wfn.org | Sierra Leonians describe horrors of war

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

March 7, 2000 News media contact: Linda Green·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-31-71B{122}

NOTE:  This story may be used as a sidebar to UMNS #121. 

By Pamela Crosby*

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (UMNS) -- In its eight-year civil war, Sierra Leone
has seen some of the worst violations of human rights in the world. 

While it is impossible to give accurate figures for the number of
casualties, the Human Rights Watch reported last June that "perhaps 50,000
people have died and up to [half] the population of 4.5 million is
displaced." 

During their January 1999 occupation of Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital,
the Revolutionary United Front killed thousands of people, massacring scores
of civilians who were hiding in houses, churches and mosques. Entire
neighborhoods were burned down, and an estimated 51,000 people were left
homeless.

A six-member team of American United Methodists witnessed some of the
devastation during a February visit to Sierra Leone. While attending the
120th Sierra Leone Annual Conference session Feb. 22-27, the group visited
United Methodist churches and schools in Freetown, and heard accounts from
people who had survived the horrors of war.  

Many schools were destroyed in the war, so churches are being used for
classrooms. Students go to school in two shifts, morning and afternoon, to
accommodate the growing number of young people whose families have fled the
rural areas.

At a displacement camp organized by the government, the Americans met a
woman who said rebels had burned her out of her home five times. An elderly
man described how his wife and two sons were killed before his eyes. Other
people told of how they were given only two to three days' worth of bulgur
(wheat) as their food ration for a month. 

The U.S. group heard stories of how three or four families were forced to
live in cramped quarters, with no electricity or plumbing. They also learned
about United Methodist pastors who were homeless, and of some who had been
reduced to begging to provide for their families.

Part of the Freetown tour included a stop at a camp for amputees and others
wounded or mutilated by rebel soldiers. There, the Americans met an
8-month-old girl whose arm was severed by rebels when she was 2 weeks old.

The U.S. group met Muctur Jalloh, a student in his 20s, who serves as
chairman of the amputee camp. Many people who have been mutilated choose not
to come to the camps, Jalloh said. Most of the people at his camp were from
areas outside Freetown. Some were teachers, students, parents and children.

The rebels would taunt spiritual people while torturing them, saying, "Where
is Jesus? Where is your God?" Jalloh said.

Jalloh's right hand and right ear were cut off. He said the rebels severed
his right hand instead of his left because they knew he was a student, and
the loss of his right hand would be a greater handicap.

Later, he had the opportunity to meet the man who had mutilated him. The man
didn't remember Jalloh at first, but when he did, the former rebel offered
the student money. 

"I don't want your money," Jalloh replied. "I have forgiven you and have
peace in my heart; you don't." 

Many people have forgiven the rebels, but their lives still need to go on,
Jalloh said. They still need assistance. 

"How," he asked, "can a man take care of his family when he has no hands?"

# # #

*Crosby is a producer at United Methodist Communications.

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United Methodist News Service
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