News Story

FREETOWN: NEW PEOPLE: It is not that the citizens of this country were expecting anything spectacular from the much-awaited APC government white paper. The commission of enquiry (the first major one under this government) had a familiar ring to it. The vie president, Sam Sumana, is alleged to have bragged that the government white paper was going to hold people (especially former SLPP officials) criminally liable. But when has he not said that? Iit was always going to be another familiar APC political ploy - to frighten companies like Koidu Holdings into compliance by stating that a new sheriff is in town and that Jan Joubert and his group needed to re-assess their political alliances. This White Paper had been anticipated since the Commission submitted its report in mid March.

The Jenkins-Johnson Commission of Inquiry was created to report on investigations into an protest incident at one of Koidu Holdings' lease lands on December 13, 2007 during which angry members of the local community aresaid to have violently attacked Police guarding Koidu Holdings resulting in 2 fatalities when armed Police guarding the facility opened fire. Koidu Holdings Mining Company is owned by the Beni Steinmetz Resources Group.

The government-backed Commission's 105-page report containing testimonies from 42 witnesses and makes 17 specific recommendations. 5 of the recommendations deal with the deaths and the remaining 12 relate to the causes of the incident.

The government White Paper recommends that the Police investigate itself about the fatal and indiscriminate use of firearms and make recommendations to the Police Council headed by Vice President Sam Sumana on whether to take specific disciplinary action against Police men involved in the incident. It is thought that Sam Sumana has personally promised to fire some Police officers such as the Police commander in Kono because he thinks that the commander had "shown sympathy to the SLPP inthe past.

The government also accepts the view of the Commission that Koidu Holdings should pay adequate reparation and compensation the injured and the facilies of the fatalities because the senior management of the company had been deemd negligent and reckless.

In regard to blasting, which was the immediate reason fo the clash, the government “accepts the recommendation relating to the blasting within the Koidu Holdings Lease area that with regard to those people who are in the blast envelope already at the present time, that there should be no further blasting in Dyke A until they are completely resettled, and that blasting can only take place in Pipe 1 where vertical pit mining is being done at the moment, and the charges therein should be so controlled that all debris should be within the pit.”

The government agrees with the Commission’s recommendation “that an independent team of arbitrators be appointed to agree on the type of houses to be constructed and the amenities provided.”

The government white paper also repeated President Ernest Koroma's campaign slogans that "value added industries should be established instead of exporting rough and uncut diamonds" and Sam Sumana's ridiculous position regarding Kono district chiefs that "the chiefs and the people of Kono" must "encourage investment in the district by their conduct and attitude.”

For future mining, the APC government also says the obvious that the natural resources of this country belong to Sierra Leoneans, and without saying it as one of their political slogans, the SLPP government especially always stated that "natural resources belong "exclusively to the people of Sierra Leone present and future, and that the People of Sierra Leone are entitled to benefit from their God-given natural resource as much as possible. This should be the cornerstone of our mining policy."

So what is new about this white paper, I hear you ask? The obvious thing is that the APC gets to repeat some of its election slogans and threatens Koidu Holdings and chiefs into a willy-nilly acquiescence in APC political intimidation.