United Kingdom Parliamentarians Call On President Kabbah

Parliamentarians from the United Kingdom, who are currently visiting the country, today called on the President, Alhaji Dr Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, to brief him about the purpose of their visit and to seek his views on certain issues affecting the country.

Labour Party MP, Hon Win Griffiths, who spoke on behalf of the group, said they were in Sierra Leone at the invitation of the Sierra Leone Commonwealth Parliamentary Group to see how the Sierra Leone Parliament was coping with democracy as well as the tremendous problems that arose from ten years of war.

He said their purpose of meeting the President was to learn about the country's problems and to see how the U.K, the EU, UN and others could support the efforts of government in rebuilding the country. Mr Griffiths expressed the hope that the type of information they would obtain during their stay in the country would help them make representations to their governments and also get the private sector to be involved in Sierra Leone.

"We are pleased to see that there are no more guns in the country and that the atmosphere is now a bit more relaxed," Hon Griffiths said. Welcoming the move taken by government to conduct local government elections, he said they would also be willing to offer whatever help they could to facilitate the process.

President Kabbah thanked the group and expressed gratitude to the people of the United Kingdom for showing a lot of interest in the welfare of Sierra Leoneans and their sustained interest in the country's development. He praised, in particular, membersof the British House of Lords and Parliament for supporting Her Majesty's Government's policies on Sierra Leone.

He observed that Sierra Leone had over the years not been able to build sufficient wealth due to bad governance and instability to maintain the country and commended Her Majesty's government for its support in helping to rebuild the country's damaged infrastructure.

President Kabbah mentioned that situations in post conflict countries like Sierra Leone could generally be difficult as it takes time for people to decide on investing in such countries until they were able to guarantee a certain level of stability. He said that not only was the country bankrupt when he assumed office in 1996, but there had also been a massive plunder of the economy and mismanagement of State authority and institutions by previous governments. President Kabbah therefore opined that there should be a relaxation of conditions when considering extending aid and assistance to such countries.

He recalled that since independence there had not been any move to restructure and redesign government institutions. Therefore, he said apart from rebuilding the country's infrastructure, steps were being taken to rebuild and re-engineer government institutions to provide the necessary structures for the country's socio-economic development.

He said government was aware of the potential for donor fatigue as the demand for humanitarian support from the international community keeps increasing as more and more developing countries get involved in conflicts situations. The President said he had been talking to Sierra Leoneans about the need for them to work harder and to build up sufficient wealth to service social and other needs. He expressed the hope that more people from outside who have the resources would be encouraged to come and invest in the country either as sole shareholders in private companies or in partnerships with Sierra Leoneans. In this connection President Kabbah went on to highlight a range of possible areas for investment, including minerals mining such as gold, alluvial and kimberlite diamonds, rutile, bauxite as well as the oil sector. He said that the country's agricultural potentials were enormous and looked forward to investment in that sector.

Touching on the area of security, the Head of State commended the British government again for its support in reorganising the country's security and armed forces by training and equipping both the military and police. He added that the British-led IMATT were doing a fantastic job, saying that if proper logistics were provided the army and police would be adequately placed to take over the security of the country as and when UNAMSIL troops are scaled down as part of its draw-down plan. He therefore appealed for continued co-operation and support in that area.

On the Sierra Leone Parliament, President Kabbah stated that parliamentarians were very enthusiastic about their job, but observed that they lacked a solid information base and the necessary logistics to enable them respond in a substantive way to the proposals coming from the Executive for legislation and also to carry out their work effectively.

He said for government tobe able to meet with all these demands it would have to raise taxes which would no doubt result in overburdening the people. He said increasing taxes in order to raise government's revenue in a post conflict situation like Sierra Leone's could be counterproductive.

He therefore suggested that institutional support to Parliament through bilateral assistance could be one way in which additional needs of that body could be addressed instead of resorting to imposing more taxes on a citizenry that is just emerging from war. The President thanked the group again for honouring him with their visit and said that he looked forward to more co-oiperation between the group and their counterparts in Sierra Leone.

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