exit or entrance. They did not carry arms, though, but the sight of them alone was very frightening.
After snooping around in the club, the police moved over to the restaurant where they had a word with its owner and left in the same manner they had came in. I must admit that my heart skipped a beat, but I only pretended to be normal. Their departure was certainly a relief to me because I was thinking that I had been unsuspectingly caught up in a police hunt to crack down on a criminal and dangerous syndicate.
After they had left, I enquired from the club owner and fellow revellers about just what the intrusion could have been about. They told me the police were looking out for under-aged children - mainly young girls - involved in prostitution or indecent behaviour.
I suddenly burst out into laughter. Not that I did not respect the work the police were doing with regards efforts towards fighting child prostitution - after all it is within the realm of their mandate. Rather, I was curious and apprehensive. In the first place, how could the police determine whether or not these young girls were under-aged just by looking at them? This is the area, I believe, which requires the police to exercise serious caution and professionalism. Or else, the wrong people will be caught and punished.
Now, let me tell you a story that one of my friends told me. During the voter registration ahead of the 2012 general elections in Sierra Leone, a young lady went to register. Immediately the registration officers from the National Electoral Commission (NEC) saw her, they shouted at her and drove her away because they believed she was less than 18 years old. Their judgement was informed by her tiny physical frame. The lady did not say a word to them in defence of her age. Rather, she retreated to her house and came back with three children who she introduced to the registration officers as her own bona fide children. They were all grown up - with the eldest being about 12 years old. The community people around corroborated her claim. They allowed her to register.
However, I want to laud the police, particularly the steely Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of the East, Alfred Karrow-Kamara, for this good initiative, which aims at ridding public places in Kenema of young girls who have been trapped into prostitution or about to enter into it.
It is a worthwhile cause because prostitution is not only characterised by violence, but it also does serious damage to the body, mind and soul of young girls. One of the highly respected researchers on prostitution, Melissa Farley, supported this assertion when she said in one of her findings that “prostitutes often suffer more severe post-traumatic stress disorder than veterans of war”. This, she says, is because prostitution is highly associated with or can lead to other serious crimes such as drug abuse, robbery, rape and sexual violence. And once someone gets involved in these criminal acts, it becomes difficult to get out and live a normal life again.
But, much as I applaud the police for their stance on prostitution of under-aged girls, I am also very much concerned with how the police will handle these young offenders without encroaching on their rights and freedoms in the process. The focus of the police action, I am sure, is on protecting young girls from sexual and sex-related abuses. It, therefore, behoves them to completely refrain from doing anything that might subject these young girls to psychological pain and distress. This was why I was very much concerned about the terrifying look on the police when they entered Kambui Restaurant that night.
You know, it is one thing to deal with hardcore criminals, but it is completely another thing to deal with defenceless and harmless young girls who, to a very large extent, are unfortunate victims of unfortunate circumstances.
I am also concerned about the fact that most times our society looks at teenage prostitutes as criminals, and always blames them for the flourishing of this illicit trade. And once the law enforcers hold this perception when they are discharging their duties, there is the likelihood they will treat these young girls as any other common criminals. And in doing so, rights are bound to be abused, victims criminalised, and criminals made into saints.
Situations abound across the country in which rather than being the criminals, our unfortunate young girls are victims of a system that takes pleasure in their ill-fated situations. This system involves very powerful and influential people in society, making the fight against teenage prostitution much more challenging than anyone can imagine. The police should not be oblivious of this fact.
In fact, what we are seeing today is just a manifestation of the bigger problem that is eating deep into the fabric of our society. In effect, the police are only trying to address the symptoms of the problem, whilst the real issues that are causing the illicit trade in sex to flourish remain unaddressed. I am sure if a deeper analysis of prostitution in Sierra Leone is carried out, it will come out clearly that those most involved in it are young girls who are poor, deprived, uneducated or poorly educated, uncared for, destitute, dispossessed, and with an uncertain future. They are preyed on by people who could be inconsiderate chiefs, greedy businessmen, crooked politicians, morally-insensitive clergymen, foreign nationals, and the very police who are purporting to curb the menace.
Among these groups of people are those whose doings continue to contribute towards creating a thriving environment for under-aged prostitution. Others do not, though, but they are exploiting this unfortunate situation to the fullest, and rather successfully. What, in essence, I am saying here is that the fault is not entirely on our teenage girls, but in our leaders. In this case our political leaders, our religious leaders, our community leaders, our school authorities, our parents and guardians.
What is manifesting now with the increased spate of under-aged prostitution is a clear failure on their part. These girls who have now taken to prostitution are by any standard victims of a rotten system that has been a permanent fixture in this country since Independence in 1961. And they are only a minute representation of the larger body of victims of poor governance and a plethora of wrongdoings by the state machinery over the years.
This is where I want to call on the police and all other law enforcement agencies that in their quest to eradicate teenage prostitution they must recognise and appreciate the fact the trade in Sierra Leone is a victim-centred crime, and that those who suffer abuse and exploitation require a holistic assistance. It is only through a comprehensive support programme that these young prostitutes will change their lifestyle and embrace better and more dignified livelihood alternatives to serve as exit from prostitution. In other countries, victims of teenage prostitution are properly counselled, sometimes together with their parents, and adequately supported to engage in other alternative means of livelihoods that are more dignified and more respectful. But in Kenema they are only held in police stations overnight and released in the morning. Only for them to come back the following night and do the same thing. A vicious cycle indeed!
Without pointing accusing fingers at the police, there is a public concern over the safety of these girls when they are in police custody. The possibility that some unscrupulous police officer would tamper with them overnight cannot be completely ruled out. Remember the story of the squirrel and the groundnut?
There is no disputing the fact that eradicating or minimising under-aged prostitution in Sierra Leone is very tasking, but it is not impossible. It only requires a holistic strategic approach that will involve all stakeholders including parents, guardians, police, religious and community leaders, bar and restaurant owners, hotel and guest house managers. The police alone cannot do it. They lack what it takes to tackle such a complex and complicated issue as teenage prostitution. Even if they are to take the lead in the fight against such, it has to be well-coordinated. It should not be an isolated approach as it is happening now in Kenema. We need a Marshall Plan.
(C) Politico 14/08/14
