Introduction[1]
In late December 1992, the NPRC regime announced the discovery of an alleged coup involving the former Inspector General of Police, Bambay Kamara and 28 others. By the next day, the accused plotters were dead. The NPRC claimed the accused were executed after trial by military court martial; however, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) later found that no such trial took place.
The Noose of Death
Instead, most had simply been tortured before execution, their bodies later burned and buried in unmarked graves. In his testimony before the TRC, Captain Strasser, head of the NPRC regime at the time, pointed to Colonel Mboyah as the President of the alleged pre-execution tribunal; yet, Mboyah denied ever having convened a trial. Strasser later admitted the trials were held retroactively, only after the executions had transpired. The Commission in its report held that all leaders of the NPRC responsible for the murder of these men and moved on.
Recently, the current Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) announced the opening of an official inquest into the 1992 summary execution. While post TRC investigations are not unprecedented elsewhere in the world (e.g. Peru and other Latin American countries), this pronouncement has since fallen under immense critique. The Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), currently in the opposition, claims the Commission already addressed this issue. Opening an investigation therefore violates the general amnesty granted in the Lomé Peace Agreement (LPA), and is a attempt to distract the populace from the rampant corruption of the current administration. Additionally, the SLPP contends that such an inquiry constitutes a clear witch-hunt, cloaked in the robes of transparency, aimed to tarnish the reputation of SLPP leaders who plan on running in the upcoming presidential election. Those in favor of the inquest, on the other hand, maintain that transparency is the key to good governance, and the people of Sierra Leone have a right to know what happened during the dark days of December 1992.
While such issues are of undoubted importance, the current debate fails to address the most pressing issue of all – the continued acceptance of the death penalty as an appropriate and legal means of punishment in Sierra Leone. In fact, were the death penalty illegal in Sierra Leone, this controversial inquest would be moot. Instead, the mere fact that the accused were allegedly summarily executed would constitute a crime in itself.
Accordingly, it is imperative that the GoSL take this opportunity to examine Sierra Leone’s current penal system and learn from its sordid past. For, throughout Sierra Leone’s history, many laws have been promulgated on the assumption that they would benefit and maintain the regime in power. Precisely in this way, laws such as the infamous criminal libel law (to silence the press) and the death penalty (to eliminate the opposition) came into being.
As a result, Sierra Leone has lived a sad history of continued executions. It citizens witnessed summary executions in the 1970s and 1980s, most of them based on fictitious evidence and political motivations. In 1997, during the interregnum, the AFRC/RUF regime embarked on summary killings to ‘curb’ crimes. The reinstated government of President Tejan Kabbah simply continued this process. In 1998, the Kabbah regime instituted a military tribunal whose findings resulted in the shooting of 24 military officers for their involvement in the coup of 1997. In fact, most government sanctioned executions throughout Sierra Leone’s history have been political. The events of December 1992 are thus merely one example of the many political executions perpetrated throughout Sierra Leone’s dark past.
Responding to such events, the TRC urged that human dignity and human rights thrive only when human life is inviolable. The Commission emphasized that respect for human dignity and human rights begin with respect for human rights. The Commission then called for the abolition of the death penalty in its final report in October 2004. Specifically, it recommended the amendment of section 16(1) of the 1991 Constitution authorizing capital punishment, and the inclusion of provisions to guarantee the inviolability of human life. The Commission also encouraged the introduction of a moratorium on all pending sentences.
The GoSL has yet to reform the penal laws relating to the death penalty. The current government, like the previous Government of former President Kabbah, has not given convincing reasons to continue to maintain the death penalty in our penal laws. In the White Paper, in response to the TRC report, Kabbah’s government declined to repeal the death penalty but promised a period review of their stance. The argument that the death penalty has long been part of the Sierra Leone legal system, and the fact that it is still practiced by other countries such as the United States, Japan and others in Africa is insufficient maintain such a law. Firstly, the United States in particular has a controversial record of compliance with international law, as demonstrated by its invasion of Iraq in 2003; many views US refusal to abandon the death penalty in similar light. More importantly, however, if US practice is to be the basis for continued capital punishment, the GoSL must similarly decriminalize libel; ensure the supremacy of the law and comply with other standards set by the US government. Article X of the Lomé Peace Agreement requires the GoSL to take all necessary steps to implement the Commission’s recommendations, including amending the 1991 Constitution. Therefore, the continued existence of the death penalty violates the LPA and unequivocally illustrates the government’s willingness to continue implementing bad laws.
This willingness only fuels our march backwards into doldrums of an oppressed society. The death penalty is a form of ‘punishment’ that typifies the brutish and uncivilized nature of man. Supporters of death penalty point to deterrence as their strongest argument. However, there is no proven nexus between the threat of death and the commission of crimes. Crimes continue to occur in countries that apply the death penalty. Further, the death penalty permanently deprives people of the due process of the law. Once a convict is executed, his sentence is irrevocable; in the event of new evidence that might reverse the conviction, this convict will have been killed unjustly. Therefore, the death penalty neither repairs damages nor rehabilitates individual convicts. It simply nurtures the treacherous idea that killing is an acceptable solution to our problems. In Sierra Leone particularly, the death penalty has only served as an affront to the struggle for the protection of human rights, as countless past regimes have continuously used it to their advantage. Our failure to recognize this now will only lead us down the same perilous road.
Accordingly, the GoSL should look to the Special Court of Sierra Leone as a role model. Though its framers granted the Court jurisdiction to try people for the worst of crimes, they did not include the death penalty as an acceptable punishment for those convicted. The GoSL must ask itself how those tried and convicted of far worse crimes in the Special Court currently serve prison sentences, while those convicted of relatively lesser domestic crimes can be sentenced to death.
The GoSL must also look to the international community for guidance, as most countries around the world have abolished the death penalty. On the eve of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, no more than seven countries had abolished the death penalty. Since then, over hundred and eleven countries have eliminated it. An article published by Amnesty International claims the trend became more evident in Africa in the 1990s, with the institution of multi-party political system and the consolidation of civil society. West Africa is part of this growing trend. Currently, over ten countries in West Africa have either de jure or de facto abolition, Senegal being the latest. On December 10, 2004 on the fifty sixth anniversary of the UDHR, the Senegalese Parliament enacted a legislation abolishing the death penalty. Sierra Leone should therefore join is West African neighbors in abolishing this outdated practice.
In sum, Sierra Leone must learn from the global community as well as its own history. While the majority of the world has abolished the death penalty, the multitude of executions that have transpired in Sierra Leone and have only further fueled the conflict here. As one writer puts it, “the death penalty is a relic of the earliest days of penology, when slavery, branding, and other corporal punishments were commonplace.” It simply destroys those it touches, diminishing the rule of law and devaluing our collective humanity.
Currently, Sierra Leone stands at cross roads. In place of arguing over the opening of a controversial inquiry, we should take this opportunity to revitalize our penal system, bringing it in line with international standards. Only in this way can we take a significant step forward, towards the culture of humanity and dignity we so desperately seek to embrace.
[1] This article was first published in the 13th Edition of the Monitor in May 2006. The Current Edition is an updated version of the 13th Edition.
