c. 1997 Religion News Service
UNDATED _ A top religious leader in violence-wracked Sierra Leone said Wednesday (June 4) he feared the African nation’s religious communities could be singled out as targets by military officers who staged a coup last week.”At any one time, we could be singled out,”the Rev. Raymond Attawia, a leader of the Interreligious Council of Sierra Leone (ICSL) said in a telephone interview from Freetown, the nation’s capital. He said the group’s headquarters has already come under military monitoring.
The ICSL is an umbrella organization of 26 Christian and Muslim groups and has been sharply critical of the coup, staged by junior military officers on May 25.
Coup leaders called for the June 3 meeting over national radio, inviting members of the ICSL and leaders of the teachers’ union, the students’ union and the medical and dental associations, to meet with them at their headquarters in Freetown.”We assumed that they wanted to convince us”of the legitimacy of their rule, Attawia said.
Attawia, acting president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Sierra Leone, was among the group of leaders who went to the coup headquarters. “They were not there to receive us,”Attawia said. The group waited for an hour and left discouraged.
On May 25, a group of junior military officers seized power, ousting democratically elected President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who took office in 1996 following years of military rule and civil war.
Four days later, the ICSL issued a statement condemning the coup”in no uncertain terms.””Sierra Leoneans have undertaken great sacrifices in the midst of the rebel war to usher in this cherished democracy that is now being tampered with,”the ICSL said in the statement.”The rebels know our stand,”said Attawia.
Because of their opposition to the coup, Attawia said the religious leaders face daily dangers from supporters of the military. Freetown has been the site of widespread looting and scores of deaths, according to reports from religious relief agencies and secular news services.
According to the World Conference on Religion and Peace (WCRP), an international, multi-religious organization, religious communities in Sierra Leone have faced pressure since the coup.”The religious communities involved (in the ICSL) have since been the target of pressure by armed parties seeking governmental control and political legitimation, and have suffered repeated vandalism and looting as a result of their remaining united in resisting and condemning armed force,”the group said in a statement.
The rest of the world is hoping to avoid military intervention if possible, according to news reports, although both the United Nations and Nigeria have said they would, as a last resort, support military intervention to restore the civilian government.
The United States has joined Nigeria in leading an evacuation effort, airlifting more than 1,200 evacuees, including missionaries and religious relief workers, by helicopter to a U.S. warship offshore.
Attawia said the religious community is in an awkward position with regard to the military intervention issue.”We cannot, as a church group, endorse that (military intervention),”he said. However, he was reticent to unequivocally oppose such intervention because”anything construed as opposition to military intervention would play into their (the coup leaders’) hands.” The ICSL’s next step will be to”engage”the coup leaders, according to Attawia, by writing a letter expressing their disappointment over the failed meeting.
Meanwhile, Attawia says the atmosphere in Freetown is tense, with women weeping in the streets and many worried about the dwindling food supply. But Attawia and his family are staying in Freetown, he said, because he has hope the coup leaders will step down and democracy will be restored.
MJP END LEBOWITZ
