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ICG in ActionSierra LeoneICG is grateful to the US Department of State and the States of Jersey Overseas Aid Committee for their financial support for ICG's work in Sierra Leone during 1997.
Sierra Leone suffered a major set-back during 1997. The coup of 25 May, which saw the overthrow of the elected government of President Kabah and a return to chaos and military dictatorship, brought to an abrupt end one of Africa's most promising experiements in democratisation and national reform.
During the fifteen months between the election and the May coup the Campaign for Good Governance, in collaboration with ICG, ran a highly successful program of workshops for members of the Parliament, the Cabinet, the judiciary and the media. A nation-wide civic education campaign, combining local workshops with radio broadcasts, was in progress at the time of the coup. In the weeks leading up to the coup, field work was carried out for a major ICG study on the crisis in the labour market in Sierra Leone. The study, developed and carried out with the full support and co-operation of the Sierra Leonean government, maps out much of the detailed reform work which will need to be undertaken in Sierra Leone-whoever is in power-if the country is to tackle successfully the causes, not just the symptoms, of its deep-rooted and ongoing crisis. Following the May coup, all international personnel in Sierra Leone were forced to flee the country and ICG's activities on the ground had to be suspended. Since then, ICG has concentrated on lending whatever support it can to the leaders of the local civic resistance movement, for example, arranging opportunities for them to meet with key officials in western governments. At the same time, the organisation has sought to draw greater international attention to the plight of the country and the need for a sterner international response to the coup, publishing regular statements, conducting media interviews, writing to foreign ministers and High commissioners and meeting with senior officials in the British government. In November 1997, ICG was able to re-establish a small, discreet field presence and regular reporting from the field recommenced. As 1997 draws to a close, the situation in Sierra Leone remains desperate. Food shortages and violence are both on the rise. And despite a plethora of statements by major governments condemning the overthrow of the elected government, the international community's efforts to reinstate democratic governance show little evidence of success. A welcome but flimsy statement of accord between the coup leaders and regional governments, pledging a return to democracy in April 1998, has been met with deep scepticism by most on-lookers. As the world's attention drifts to other matters, the job of pressuring the coup leaders remains in the unlikely hands of Nigeria's military government, which continues to direct a clumsy and sporadic bombing campaign aimed at coastal targets. The Nigerian action has failed to bring about the removal of the new regime in Freetown and succeeded only in killing civilians caught in the crossfire between the Nigerian and Sierra Leone armies. The economic blockade put on the country by its neighbours has led to increased food shortages in the markets of the major cities but has had no impact on the high standard of living which senior army officers continue to enjoy. ICG will continue to monitor the situation in the field during 1998, pressing external governments and others not to let pass any opportunities to hasten the removal of Sierra Leone's military regime.
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ICG's involvement in Sierra Leone began in late 1995, when, on the basis of advice from the field, the organisation pushed strongly for national elections-seeking to win backing and raise funding from key governments. When a successful poll finally took place in March 1996, ICG stayed on in the country to help found and lend sustained administrative and financial support to the Campaign for Good Governance, a local group of civic leaders in Sierra Leone working to raise levels of awareness-both at an elite level and among the public at large-of good governance, the need for greater government accountability and the mechanics of democracy.