Reconstructing Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone's ten-year civil conflict ended in 2001 and was followed by a substantial reconstruction project. This article considers how far that programme addresses the underlying factors' predisposing Sierra Leone to internal conflict and to what degree signs of genuine reconciliation are emerging. To do so, three indicators of reconstruction are examined, namely youth alienation, state corruption and national reconciliation. The article concludes that although there has been successful demobilisation, disarmament and infrastructure building, factors that contributed to the conflict have not been tackled and the signs of reconciliation are still slight. Such a foundation is not sufficient to rebuild the nation or to guarantee its future security.

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As Sierra Leone's ten-year conflict ground to a halt in late 2001 (it was formally declared over in January 2002), its five and a half million population, more than a third of whom were displaced or made refugees, were left with the enormous task of reconstructing their individual and collective lives. Many were faced with the multiple challenges of having to rebuild their homes and their livelihoods. In addition, some had to re-establish their relationships with villages that they had fled or with the neighbours and settlers who had engaged in atrocities. Inevitably they questioned whether their lives and country could ever be rebuilt. Likewise, donors and aid agencies pondered what would be required to reconstruct the nation, particularly as their first efforts had come to a dramatic halt with a reversion to civil war in 2000. This article, based on research in March 2003, considers the nature of some of the problems facing the country and how far the external aid programme addresses the underlying factors predisposing Sierra Leone to internal conflict and is succeeding in promoting a level of peace on which to rebuild social and economic life.

THE WAR-TORN CONDITION, JANUARY 2003

No one can imagine the degree of trauma that many still suffer, having experienced or witnessed killings, rape and mutilation and having been forced into being combatants, perpetrators of violence and sex slaves. (1) By every measure of human well-being large numbers were impoverished--whether that was calculated in terms of the availability of security, shelter, employment and access to health, education, sanitation and potable water. There were 500,000 living outside the country and hundreds of thousands had been internally displaced, more than 215,000 women and girls had been subjected to sexual violence (2) and 72,000 ex-combatants needed reinsertion into civilian life. 300 towns and villages and 340,000 houses had been destroyed, whilst 80 per cent of health posts needed rehabilitation or reconstruction. Fifty per cent of teachers on the payroll were absent from their posts. Eighty-five per cent of livestock had been lost. The country had the lowest Human Development Index in the world. The fighting was over, the devastation was not.

At the level of their communal organisation, there was the task of resurrecting the traditional and state political structures. Government services had collapsed at the local level with the loss of personnel and infrastructure. Government employees and paramount chiefs had been forced to abandon their posts, whilst most of the police stations, police barracks, prisons, courts, chiefdom lock-ups, hospitals, clinics and schools had been severely damaged. Yet the people did not want to simply rebuild the infrastructure and return to the pre-war condition, for that was associated with injustice, corruption and authoritarianism. Rather, they saw the end of the conflict as an opportunity for Sierra Leone to reconstruct society after 30 years of social injustice and the abuse of rule.

THE HUMANITARIAN AND RECONSTRUCTION PROGRAMME