STATEMENT BY HIS EXCELLENCY
ALHAJI DR AHMAD TEJAN KABBAH,
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC
OF SIERRA LEONE
ON THE VISIT TO SIERRA LEONE OF
PROFESSOR DR HORST KOEHLER,
PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC
OF GERMANY
MONDAY, 6TH DECEMBER, 2004

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Your Excellency Professor Dr Horst Koehler
& Mrs. Koehler

Honourable Vice President
Mr Speaker
My Lord Chief Justice
Ministers of Government
Honourable Members of Parliament
Honourable Members of the German Delegation
Excellencies, Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen:

On behalf of the Government and People of Sierra Leone, may I warmly and heartily welcome you Mr President and Mrs Koehler, and your delegation to our small but friendly country.

It is a great pleasure and an opportunity for the people of Sierra Leone to have you in our midst. We welcome you as a special and highly honoured guest. The timing of your visit is particularly appropriate, Mr President, as our country is just emerging from a decade long conflict. We are now reaching out to our friends and international partners to strengthen existing relations and to build new ones.

Mr President, may I say how pleased I am that you chose to visit Sierra Leone on the first leg of your African tour. Your visit is historic, and will not be forgotten for a very long time to come. The Federal Republic of Germany is admired and respected not only for the giant political and economic strides made within the European Union, but also in many other regional and international fora. I think in particular of your country's contribution to the development efforts of many countries in Africa over the past several decades.

In Sierra Leone, your country has played a very significant role in Trade and Economic Cooperation, Education and Training and Infrastructure development dating as far back as the 1970s. Most recently your country has contributed to our recovery and development efforts from the ashes of war. It has also been a strong support in the promotion of Peace and Security; in Conflict Resolution and Prevention and in promoting Good Governance and the Rule of Law. I cannot fail to single out one member of your delegation who as your country's Ambassador to this country exemplified the finest of German values during his tenure of office in Sierra Leone. This gentleman, Mr Karl Prinz had to leave the country during the reign of the previous regime because he could not accept the flagrant abuse of democratic principles that prevailed at the time. When I assumed office in 1996 I made a special request to the German Government for his return to Sierra Leone. Even though it was not possible then for him to return, we have continued to cherish his legacy.

Mr President, German cooperation with Sierra Leone has been exemplary over many years. Let me recall some of the more notable areas. Many projects were successfully completed under the supervision of the German Technical Cooperation International Services (GTZ). In the 1970s, for example, the German Government was very instrumental in road and bridge construction in our country. These include the Congo Cross Bridge, the Bo-Kenema, Masingbe-Kono, Makeni-Matotoka and Freetown-Waterloo Highways.

Let me therefore take this opportunity once again to express our gratitude for Germany's tremendous assistance in the construction of these highways that today link our major urban and economic centres. We also appreciate deeply the current development cooperation with the EU in developing additional road networks in Sierra Leone.

Mr President, as you may be aware, one of the negative impacts of the rebel war in Sierra Leone is the extensive destruction of our basic infrastructure including the German funded roads. These roads are now in desperate need of rehabilitation. I am aware that the current policy in the EU is to assign responsibility for road construction and rehabilitation to the EU. This not withstanding, I am confident that your Government would do everything in its power to assist in sensitising the EU about the dire need to also consider the rehabilitation of the Magburaka-Koidu road, the Bo-Kenema road, the Lunsar-Makeni-Kabala road, and the Kenema-Koindu road in the Eastern Province. The last mentioned road has great economic and security significance in Sierra Leone. It passes through one of our most agriculturally productive areas and leads to the international market centre of Koindu, where businessmen from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia since 1932, have carried out important commercial transactions. The road is also the main supply artery for our border security forces. But in spite of its importance to the economy and maintenance of the security of this country, this road has deteriorated considerably especially during the war years. For instance, during last rainy season, the road became totally impassable. Recently, we had to rely on UNAMSIL helicopters to airlift logistical supplies to our border security forces.

Mr President, as you may recall, I visited your country in 2002, after the end of the war. I was warmly received and embraced by the people of Germany. The concern shown over the plight of our people by Germany was echoed in other international fora, including the United Nations and the European Union. Your Government was quick to respond to our request for support by providing much-needed financial assistance towards the reconstruction of our devastated country.

During my visit, many fruitful discussions were held with officials of your government, and with development partners in the public and private sectors in Germany. These led to the signing of a Debt Relief Agreement, and the reactivation of the German Technical Cooperation International Services (GTZ) operations in Sierra Leone. I must commend the GTZ, Mr President, for the resumption of its activities in Sierra Leone and the significant impact this has already had on our reconstruction efforts. I am thinking especially of those projects that support the development of local communities, and in bringing young people and ex-combatants back into education and skills training.

I am deeply satisfied that our discussions during my visit in 2002 led to the reopening of the German Embassy in Freetown in 2003 at the level of Charge d'Affaires. With the re-establishment of full diplomatic relations, and the security now prevailing in the country, we hope, Mr President, that your Government will consider the appointment of a resident Ambassador to Sierra Leone and the start of consular services.

Assistance was provided for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, enabling it to complete its work. I am pleased to state that this Commission has now submitted its report to Government and to the United Nations, and Government is in the process of finalizing the White Paper on the report. We are also grateful to your Government for the successful completion of the disarmament and demobilization of ex-combatants, an activity that has helped in bridging the social divisions created by the conflict, and contributed to the country's reconciliation process and the consolidation of peace. I wish also to record our appreciation to your Government for its financial support to the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) and support to our food security programme which ranks high on our development priority list.

I am sure you will be pleased to note the progress that we have made so far since the end of the war in establishing democracy and democratic institutions. Some of the high points of the accomplishments in this regard are the establishment of civil governmental authority throughout the country and the successful Presidential and Parliamentary elections conducted in 2002 by a civilian government, elections which were acclaimed by the international community as free and fair; the successful conduct of elections for Paramount Chiefs throughout the country and the recent nationwide Local Government elections. Both elections were conducted in a democratic manner. We paid particular attention to these elections as we were aware that some of the identified causes of the civil conflict in this country were the lack of fairness and transparency previously associated with these elections especially the chieftaincy elections. All these demonstrate our determination to adhere to the tenets of democracy in the governance of this country.

By the establishment of local authorities which had been dormant for over 32 years we ensured a devolution of authority to local communities that have the authority to provide service for the people in their localities within the overall national policy.

At my request and with the assistance of the British Government, we now have in place an Anti-Corruption Commission. This is another tool which we have introduced to enhance probity and transparency in governance. In order to underscore the independence of that Commission, we have ensured that the executive arm of the Government, and even the President, is deprived of the power to dismiss the Commissioner, and that the Commissioner has powers to investigate every Sierra Leonean, even the President, and this is in spite of the immunity conferred on the President by the National Constitution.

Because of our constitutional arrangement, the power to prosecute cases investigated by the Anti-Corruption Commission was conferred on the Attorney-General. Now that there are sufficient judicial and legal personnel provided with the help of the Commonwealth by the British Government to deal with corruption matters, we contemplate the transfer of all functions, including the prosecution of corruption cases to the Anti-Corruption Commission.

We have also established an independent and effective Electoral Commission with the assistance of the International Community especially the UK and the EU to enhance the integrity of the electoral processes in the country.

Other measures we have taken to strengthen democracy relate to the enhancement of the rule of law and the empowerment and support to the judiciary so that it plays its rightful role in the governance process. In this regard we have embarked on a number of reforms and institutional as well as capacity-building activities. Prominent among these is the establishment of a Law Reform Commission to review and update our laws so that they are consistent with modern democratic practices and meet the aspirations of our people.

With the UNAMSIL drawdown making progress, the Government of Sierra Leone continues to establish control of illicit diamond mining and maintains law and order in the mining areas. Diamond exports have progressively increased from US$10 million in the year 2000, US$26 million in 2001, US$41 million in 2002, US$76 million in 2003 and US$118 million as at 26th November 2004. Government has now started earning substantial revenue from such exports.

We will continue to work to exert stronger control in all diamond areas to ensure more effective enforcement of diamond mining regulations to sustain the sector.

Mr President, as a small country Sierra Leone has a great need to work closely with its neighbours. We have been active members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which was established to facilitate investment in our respective countries through close collaboration in trade, immigration and the harmonization of our financial management systems including the adoption of a common tariff system and a common currency. While the conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia and other countries in the sub-region caused the community to devote considerable efforts and resources towards peace keeping, there is now a gradual shift towards its original aims with the progressive return of peace to some of the member countries. On a smaller scale, the Mano River Union (MRU), comprising the immediate neighbouring countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone was established with similar aims as ECOWAS. A unique feature of the MRU however is that the peoples of the three countries share closer cultural and ethnic affinity. There is therefore a great potential to derive substantial benefits in the areas of security and political stability in the neighbourhood, if the Union can be made to function effectively. The United Nations has understandably demonstrated an interest in reactivating the Union which became almost dormant during a prolonged period of economic and political stress within its member states.

Mr President, I am sure that some of these developments will be noticed by you and your delegation as you embark upon your visits in different parts of the country.

In conclusion, Mr President, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, my Government views your visit to Sierra Leone today as an important milestone in the relations between our two countries and peoples. This will further enhance cooperation and understanding in many areas of mutual interest. I am sure that your Excellency will appreciate the seeming dilemma in which my Government finds itself. We have just come out of a devastating war and have decided to pursue the path of democracy and good governance. We have assured our people that the future development and prosperity of the country lies in our going this way. This itself raises great expectations in the people as they await to reap the fruits of democracy. Our resources are limited to meet those expectations, largely as a result of the war. We can only appeal to the international community and our partners in development such as Germany to see us through this transition. We remain confident that Sierra Leone-German friendship and cooperation will continue to grow for the benefit of our two countries and peoples.

TOAST

I thank you all.

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