By Anthony B. Conteh (Tony Bee), Vanguard Sydney (Australia) Correspondent.
Edison Yongai(photo), Interim Chairman of the Association of Sierra Leonean Journalists in Exile (Australia) says he was the Editor of one of the country’s local newspapers, The Point, which started publication in 1996. He says the war brought him to Australia because of his journalistic role in exposing corrupt politicians and the odds of the war. In other words there was no freedom of speech and expression in the country; there was not any semblance of democracy. As a result Yongai was arrested and detained for one of the articles he wrote about the corrupt practices of the current government of President Ahmad Tejan-Kabbah. Since then he became one of the targeted journalists in the country.
The present government still uses the out-dated 1965 Public Order Act (libel law) to silence and incriminate journalists and other outspoken individuals in the country. Journalists were and are arrested arbitrarily without trial. For example, a colleague journalist, Paul Kamara, the Editor of one of the local newspapers, For Di People, was arrested recently and jailed for four years for allegedly writing libellous articles against the Head of State, President Tejan Kabbah. While the Editor was serving his jail term, his Deputy Editor called Harry Yansaneh was brutally beaten up and killed by hooligans sent by a member of the present government.
“It is because of the lack of stability in the country that made most of the patriotic and outspoken Journalists like me flee the country, especially when I was already in the bad books of the government for doing my duty to my country,” Mr Yongai says.
He said he fled Sierra Leone in 1999 by boat to Guinea where he stayed for nearly three years as a refugee before he was finally resettled in Australia through the efforts of the UNHCR Protection Officer in Guinea, Mr. Hans Lunshoff, who did all he could to make journalists and other vulnerable refugees resettle in Australia.
“At the beginning things were not easy for us as refugee journalists because the former UNHCR officials were not working in the interest of refugees, which had led to several mass demonstrations against the UNHCR. Because the refugee office was embroiled in corruption, the resettlement process was at a standstill. The situation changed for the better when Mr. Lunshoff arrived as the new Protection Officer in around 2000,” Mr Edison Yongai adds.
Edison Yongai says he is here with his family but some of his relatives are still languishing in Guinea fearing to return to Sierra Leone because of him.
He says he is currently working as a presenter at a community radio station and contributing to the newsletter of the company he works for. Moreover, he writes articles for various newspapers overseas and also does creative writing.
Michael Kamara says he had served as Editor for several newspapers and magazines in Sierra Leone for many years, including The New Star, The Pathfinder and The Globe International magazine. He says being a journalist in Sierra Leone is a very dangerous task, especially for the outspoken journalists during the war.
He goes on: “In the war period, journalists were in a great dilemma, for example, when a journalist reported about the evil deeds of one of the warring factions, that faction would say the journalist was against them and he would be a target for elimination. For instance, if you reported about the performance of the rebels in the jungles, the government would say you were giving more publicity to the rebels than to the government and it was vice versa."
Kamara says that because of his outspokenness during the brutal civil war in his country, he was arrested and jailed for one of the articles he wrote about how successive military and civilian governments were politicising the war at the expense of the innocent and defenceless masses.
“One night, people were sent to eliminate me. I heard their threats outside my residence using vulgar language and challenging me to come outside. I was wise enough to wake up my wife and kids at that fearful moment and we escaped through the back door. Unfortunately, my wife who was trailing behind, was caught by a bullet from the assailants and, by the time we arrived with her in the hospital, she was dead,” Kamara explains.
He said he fled Sierra Leone by boat on 11 February 1999 and arrived in Guinea as a refugee. Since he knew nobody in Guinea and could not speak French, the official language of the country, he intended to go to another country called Mali as he saw a bleak future in Guinea. It was then he heard his colleague journalists talking about resettlement to a third country which could be achieved through the UNHCR.
Kamara says he arrived in Perth in 2001 as a refugee. During the process of resettling in Australia, he lost his eldest daughter who was left behind in Africa. In Australia he tried to work as a journalist but it was all futile. He applied to various media houses in Perth but he was turned down and so he decided to come to Sydney hoping that things would be different. Sadly enough, the situation was still the same and he ended up not securing a job in his profession. In order to support his family here and abroad, he was forced to pick up a job for which he was overqualified.
Edmondson Sonny Cole, the brain behind the popular documentary, Darkness Over Paradise, which chronicles the brutality of the war in Sierra Leone and its effect on journalists, says he started his journalism career in 1983 with the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service Television (SLBS/TV) as a technician. He was later assigned to the Ministry of Defence as a Cameraman during the military rule in April 1992 to cover the war. But when civilian rule was restored in 1996 and Ahmad Tejan-Kabbah became president, Mr Cole was further sent to State House as Cameraman to cover the official activities of the President, including his official visits inside and outside the country.
He said he later became disgruntled with the President’s policies, which he didn’t think were in the best interest of the country and its people. For instance, the President gave more power to the civil militia known as Kamajor at the expense of the regular army, which was there to protect the country against the ravages of the guerrilla fighters. The President’s neglect of the military brought several conflicts between the military and the civil militia, so that instead of the two groups fighting against the guerrillas, which were the enemy, they tried to eliminate each other.
“In our general discussions, I always raised the issue of the President’s negative attitude to the military for the attention of my fellow journalists at State House, some of whom secretly informed the authorities about what I said. As a result I was regarded as an enemy of the government,” Sonny Cole says.
“My problem became more complex when President Tejan-Kabbah’s civilian government was overthrown by the military in the thick of the war in 1997 and he and most of his Ministers fled into exile in Guinea. I was still in Freetown and the new military government knew I had worked for the deposed civilian government as a cameraman, and so they hunted and found me and threatened me at gun-point to work for them since they needed an experienced cameraman. I had no alternative but to comply or I would be killed. It was then the exiled President announced on his clandestine radio station that all those working for the military were collaborators.
“When the President was forcefully reinstated through the military might of the regional intervention force, I was advised by colleagues that my name was on the list of those who worked for the ousted military regime and that I would be arrested and charged with treason. The penalty for treason in Sierra Leone is death by hanging or firing squad or life imprisonment. Thanks to the help of a journalist association in America, Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ), I narrowly escaped to neighbouring Guinea in 2000 where I stayed as a refugee. Here too I was not safe because, as a cameraman with the civilian government before it was overthrown, I had shot some pictures of the execution by firing squad of people that the reinstated civilian government regarded as collaborators and among them was a lady called Kula Samba, who was said to be pregnant at the time of her execution. The relatives, families and friends of the executed people, who had also fled to Guinea, identified me as the cameraman that was working at State House with the civilian President and they wanted to kill me.”
Sonny Edmondson Cole said he remained in hiding in Guinea until the UNHCR granted him refugee status to be resettled in Australia in 2002.
He says that when he arrived in Australia, his desire was to continue with his photo journalism profession but he found it very difficult to make a breakthrough in the country’s mainstream journalism. He says he applied to many media houses but he was always turned down.
“Perhaps they thought I would not perform well if they engaged me, but I always carry the conviction that a journalist finding himself anywhere is still a journalist,” he adds.
Sonny Cole concludes: “That is why I am currently practicing my profession within my community. This will act as a strong message to the western world that Africans too, especially Sierra Leoneans, are capable of doing whatever they do if only we are given the chance. My bravery and zeal as a cameraman can be seen in Darkness Over Paradise, the documentary I put together through the help of my colleagues and some benevolent people in Australia. I thank all for their support.”
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