Anglican Communion News Service

This statement on the events of May 25 1997 by the Anglican Church of Freetown has been received via the Church Mission Society (CMS) in London. It is dated 15 June and reproduced here in full. The CMS are coordinating relief efforts to the area. John Evenson of CMS can be contacted for further news reports from the region.

The Anglican Church in Sierra Leone has given long and serious consideration to the reasons advanced by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council for overthrowing the constitutionally elected and legitimate government of this country, and in the interest of its members wishes to make the following statement.

It is our view as a Church that the coup staged in the early hours of Sunday, May 25, 1997, a day which was being observed by Christians worldwide as Trinity Sunday, was ill-timed, badly planned and executed, resulting in wanton destruction of very vital aspects of the nation's infrastructure.

The nation, it is true, had been yearning for peace after six years of rebel war. And the Church supports the view that the foundation for the much-desired peace was well and truly laid on November 30, 1996, by the signing of the Abidjan Accord - just six months before the coup. Furthermore, taking into consideration the sequence of events and the many statements which have been made since Sunday, May 25, it would appear that the bringing in of the RUF was an after-thought and definitely not on end of the prime reasons for the coup, although it must be conceded that the implementation of the Abidjan Accord was beginning to run into difficulties. These difficulties, we believe however, were not unsurmountable by peaceful processes.

With so much propaganda now being mounted to justify the coup, the Church owes it as a duty to the the nation, to speak out boldly against the deflation and disruption of the celebration of Trinity Sunday and sees this as a very sinful act invoking the wrath of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, which cannot be assuaged by the various calls to prayer to back the coup. Indeed, God is not mocked. It certainly is not very surprising therefore, that the consequences of that act of Sunday, May 25, have been so far-reaching and so devastating.

It must be observed that this country has witnessed and experienced many military coups before now, whether justifiable or not; but never has it been like this. The Church must therefore irrevocably condemn the consequences of the May 25 coup d'etat which involved the breaking of the Central prisons, setting at large dangerous criminals for whom the very AFRC has now launched a man-hunt; the destruction of the Ministry of Finance and the Treasury Building at a time when salaries and pensions were pending, resulting in the fact that a vast concourse of workers and pensioners are now going without pay; the destruction of the Central Bank which has completely disrupted the commercial banking systems; the looting and wanton lawlessness which have resulted in a state of insecurity, with private residences being invaded by gunmen and molestation and terrorisation of innocent civilians particularly women.

It is the view of the Church that in the same vein in which massive propaganda has been mounted against perceived foreign intervention, in the same vein the nation cannot afford to forget the wanton rape on democracy which has resulted in creating fear and insecurity among the people of this country, and in this same vein the international community cannot afford to remain silent or oblivious of the plight of the ordinary peace-loving Sierra Leonean - Christian and non-Christians alike - and the nation as a whole.

It is a matter of great disappointment and very grave concern to the Anglican Church that while progressive countries have targeted important goals which they hope to achieve within the next three years, as we draw towards the close of the twentieth century and prepare to usher in the twenty-first century, our vision in this country is being blurred by narrow-mindedness which to all intents and purposes, has resulted in significantly turning back the hands of the clock.

If, as has been suggested, it is the intention to return the country to constitutional rule within a period of two years, then it is the Church's view that there is no need for another experiment in military rule when the experience of the last military interregnum is taken into consideration. Must Sierra Leone always be experimenting in the art of constitutional rule and the practice of democracy? We will never make any constitutional progress in the practice of democracy if every effort to do so is rudely interrupted by those who wield power through the rule of the gun. We will never achieve democracy at all, if we do not put an end to coup d'}tat in this country. To do so is to start now.

All those countries which claim to believe in democracy must be prepared to help us in our efforts to achieve this by peaceful and constitutional means.

We are going into the twenty-first century with a record of more than 98 percent illiteracy - about the highest in the world. We pray, as a Church, that Sierra Leone does not enter the twenty-first century as one of the very few nations still practicing the rule of the gun.