Article published May 23, 2002
Sierra Leone's challenge
After a decade of mayhem, Sierra Leone is organizing its government, with re-elected President Ahmen Tejan Kabbah in charge. But the tough part is not over.
In the recent election, Mr. Kabbah culled 70.6 percent of the vote. That put him comfortably out in front of the eight others who sought the presidency, including rebel leader Foday Sankoh, who is in prison on murder charges and could face a U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal.
Sierra Leone was plunged into civil war 11 years ago when rebels tried to take control of the diamond fields and government. Rebels broke previous peace accords and embarrassed the United Nations when they took 500 peacekeepers hostage. Rebels killed 50,000 Sierra Leoneans and raped and robbed others.
Still, among an incredible 80 percent of the eligible voters who voted in the recent election were people whose hands were cut off for trying to vote in previous elections. Slightly more than 2.3 million eligible voters, out of the nation's 5.4 million, began to line up to vote three hours before the polls opened.
The Sierra Leoneans' grit shames U.S. voters. In the highest percentage of voter turnout in the last 70 years - for the Kennedy-Nixon election in 1960 - only 62.8 percent voted. Only 50.7 percent voted in the last presidential election. The figures were worse in the May 7 primary election, when only 19.19 percent of Ohio's registered voters cast ballots. The turnout in Lucas County was embarrassingly low, at 14.4 percent.
Meanwhile, Sierra Leone will still need international support as President Kabbah wrestles with illiterate and disaffected youth, corruption, and mismanagement of the diamond resources. The challenge is daunting. Sierra Leone was already one of the poorest countries, and now it must rebuild destroyed homes, schools, and health clinics, and re-establish abandoned agriculture.
The rebels even say that the war improved nothing. But the only woman presidential candidate issued a warning: "If the government does not deliver," she said, "you just need another crazy Foday Sankoh to get up and mobilize the young people." That will be Mr. Kabbah's biggest challenge.
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