Salone News

Big break for former Head of State

By  | 16 January 2011 at 23:55 | 625 views

A former Sierra Leonean head of state Captain (Rtd) Valentine Strasser has just received 6.2 million Leones (a little over USD 1,000) from the government as part payment of his pension as a former military officer and as one of what the country’s military describes as the Wounded In Action (WIA). He was shot in the leg while at the war front during the rebel war and still walks with a slight limp.

Strasser (see current photo at top) was head of the notorious National Provisional Ruling Council military junta that ruled Sierra Leone from 1992-1996. He had been chasing this money for over a decade, he told the press in Freetown.

This payment, according to the media in Freetown, is however not part of any benefits for Strasser, the former head of state; it was for his injuries during the war and a retirement emolument.

A huge number of Sierra Leoneans think he should not receive any benefits as former head of state because of the blatant human rights abuses and murders that were characteristic of the NPRC junta. Some even say he and his colleagues should be put and trial. That seems far-fetched however because Strasser’s former Attorney-General, Frank Kargbo, is the new Attorney-General in the current government.

Strasser in better days

The issue of benefits for former Sierra Leonean heads of state has always been a thorny one. Former president Joseph Saidu Momoh died a poor and broken man after many Sierra Leoneans kicked against the idea of his receiving benefits for his tenure as leader of one of the most corrupt governments in the history of Sierra Leone.

Strasser as NPRC junta leader

There are two living Sierra Leonean former heads of state apart from Strasser: former president Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and former NPRC junta leader Brigadier (Rtd) Julius Maada Bio (who overthrew Strasser in a palace coup in 1996).

Kabbah, a former UN official before he became president, seems to be financially stable (he has a UN pension) and might not need a Sierra Leone government pension. Many Sierra Leoneans say he too does not deserve a pension because of the way he handled the war and the way he reacted to his critics and political opponents. There were immense human rights abuses and killings during his tenure as head of state.

Bio, who is trying to become the leader of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party, the main opposition party, also has a murky past and image, but his relative success in business over the years could possibly not push him to ask for benefits.

Comments