Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone met WCC and ACT representatives – Appeal is low funded

"Sometimes you are offered a sharp blade and you hold it in order to save lives", said Reverend Tom Barnett, member of the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone (IRCSL), in a meeting with representatives of the Word Council of Churches (WCC). Barnett expressed his strong concerns about the poor resources the country’s only multi-religious body can fall back on in the struggle to end nine years of civil war which has left thousands of people dead or victims of brutal limb amputations.

"It’s the most vicious rebel war in human history", Barnett says. And now he points out, the Council has to hold on to every chance even if it is not promising or turns out to be counterproductive in the end. Most external agencies have left the country after fighting started again early this year. "The bottom line is ensuring security", Barnett claims.

The IRCSL, which was launched on April 1, 1997, is a coalition of the two major religions in Sierra Leone: Christians and Muslims. The council is taking steps to end nine years of devastating civil war and bring about peace. The IRC is a national chapter of the World Conference on Religion and Peace (WCRP), a global organization that promotes collaboration across faith traditions to solve problems. The IRC played an active role in reaching the peace agreement of Lome on July 7, 2000, between the rebels and the government. The council bridged the gap between both sides and pushed the government to start talking to the rebels. These activities included also humanitarian assistance to both government and rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces (RUF) groups. With the support of Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) the IRCSL provided food for both fighting forces. Through this intervention the cases of looting have been reduced.

"The events brought us to a standstill", says Reverend Tom Barnett, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and first vice-president of the Council of Churches of Sierra Leone. The civil war broke out again this year. The RUF have violated the peace accord signed in Lome, Togo, last year. They attacked the peacekeeping forces of the UN as well as civilians. For more than a month they have held 500 UN-soldiers as hostages, most of them from Zambia. The fighting is still going on. The rebel forces have taken control of strategic points near the capital Freetown and there are now up to 60000 internally displaced in Freetown alone. It is likely that the number will increase unless the situation changes radically. "It could double easily", says Barnett. There are close to a half million internally displaced in the small country that has a population of 4.5 million people only.

Barnett is a member of an IRCSL-delegation visiting Europe, USA, Canada and Africa. Barnett, Haja Mariatu Mahdi, president of the Muslim Women Association, and Reverend Llewellyn B. Rogers-Wright, met with representatives of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and ACT (Action by Churches Together) in Ferney-Voltaire, France, near Geneva to interpret the current developments in Sierra Leona. In pursuit of the objective to take concrete steps to bring stability, reconciliation and renewal to Sierra Leone the delegation’s aim is to sensitize people and organisations and encourage advocacy.

The IRCSL delegation wants the international community to back the offer of Nigeria to send 3000 West African ECOMOG (Economic Community Monitoring Group) troops to support the 13000 UN forces, if this mission could be financed. Barnett criticised the role of the UN forces: "They are present in the country in a way which is not very helpful, because they are standing away from the areas where people think it is helpful. They have not been able to act with sufficient authority, because the 13000 UNAMSIL troops have proved incapable of establishing themselves".

The IRCSL still keeps to the Lome agreement. The Council demands the RUF leader Foday Sankoh, who was arrested in May by government troops, to be brought before a tribunal that Sierra Leone’s president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah has asked the UN to set up. "He is now guilty of social atrocities to the people of Sierra Leone", Barnett says. The IRCSL is encouraged by the move of the UN to strengthen the forces. Barnett supposes the international community finally has reasoned that RUF is no more than a group spreading anarchy. For further steps to peace the Dutch foreign ministry and Dutch church aid have offered support. In the eyes of IRCSL peacetalks can only succeed in a regional context. Guinea and Liberia must also be on board.

"As a subject of the international community Liberia can be made interested", Mahdi points out. The rebels are trained in Liberia, they have the support of Liberian leader Charles Taylor. The mining areas for diamonds are the target of the rebels. There is a permanent flow of diamonds across the border and with the diamond trade the rebels are financing the war. All demands for putting a ban on diamonds without certificate the IRCSL wants to be handled carefully. Such a ban should only be implemented in collaboration with the government because it depends also on the income from the diamond trade.

"We find the solidarity encouraging", Barnett said after the meeting with WCC and ACT-representatives. The Council had to stop distributing tools and seeds to the farmers because of the war. A program to address the needs of war-wounded and amputees in Sierra Leone was just about started in Freetown by the Lutheran Church in cooperation with the Council of Churches. "But this needs lots and lots of input", Barnett claimed. In Freetown alone 500 amputees are living in a camp. Refugees are telling consistent stories of rape, murder and mutilation. A few women’s groups work with women who came from the rebel area and those who were abducted, Mahdi says. There are many needs, the IRCSL says: to help the families of the bereaved, to reintegrate child soldiers, psychologists could help the traumatised. 250000 people are said to be killed in the war. Hundreds of children have been kidnapped and turned into soldiers and sex slaves others were cut their hands off by the rebels.

The churches also suffer. The Lutheran Church for example has lost seven of its 22 congregations as they were totally displaced by the rebels, and the membership has gone down from 4000 to 2400.

The IRCSL hopes for more help from donors in the future. The funding of the appeals so far was very low. This years appeal for example, released on March 13, 2000, with the target of nearly 5.5 million dollar has up to now a coverage of only about 625000 dollar (11%). Despite the insecurity in Sierra Leone, members of ACT International continue their humanitarian efforts in parts of the country. Christian Aid is the lead organisation for the relief and rehabilitation program.