The children are immediately injected in
the temple with crack cocaine or skin scraped from leg or chest
and the drug rubbed straight into the bloodstream. Soon after the
kidnapping, drug-confused youngsters are forced to chop off a limb
from one of their relatives before being taken away to be trained
to fight and kill. But the local youngsters who sat quietly in
their gently rocking canoes were no threat. They had simply come
to listen to the singing.
The next day, 500 troops in amphibian craft
accompanied by helicopter gunship air cover landed on the beaches
of Aberdeen peninsula for a royal tournament display. I was
conducting a British
Council democracy skills training workshop for women and we
all ducked in unison as a low-flying helicopter roared over the
seminar room. Thousands of Sierra Leoneans on the beach cheered
and shouted:
"God bless our mother country, God bless
Britain."
A couple of days later I attended a special
session of parliament. I sat behind the UK high commissioner, Alan
Jones, and the commander of the British forces in Sierra Leone,
Brigadier David Richards. 
The praise for Britain was so warm and
effusive it was almost embarrassing. But it was deeply touching.
A Muslim MP said:
"The British are a special people
ready to live and to die for what they believe in, rather than
for short-term gain."
He mentioned the British belief in fair
play and justice and added in for good measure the spirit of King
Arthur. An MP stood up and said:
"I could see the great spectacle on
the beach from my window. When I saw the British forces landing
- nothing could be more reassuring. If I may quote Wellington,
'I don't know what they do to the enemy, but by God they put the
fear of God in me.'"
Members of parliament from all the
political parties offered paeans of praise to Britain. They
thanked Tony Blair. They thanked Robin Cook. They thanked
Britain's UN ambassador, Jeremy Greencroft. They thanked the
Department for International Development. They even praised the
deputy prime minister, John Prescott. It must be one of the few
rave reviews our minister for transport & wet & every
other controversial thing has had this year.
© Lesley Abdela
2000
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