The human rights organisation, Amnesty International has called on the new government in Sierra Leone to end police crackdown on peaceful protests.
In a new report released today, the group also calls for the lifting of restrictions on peaceful demonstrations “and ending entrenched impunity for police killings of protesters” .
Chronicling events of police crackdown during assemblies in the last 10 years, the report says “peaceful anti-government protests have repeatedly been refused permission or violently dispersed with unlawful killings by police going unpunished”.
The rights group calls on government to ensure citizens’ right to peaceful assembly and urges the new government to implement reforms to ensure the police manage demonstrations safely and effectively.
“For 10 years, police in Sierra Leone have literally been getting away with murder as peaceful protesters and bystanders have lost their lives, or been seriously injured, with no one held to account. If the new authorities are as serious as they say about upholding human rights, they should start by repealing repressive laws restricting peaceful assembly and addressing entrenched impunity for police abuses”, says Solomon Sogbandi, Director of Amnesty International Sierra Leone.
In that period, the report says, the police frequently used “excessive force to disperse spontaneous protests, with at least nine protesters killed and more than 80 injured”. It also catalogues more than 80 protesters who had their belongings looted or were arbitrarily arrested with no police officer being held criminally responsible for any of the cases “despite recommendations made by two Commissions of Inquiry and the Independent Police Complaints Board”.
Among other incidents, the report talks about the shooting dead by police in August 2016 of two schoolboys in Kabala protesting against the removal of a planned youth village in their town, and in March 2017 of a young boy in Bo when police opened fire on students protesting the closure of Njala University. One of the students is said to still be having a bullet lodged in his heart.
Amnesty calls on the authorities to ensure the victims and their families get a remedy including adequate compensation, and address the “chronic lack of…hierarchical accountability within the police force”.
The police are yet to respond to the allegations.
(c) 2018 Politico Online
