The Darfur Australia Network

By Lucy Cane, DAN volunteer

The Darfur Australia Network (DAN) is a not-for-profit community organisation based in Sydney and Melbourne. One of the main goals of the group is to raise awareness about the ongoing tragedy in Darfur. Despite the magnitude of this crisis, many Australians are largely unaware of the issue. We hope to change this by putting Darfur squarely on the public radar and encouraging others to engage with the issue. The more people that become aware of the conflict in Darfur and debate the best way forward, the more pressure will grow to bring about sustainable change within the region.

A second goal of the DAN is to assist in the settlement of Darfuri refugees in Australia. DAN is a joint initiative between Darfuri refugees and other Australians. Volunteers work with the Darfuri communities of Sydney and Melbourne to assess their needs and, where possible, connect them to service providers. Crucially, DAN also enables the Darfuri members of the group to have their voices heard by the wider Australian public. All Australians can make a difference to the Darfur crisis by building solidarity with Darfuri refugees, listening to their stories and working together to bring the crisis into the open.

A third goal of DAN is to advocate appropriate policy responses from the Australian government regarding Darfur. The Australian government has a moral obligation to maximise the probabilities of bringing change to Darfur. For example, it is important that the Australian government do more to encourage peace negotiations in Darfur via international diplomacy. In particular, we must maintain pressure on China – a country known to support the murderous government in Sudan.

Another method through which the Australian government can assist the people of Darfur is through their immigration policy. In recent times, there has been a drastic decrease in the number of refugees accepted into Australia from Africa. Sadly, the immigration minister and others in the media have attempted to justify this move by claiming that African refugees fail to ‘integrate’ in Australian society. All members of DAN regard these comments to be unfounded and know first hand of the enthusiasm with which African refugees embrace Australian society. We hope that more Australians can engage with African refugees and appreciate the unique contribution these brave people make to our community. DAN believes that Australians from all walks of life must learn from each other and work together in expressing a shared commitment to peace.

Australian diplomat opens library in Sierra Leone

It is said that dreams well-nurtured always come true, so has the dream of a group of philanthropists in the Bankstown office of the New South Wales Department of Education in Sydney, Australia.

Recently the Australian High Commissioner to Ghana and Sierra Leone, His Excellency Jon Richardson, officially opened the newly completed library of the Kamba Primary School in the northern province of Sierra Leone. The opening ceremony was observed with pomp and pageantry as people from surrounding villages came to welcome the High Commissioner with traditional songs and mask dancing.

An alumnus of the school, Dr. Samuel Kamara, in the welcome speech, paid special tribute to the Australian people for their magnanimity and promised that the library would be used properly. He further made a special appeal for the construction of an additional building and a water well and the provision of more teachers.

The Kamba Library project was initiated in 2004 as a partnership between the project team in Sydney and the people of Kamba. Among the Sydney team is Dr. Serrie Kamara, a former student of the school, who was completing his studies in Australia when a gruesome war prevented him from returning home. Some other members of the Sydney team are Leanne Harrison, Vicki Russell, Michelle Ross, Sarah Billington, and Andrew Van Womarto.

The first consignment of books donated to the project by individuals in Sydney arrived in Kamba in December 2005 and the completion of the library was morally and financially supported by the Australian High Commission based in Accra, Ghana.

According to Leanne Harrison, the main goal of the library is to help the kids improve their literacy and numeracy skills through the use of the donated books and other educational materials.

Kamba is a small village in the north of Sierra Leone, located more than 200 kms from the capital city, Freetown, and five kilometres from the main highway. The primary school began with a tiny building in 1958 with an initial enrolment of about 50 pupils. In spite of its remote location and lack of facilities over the years, the school has as its alumni people with doctorate and masters degrees, medical doctors, public servants, successful business men and women, etc.

During the recent 10`-year civil war in the country, the school was partially destroyed and several students killed and maimed when the rebels invaded the village. It was later rebuilt through a self-help project, which led to an increase in the school’s population. A good number of the students are displaced kids who lost their parents and relatives in the war. Because of lack of accommodation and other facilities, the school currently operates a two-shift system – morning shift for younger children and an evening one for older students and adult learners.

One of the hightlights of the ceremony was the crowning of His Excellency Jon Richardson as Honorary Chief Pa Komrabai Keruma. In a show of lightheatedness following his crowning, the new chief immediately imposed fines on the District Inspector of Schools and the school’s headmaster for inadvertently referring to him in their closing remarks as High Commissioner Richardson instead of Chief Pa Komrabai, much to the amusement of the crowd. The proceeds of the fines went to the library project.

APC victory celebrated in Australia

By Tony Bee Conteh and Michael Kamara

Sierra Leoneans in Australia recently celebrated the victory of the All Peoples Congress (APC) party in the recent parliamentary and presidential elections in Sierra Leone.

The celebration was marked with a Thanksgiving Service at the Lighthouse International Church, Granville, which was attended by both Christians and Muslims. Mr. Ibrahim Paul Sankoh, who gave the sermon, talked about hesitation and its adverse effects on mankind. He insinuated that hesitation makes many people not to get their desired goal even when it is at their finger’s tip.

Mr. Sankoh said we should not solely depend on our individual achievements but to focus our minds on the power of the Almighty God, who has the power to give and take.

In the vote of thanks given by Mr. James Koroma, the chairman of APC-Australia, he told the packed congregation that the APC-Australia chose that special day to thank God for what He had done for Sierra Leone. He said even though the country had gone through more than ten years of brutal war, Sierra Leoneans could still walk about with pride for their achievements.

Mr. James Koroma said with the arrival of the APC on the throne, a new era has come to Sierra Leone and that the Sierra Leonean people themselves were now in charge of their own destiny.

He said Sierra Leoneans could now breathe a sigh of relief as the new President, His Excellency Ernest Bai Koroma, was committed to promoting democracy, stability and development, which had eluded the people for so long, and would make Sierra Leone a new nation of pride and strength.

He then thanked the Pastor, elders and congregation of the Lighthouse International Church for hosting the occasion and asked all Sierra Leoneans for their support.

The chairman of APC-Australia then gave a brief history of the party which brought out the hard fact that history is wont to repeat itself.

The APC party, which is one of the two main political parties in Sierra Leone, before it first came to power in the late 1960s, had to tussle it out with the SLPP before finally being declared winner in the elections in those days when the colonial masters’ footsteps were still fresh on the Sierra Leonean soil.

The same episode, with the APC and SLPP battling it out again in elections that finally declared the APC as winner, recently occurred again. Both eras were marked by violence.

The Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP), the incumbent ruling party that was recently defeated in a hotly contested election in Sierra Leone, was the first ruling party after the country gained independence from British colonial rule in 1961. The All Peoples Congress (APC) party, which was the opposition party, was steered by Siaka Stevens who later became the first President of Sierra Leone.

The first Prime Minister of the country called Sir Milton Margai died not long after independence and his brother, Sir Albert Margai, took his place as Prime Minister.

The elections that came after the Prime Minister’s term of office in the late 1960s was characterised by violence between the two parties which prompted the military to stage the first coup d’état in the country.

A combination of events, ranging from house arrests to imprisonments, eventually saw APC’s Siaka Stevens being declared the winner of the elections and he became Prime Minister in 1968, with the incumbent Prime Minister going into exile.

A few years after this event the country adopted the republican constitution and Sierra Leone was translated from an independent state to a republican single party state, with the Prime Minister becoming President. He ruled until 1985 and handed political power to a military officer, who later became a civilian President. The new president ruled for about seven years and was toppled in a military coup mounted by disgruntled young soldiers in their twenties in 1992 when the civil war was taking its toll on the population.

The soldiers ruled for four years and handed power back to a civilian government headed by the SLPP party. The SLPP ruled throughout the war and after the war while the APC remained the opposition party. Very recently, as stated, the ruling SLPP was defeated in the country’s elections by the opposition APC party headed by Ernest Bai Koroma. That defeat of an incumbent party in an election has been described as a strange phenomenon in African politics, for the incumbent party always has everything (state funds, the media, corrupt practices, etc.) at its disposal to win any election.