A Radical Blueprint for Stabilizing Sierra Leone

This West African nation, where child soldiers once roamed the countryside in a grotesque civil war and militants chopped off limbs to terrorize the population, sometimes seems like a rare success in international efforts to rebuild failed states.

Peacekeepers disarmed 70,000 combatants and pulled out last year with the country at peace. The rebel leader is dead. The former president of a neighboring country, who is accused of having fomented much of the violence, is in jail awaiting trial by an international court.

But the streets of Freetown, the capital, pump with protest songs that capture the mood of a deeply unhappy population. Hip-hop stars taunt government officials with lyrics poking fun at bellies grown fat through corruption.

Not long ago, songs comparing the country’s leaders to squirrels, mice and rats that gobble up everything on a farm might have landed musicians in jail -- or much worse. Now, they tap into a mood of anger and frustration that calls into question whether the international effort has accomplished enough to keep Sierra Leone from sliding back into chaos.

The stakes are high. Even before war-ravaged Afghanistan served as a training ground for the Sept. 11 hijackers, experts argued that states with ineffective or deeply corrupt governments could be magnets for terrorists and organized criminal gangs.

Many experts argue that peacekeeping missions, elections and massive short-term international aid, the methods development agencies most often use, are not enough in such extreme cases. They have called for more radical solutions, including a form of long-term trusteeship that involves wellfocused intervention for decades.

Initially floated in 1992 in an article by Gerald Helman, a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the Carter administration, and Steven Ratner, a law professor now at the University of Michigan, the idea is controversial because of its colonialist echoes.

But it has won some support, including in Sierra Leone’s neighbor, Liberia. Emerging under the leadership of a former World Bank official from its own civil war, Liberia has cracked down on corruption and accepted international oversight of revenue collection and spending.

The Fund For Peace, an independent research organization, reported last year that 2 billion people live in countries that are vulnerable to failure. Twelve African nations were among the most critical cases, including Sierra Leone, Liberia and neighbors Guinea and Ivory Coast.

Sierra Leone’s troubles began with a rebellion in 1991 by the Revolutionary United Front, led by Foday Sankoh. In 1997, army officers led a coup, ousting president Ahmed Tejan Kabbah. It was not until January 2002 that the war was officially declared over, and Kabbah was reelected.

Sankoh died in U.N. custody in 2003, the year that Liberian President Charles Taylor, who was accused by an international tribunal of instigating much of the rebel violence in Sierra Leone, was exiled to Nigeria. Taylor was taken into custody March 29 of this year.

But peace has brought more bad governance and patchy reform in Sierra Leone. The broader intervention may be on a quiet shuffle toward failure.

During the civil war, Sierra Leone for seven years was last on a U.N. list of the world’s poorest countries. It moved up one spot in 2005, managing to crawl back to its prewar position. The government relies on foreign aid for more than half of its budget and cannot provide basic services, according to a report by the International Crisis Group think tank.

Dutch author Linda Polman, who has written about the limitations of U.N. aid operations, said massive international humanitarian aid and peacekeeping resources were pumped rapidly into Sierra Leone, but were withdrawn before the country could rebuild or fully stabilize. This is a pattern often repeated around the world, she says.

Sierra Leone’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission reported last year that the government had failed to break the cycle of poverty, cronyism and economic exclusion that caused many fighters to take up arms.

“Corruption remains rampant, and no culture of tolerance or inclusion in political discourse has yet emerged,” the report says. “Many ex-combatants testified that the conditions that caused them to join the conflict persisted in the country and, if given the opportunity, they would fight again.”

The elite still view political office as an opportunity for enrichment. As Sierra Leoneans put it: “Same car, different driver.”

In the alleys of Freetown’s slum districts, with their open sewers and lack of running water or electricity, young men in their underpants soap up and wash off at faucets in the street. It’s hard to escape the song “Squirrel, Groundpig, Arata,” by the Baw Waw Society, with its catchy Krio phrase, “Man den nor gladee,” or “We are not happy.”

Morray Saffa, 19, washes the shiny BMWs and SUVs of rich men in Freetown and makes about 85 cents to $1.20 a day. He’s a big fan of the Baw Waw Society, and his views reflect the anger of the young.

“There’s no work. The government is not doing well. Next election, I’ll vote for the minority [opposition] party. But the government is ruling; it won’t be easy for them to hand over power.”

In January, the Baw Waw Society was politely invited to the vice president’s office. Senior officials, used to paying off people to get what they want, urged them to write nice songs about the regime.

The group rejected the pressure.

“If you make it possible for them, they’ll always come around and give you money,” said A-Class, who writes many of the group’s lyrics.

Some of the corruption cases border on comedy.

A forklift purchased by the Sierra Leone Ports Authority for $50,000 didn’t work.

The government set up an anti-corruption commission, but Western diplomats say that the big fish haven’t been caught because there is no political will. A former transport minister caught in illegal possession of $26,000 in diamonds was sentenced to a year in prison in 2003 but got off on appeal.

Despite donors’ concern about corruption and lack of reform, the European Union and Britain in November pledged $800 million over two years, including $173.3 million from Britain, more than double the $360 million requested by Kabbah’s government. Britain alone, with a 10-year commitment of $693 million, has sent more money per capita to Sierra Leone than to any other African country.

International aid is focused on trying to reform governance, the military, law enforcement and the legal system; reducing poverty; rebuilding the health and education sectors; setting up trust funds to lend capital to people establishing small businesses; and building up the fisheries sector.

Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs says that a big boost in foreign aid would help avert failures in such countries. The Bush administration’s $5-billion Millenium Challenge Account targets countries that already have accountable governments.

Critics argue that the policy overlooks weak states that could fail.

In a recent Foreign Affairs article, Stephen Ellis of the African Studies Center in the Netherlands, a proponent of the trusteeship idea, argued against sending more money to countries such as Sierra Leone.

He says leaders who are determined to pillage have no interest in accountability or spending money on services. Rebuilding such countries would take a minimum of 10 years, and perhaps as long as 50, he said.

Other proponents say that in weak, highly corrupt or failed states, pumping in aid and even holding elections is unlikely to improve the lives of citizens. Instead, it may prop up corrupt regimes or even set the stage for a new slide into chaos.

“You always have this dilemma that we are supporting very corrupt regimes and that a lot of our foreign aid is being stolen or is invested in a very irresponsible way,” said Polman, the Dutch author. “We cannot remove those regimes. We cannot remove the civil servants who are corrupt. These are sovereign countries.

“We’ve seen a lot of corruption and a lot of brutality in Sierra Leone and in Liberia, and we never stopped the aid, never ever, so they know that they can get away with a lot.”

Mike McGovern, a West Africa expert at the International Crisis Group, says that the trusteeship plan is likely to work only when warlords and the elite are struggling for control of a state in order to steal.

In Liberia, after Taylor’s forced departure, a transitional government composed mainly of warring factions continued looting state revenue until the international community insisted on giving foreigners authority to countersign all financial transactions. The transitional government agreed, and new President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is implementing the plan.

Johnson-Sirleaf has sacked top Finance Ministry officials and banned members of the transitional government from leaving the country until their finances are audited. She wants international financial controls to be lifted as soon as possible, arguing that her government is committed to ending corruption. But her campaign also is alienating powerful and wealthy people in Liberia who profited from the country’s instability.

Despite billions invested in Sierra Leone and Liberia, the countries still are not stable, the International Crisis Group said.

Polman is pessimistic about Sierra Leone.

“I find it absolutely frightening that people are nostalgic about the war; people tell me that during the war they had more to eat than now,” Polman said.

“There were a lot of people that profited from the war. And that is very dangerous.”