By Fasalie Sulaiman Kamara
When the civil war in Sierra Leone was officially declared over in 2002, there was a huge sigh of relief. But the declaration just ended the hostilities; it soon emerged that the country had a fresh burden to deal with - amputees and the war wounded.
“Muslims in Freetown who used to pray on Fridays at the Wilberforce Street central mosque are no stranger to the plight and suffering of amputees in Freetown,” Edward Conteh, am amputee.
“During Friday prayers, you see the mad rush of amputees and other war wounded people, begging for their daily bread.”
Conteh is the chairman of the amputee association in the country and he said his colleagues have resorted to begging as their only option for survival largely because of neglect.
The state of the amputees and other war wounded people in Sierra Leone is bad. Together with their children, most of them are seated in the open streets in Freetown, begging for their living. These children are a generation that has been caught up in such a desperate situation.
As a result of poverty, these kids cannot be sent to school or to get any other training. Their official job is begging.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission [TRC] was formed after the war to tell what led to the war and provide recommendations to avoid future occurrence of the war. Such a body was crucial to cement the fragile peace process Sierra Leone had just gained by then.
The TRC report of 2004 recommended several benefits for the grossly affected victims of the war. Conteh said provisions like free housing, free education and social pensions were all part of the things that should have been provided to the war wounded and amputees. These provisions would have helped the victims greatly in taking care of their families.
In 2013, the United Nations Multi Partner Trust Fund helped the government of Sierra Leone through its implementing agent NaCSA [National Commission for Social Action], to dish out a payment of Le7.8 billion for 1, 300 amputees and war wounded.
Ishmael Daramy is one of the amputees that benefitted and he confirmed to Politico that in 2013 they were given a benefit of Le6 million each as amputees and Le 3 million each for the war wounded [war wounded were those civilians whose limbs or foot where not cut off but rather received machetes marks on their body] through the NaCSA Reparation Office.
“Not all amputees benefited from the Le 6 million. Even some of us who benefited from that amount, the moneys were not enough to sustain us for our entire life time. That is why many have resorted to begging in the street as the only means of livelihood,” said Conteh, the amputee chairman.
Today, many amputees have died on the streets because of years of neglect by authorities. According to the amputee association, 134 of their members have died so far because of little or no medical care.
“Even the much talked about housing for amputees, not a single structure was built by government. The 888 houses in all 101 resettlement areas across the country were built by a Norwegian philanthropist. The government was only happy to take credit for the work because they provided the space for it.”
The amputees and other war wounded victims in Sierra Leone are the symbol of the sheer brutality that Sierra Leoneans unleashed on each other and neglecting them is bad for their morale as human beings.
“I shook hands with Koffie Anan, the British Foreign Secretary and a host of other international dignitaries for the peace of this nation but today we are the subject of neglect,” Conteh told Politico.
“Government is doing nothing to address the fundamental causes of the war,” added Daramy, who is clearly frustrated about the level of neglect from the path of successive governments. He fears that if they die like this their children will never be the same again, mentally.
The misery of WIAs
Like the disgruntled amputees, there are another set of disgruntled war victims, the ex-soldiers, known as Wounded in Action [WIA]. These are military men and women who got injured whiles fighting for the country. Because of their physical conditions, they were retired from the army and the process was done in three faces between 2006 and 2010.
The most deprived set of retirees are those that were retired in 2006. Their pension benefits range from a meager Le50, 000 to Le 150, 000 a month.
Among them is Corporal Monhamed Kamara who has a family of seven and lives in Waterloo, the rural district capital. He receives a monthly pension of Le 150, 000.
“I am living in misery with my family. The pension I am receiving can barely sustain us for a week. Therefore, I have resorted to begging on the street. We are merely asking that the MOD (Ministry of Defense) together with government interpret the same formula as that of our colleagues,” Kamara said.
He noted that other batches of retirees were earning far more than what they were currently earning. He said retirees from 2009 to 2010 were earning as high as a million leones as pension per month.
Kamara said he could not afford to send any of his five children to school because of poverty. “All of us go to the street to beg. It is a pity, as mature as I am, I cannot avoid begging.”
Like Kamara, many other former officers are going through the same ordeal and solving their problems has not been easy so far.
Sierra Leone has come this far as a country after the war. There is peace and stability, but the country achieved that at a very high cost, a cost that could never be replaced. The limbs are off and the scars are still on. The life of these victims will never be the same again, no matter what.
(C) Politico 23/03/16
