Comments on the film by Dr Julius Spencer, Minister of Information, Government of Sierra Leone sent by Email 5th February 2000 |
| The film generally portrays the reality
of what happened in Freetown. However, there are a
few inaccuracies which I believe stem from the fact that
being behind the camera, Sorious missed a few things.
His presentation of what happened to Moses is slightly
inaccurate. I was there, so I know. When
Moses was captured, his appearance and behaviour made all
of us believe he was heavily drugged. He seemed
wild. Sorious says in the film something to the
effect that "...like all captured rebels, he will be
executed." That is far from the truth. Not
that many captured rebels were executed, and no children
of Moses' age. Like many other children his age who
were captured in battle, he was going to be taken to the
ECOMOG headquarters and later released to UNICEF. He
refused to sit quietly in the van and tried to run off.
He resisted being tied up. In fact, as can be seen
in the film, he fought so hard and seemed to be so strong
that it took two soldiers to restrain him and finally tie
him up. It may be hard to believe if you were not
there, but I can tell you that I was a bit scared of
Moses. It was finally in frustration at being
unable to subdue him that one of the soldiers cocked his
gun with the intention of shooting him. I
intervened at that point, and the danger was averted.
We eventually took Moses to the military hospital where
even the doctors were convinced he was under the
influence of some drug. They decided to keep him in
the hospital until the effect of the drug wore off.
The next time I saw Moses was several days later when he
was being handed over to UNICEF. That was when we
all knew he couldn't speak. That was when I
realised that his behavior the day he was captured was
due to intense fear. Apart
from the Moses story, it also seems that perhaps in an
effort to do "balanced" reporting, Sorious
almost equates ECOMOG "atrocities" with what
the rebels did. The film does not seem to fully
appreciate the conditions under which ECOMOG had to
operate. Bear in mind the following: a.. The rebels
entered Freetown behind what at the time appeared to be a
civilian human shield, but in reality was partly rebels
in civilian attire with weapons hidden. Many ECOMOG
soldiers lost their lives because they tried to avoid
injuring civilians. b.. Many
civilians served as couriers and informants for the
rebels. c.. The rebels
were adept at disguise. They used even ECOMOG
uniforms and arm bands. d.. Many soldiers
were killed by bullets fired from guns in the hands of
children. In short, there was a lot of
confusion and fear. I was almost killed, and an
international journalist with me at the time was killed
and another seriously injured because the military escort
with me asked questions first rather than shoot first
when we ran into what appeared to be a mixed group of
civilians and friendly forces which turned out to be
rebels. Although Sorious attempts to
paint the picture through his narration, it does not come
across strongly enough. Finally, I must make the point
that the impression that ECOMOG as a body was involved in
atrocities is not true. Indeed atrocities were
committed, but almost invariably in the absence of senior
officers on the scene and due to prompting of the
civilian population that had been brutalised by the
rebels. For the civilians in liberated areas,
anyone who had been associated with the rebels was to be
killed. In many instances, the soldiers refused to
be involved and took the suspected rebel into custody.
In some cases, the civilians themselves meted out "justice."
The point here is that generally, ECOMOG (particularly
the Nigerians) behaved in a very professional and
disciplined manner and exhibited tremendous courage, so
much so that the majority of Sierra Leoneans are worried
that they are pulling out of the country at a time when
the rebel forces have not yet been significantly disarmed.
The question on many people's minds is "will UN
troops fight to protect us if the rebels decide to resume
hostilities?" Julius S. Spencer
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