ELDRED COLLINS RESPONDS TO JOHN LEIGH/EDDIE TURAY
I have been noting with the utmost contempt the attempts by John Leigh to trivialise our present national crisis by converting the Sierra Leone Embassy into a platform for jest.
The APC leader, Eddie Turay has roundly condemned these distasteful "press releases" emanating from the person of John Leigh.
Unfortunately, the APC secretary-general/presidential candidate has conveniently developed selective amnesia when recounting the origins of the present Sierra Leonean situation.
In my capacity as a member of the people's army (formerly RUF), I would like to personally set certain records straight.
1. The present crisis did not emanate or start with the NPRC on 29th April 1992. The present crisis did not start on March 23rd 1991, when a group of young Sierra Leoneans decided to take the destiny of their nation into their hands and uproot the corrupt APC system of governance.
2. Our nation's calamity started with the use of force to suppress innocent citizens in the sixties by the corrupt SLPP and from the seventies to the nineties by the corrupt APC regime.
3. Sierra Leoneans were rudely awakened to the fact that "the gun rules" one fine day in 1967 when the then Lieutenant Hinga-Norman initiated the first coup in Sierra Leone on behalf of the SLPP. Since then it has been the rule of the gun and the rule of the gun and the rule of the gun.
4. An attempt to catalogue the long list of human rights abuses by the repressive APC regime would keep me writing so much so that at the end of February, I would still be writing. It is my belief that it would be wise for Eddie Turay to restrain himself some more whilst wildly lashing out at the alleged deeds of the RUF.
5. Jonah/Kabbah's "Democracy" was little different. A quick glance through the recently released "UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT HUMAN RIGHTS RELEASE ON SIERRA LEONE", indicates clearly that even during the so-called 14 months of illiberal democracy under Tejan Kabbah, what the nation had was still the rule of the gun. And this is keeping in mind that the "US Government Release" was shamefully biased towards painting Kabbah as the good guy.
6. The people's army (formerly RUF) had no other way of stopping the rule of the gun except by the gun itself. The people's army accepts the blame for all the atrocities of the past six years and we have repeatedly sought forgiveness from our brothers and sisters whom we wronged in fighting for our cause.
7. The members of the former RUF have a voice. It is erroneous for anyone to believe that the former RUF was composed of fools as John Leigh believes. This misconception on the part of Leigh is understandable considering that he had absolutely no connections via marriage, kids, houses built or property invested in Sierra Leone before 1996 when he gave Tejan Kabbah $10,000 as a campaign contributions.
8. Leigh, his foreign wife and foreign borne & raised children cannot even begin to comprehend the gravity of the present Sierra Leone situation which is why he reduces himself & the embassy to fooloomoonkoo words.
9. We are completely dedicated to our Head Of State, Lt-Colonel John Paul Koroma. as we were instructed by our leader Corporal Foday Saybana Sankoh in May this year. Lt Colonel John Paul Koroma remains the undisputed Head Of State and he is fully in control of Sierra Leone. The recent attempt by John Leigh to incite divisions in the ranks of the People's Army, by lying about Colonel A.K. Sesay not wanting Corporal Sankoh back, can at best be described as pathetic.
10. John Leigh is just indicating to the whole world via the Internet that the calibre of men Kabbah has around him are to be aptly described as consisting of KAKA stuff.
Lt Eldred Collins
Freetown
February 2nd 1998.