We have just received the following press release from individuals in Sierra Leone calling themselves ex-combatants and purporting to be linked with detained CDF leader Chief Hinga Norman. We have been constrained to publish the said release because of its obvious importance and its implications for the national security of Sierra Leone.Meanwhile, we have just learnt of the arrest in Freetown of former RUF spokesman Omrie Golley. According to our sources,he is accused of plotting to overthrow the government with other "subversive elements". Here is the press release from the ex-combatants:
FOR PUBLIC RELEASE
Freetown, 4 January, 2006.
PREAMBLE: In 1997, Chief Sam Hinga Norman after learning of a pending military coup against the government of Sierra Leone, appropriately warned President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of the coup plot. Government failed to take appropriate steps to avert the coup or prepare the public for its consequences. In 1999, after learning of the January 6 incursion into Freetown by elements of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), Chief Norman again warned the government and government again failed to take the necessary steps with the result of thousands of lives lost in Freetown. Once again,! having been made aware of a clear and present danger posed by combatants and ex-combatants some of whom have been over the past two years recruited and re-armed by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for clandestine operations in Liberia, has sent a warning to Parliament and the President regarding this grave threat to our national security. It is now left with government as to how they wish to respond to this situation. It is in this vein that the following release is being made to the public and the international community, and in particular, the guarantors of the 1999 Lome Accord.
REF: VIOLATIONS OF THE LOME ACCORD
Following a series of meetings between former Regent Chief, Samuel Hinga Norman, and Leader of the Opposition All Peoples Congress (APC), Hon. Ernest Bai Koroma, we the representatives of the Combatants and Ex-Combatants of the AFRC, CDF and RUF wish to inform the people of Sierra Leone and the international community, in particular, the guarantors of the Lome Accord (Ghana, Guinea Nigeria, the US and UK) as follows:
I. The government of Sierra Leone in arresting the leaders of the AFRC, CDF and the RUF is in violation of the Amnesty Provisions of the Lome Accord of 7 th July, 1999 and in particular Articles! II, III & IX (copy attached) signed by President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah on behalf of the government and people of Sierra Leone and Cpl. Foday Saybana Sankoh on behalf of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).
II. Unless Parliament addresses these violations within ten (10) days of the notification of Parliament which shall expire on 14 January, 2006, we the members of the combatants and ex-combatants will arrest and make available for public prosecution ministers of government and individuals foreign or national involved in the continued violation of the Lome Accord as stated.
III. We have relayed this message through the Hon. Chief Sam Hinga Norman to be relayed to the government of Sierra Leone and the international community.
I, Samuel Hinga Norman, JP, attest and declare that this is a true faith facsimile of the message delivered to Hon. Ernest Bai Koroma to be relayed to Parliament and the international community on the 4 th day of January, 2006. Any future communications or explanations may be addres! sed to me or Hon. Ernest Bai Koroma up to the stated deadline after which I will no longer answer any questions related to this matter.
God Bless the People of Sierra Leone;
God Save the Republic.
Photos: Omrie Golley(left) and Deputy Defence Minister Joe Blell(right).
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