Sierra Leone: Poetry for the war ravaged ।। Colonel Z. R. M. Ashraf Uddin, psc, G (Retired) [Pen name: Ashraf Al Deen]

This is a very straight forward story of the dedication of a poetry for the war ravaged people of Sierra Leone.
While talking about the Civil War we tend to understand that it's a type of War where many Civilian armed groups get involved in fighting with one another, resulting into some sporadic incidents and that's all! Civil War isn't as simple and straight forward as that. It's much more destructive and complicated than we can ever imagine! To those who are informed, 'Civil War' is a scary term by any measure. The real extent of devastation and destruction that a Civil War can cause to a country's economy, it's infrastructure and culture, loss of lives and property, and above all, resulting crisis of hope and peace, became vividly clear to us as we landed in Sierra Leone. The very devastating appearance of the localities, destroyed cities and overrun villages, shattered daily lives and finally loss of materials and lives due to ten years (1991-2000) of bloody civil war, appeared in front of our eyes as we were physically present in that beautiful country of West Africa, as part of UN peacekeeping force.

The picturesque capital Freetown, a major port city on the Atlantic, is a green hilly area protruding into the sea, with quiet seawater playing on three of its sides. Sierra Leone has a tropical climate, soothing throughout the year. Under its soil the country has got too many valuable minerals. Sierra Leone has relied on mining, especially diamonds, for its economic base. It is also among the largest producers of Titanium and Bauxite, a major producer of Gold and has one of the world's largest deposits of Rutile and Iron. The whole country is covered with palm trees, yielding huge amount of palm oil. The country's soil is also very fertile for agriculture. Despite such abundance of natural wealth, most of the people of Sierra Leone always suffered from poverty and extreme poverty. With the geographical area of 27,699 sq miles (the size of half of Bangladesh), the population was little less than half a crore (4.337 m in 1991). It was under British Colonial rule from 1808 to 1961 and became independent on 27th April 1961. Unfortunately, even after the Independence from the British rule, the people failed to remain united. This disunity has benefited the foreigners, while the people of Sierra Leone remained in fighting terms among its various tribes and the country’s politics made it even worse! Finally they landed into a very destructive, complex and blood-spilling civil war.

It is said that mainly the availability of diamond and rich deposit of minerals has attracted the colonial/ evil powers and caused bloody wars, both in the past and present days of Sierra Leone. Another unfortunate fact was that: a democratically elected leader, named Siaka Stevens, changed the parliamentary system of the Government into Presidential one and turned himself into a 'Dictator'. As all dictators of all ages think that they are the only patriots and do whatever they feel appropriate 'to save (!) the country', Stevens also had the same line of thinking. He sent the democracy into the grave and set 'one party rule.' This created deeper commotions and further division among the people, with an ultimate outburst of people's anger, after a period of time, led towards armed rebellion! With the direct assistance from the neighbouring country Liberia, a youth group of Sierra Leone (RUF- revolutionary united front) started furious fighting against the Government of Sierra Leone and mercilessly terrorized the people. The RUF was led by a former Sierra Leone Army (SLA) corporal Foday Sankoh.

Thus, fraternal and brutal civil war started in this country, otherwise divided in tribal lines, in 1991. In the process of attacks and counter-attacks the killings, bloodshed, vandalizing, destroying and burning became everyday event. With the passage of time the number of groups and subgroups of the fighting parties increased and the ultimate loser due to the fighting among them was the innocent public, their lives and properties. There was no rule of law, no production in the factories and no cultivation in the fields! Palm gardens turned into bushes due to lack of care. There was acute shortage of food, but no shortage of weapons and ammunition! They were flooding in from across the border. Death, sufferings and uncertainty were lurking all around! This continued for ten long years and more than fifty thousand people lost their lives. Hundreds of thousands became disabled, because the rebels chopped off their limbs, hands or legs and at times both! Millions of people deserted the country and millions became homeless and internally displaced.

It was really a very grim situation and people of Sierra Leone were totally tired of such mindless war! After a decade of fighting no single group could be declared winner! Every group, big or small, controlled some area of the country, and extracted toll from the people for their living. People couldn’t bear it any longer. The UN sent the peacekeeping force, but peace-agreements were violated by contending parties’ number of times. In such a critical situation the peacekeeping contingents of Bangladesh Army appeared on the scene, in year 2000. We, the first Artillery Contingent (Banarty-1) reached Sierra Leone in March 2001. First ever in the history of UN peacekeeping, we carried Field Artillery Guns (105mm Pack Howitzer) in the rebel held areas! A kind of 'Peace Enforcement', one may say. So unpredictable was the situation in Sierra Leone! Though, we also carried enough automatics, small arms and ammunition, our aim was, not to fuel the fighting rather, to establish peace and security for the people. In presence of the UN peacekeepers the war has stopped, but the rebels still possessed the arms and ammunition. As such, ‘peace’ couldn’t be secured and the situation was volatile! We had the reports of few odd incidents. A lasting ‘peace’ and 'rule of law' can't be ensured having arms and ammunition in the hands of the rebels. They have to be surrendered. But, the reality is, the rebels have only one item to bargain and that is their ‘weapons in hand!’ The rebels claim that, the government forces, and the UN forces too, have failed to keep their promises many a times before. Such a state of mind of the rebels made the situation difficult for us. However, we had to try our own way and finally we were successful to be able to bring the rebels on the negotiating table. What was very precious was ‘Trust of the rebels.’ We had to establish close liaison with them and gain their confidence, to be able to start the bargaining for them to surrender the weapons. It was not a very easy job! At times we had to be very tough but again we had to show our human side with the aim of winning their hearts and minds. In this process we, Banarty at Lunsar, were able to establish a very special relationship with the rebels and the general public alike. In addition to the routine job of the peacekeepers, we paid our attention towards some ‘people oriented welfare activities.’ Of them most effective one was: opening of the 'Free Saturday Clinic' for the people of the area, utilizing the surplus medicine we had. People were very happy to see a Doctor and receive some medicine, which didn’t happen to them for a whole decade. I, personally, never thought people could be so much happy to receive a few 'Paracetamol' or 'Piriton' tablets!

UN food supply was abundant for us and we had a lot of surplus rice and flour. Every day we used to have surplus breads, supplied for our breakfast. With this surplus food we started working, like the "Food for Work" projects back in the country. We shared our food with the hungry people and encouraged them to reopen the schools. We helped them in reconstructing the Schools and Masjids. Lunsar had one large Central Masjid and 14 other smaller Masjids. Each Masjid had a 'Maqtab', for primary Arabic education. Instead of distributing the breads on the road to whoever asked for it, we started giving it to the teachers and students who joined the Schools and Maqtabs. In absence of the hostilities by the rebels, and with ensured security in our presence, people started returning home in Lunsar town and in the neighbouring localities, deserted for long years during the war. In a very small scale the shops started reopening and people could be seen moving around. Normalcy was coming back in other cities also. Almost all Bangladeshi contingents engaged themselves in pro-people welfare activities and earned good name. At Lunsar we organised the local youths to clear the bushes and repair the roads and streets. Bangladeshi engineering contingents undertook the major reconstruction work of Roads, Bridges and Highways. This helped the economic growth of the war ravaged country. Bangladeshi peacekeepers were in the focus, that they were very friendly and trustworthy people.

It is a matter of pride for Bangladesh that surrender of weapons by the rebels in Sierra Leone started at Lunsar, the area of operation of Banarty-1. Thereafter, rebels all around the country started surrendering their weapons to the peacekeepers. At Lunsar, we arranged an elaborate ceremony for surrendering weapons by the rebels. It was a jubilant occasion in the presence of the SRSG (special representative of the Secretary General) and the Force Commander of UNAMSIL (United Nation’s Assistance Mission in Sierra Leone). Both of them thanked us number of times, especially because they knew it well that Lunsar had been the Headquarters of 5 RUF Brigade, popularly known as 'Rebel Crack Brigade' and we have successfully done the 'Taming of the Shrew!' While the rebel commander initiated the process of 'Weapon Surrendering Ceremony' by handing over an automatic weapon to the SRSG, men and women from various tribes coming from different regions in their colorful ceremonial attire were singing and dancing with the sound of their traditional drums. People of all ages were giggling and laughing whole heartedly, with a kind of strong hope that the decade long nasty war is going to end and they would get back to the normal rhythm of life.

Sierra Leone Police (SLP) had been fighting the rebels as a part of the government forces, during the war. As such, rebels did not agree for the SLP to reopen the Police Stations, which was essential to reestablish the ‘Law & Order.’ At Lunsar, we got the rebels agreed to reopen the police station, initially without weapons, and gradually life started coming back, with the law and order in place. To bring back the life among the inhabitants of the city, we organized a series of football competition in the stadium at Lunsar. The participating teams were the Local Teams, the Rebel Team and the Army Team. Few days later we allowed them to enjoy a band show in Lunsar City Hall. People became happy and very respectful to Bangladeshi peacekeepers. That's how we made our stay meaningful and interesting.

This was how we passed one long year at Lunsar and it was time for us to return back to Bangladesh and get replaced by another Bangladeshi Artillery contingent. As a final event, we decided to organise a cultural program, as a fun-fare, before leaving Sierra Leone. We arranged it with a good mix of cultural items of both the countries, Bangladesh and Sierra Leone. Accordingly, we arranged to teach some of the local boys and girls few popular songs, jokes, recitations and skits in Bangla. In the same way, we rehearsed some of our soldiers with few songs, jokes and playlets popular in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone has a wonderful tapestry of cultural heritages originating from different tribes. The two very large and dominant tribes are Timni and Mende. Lunsar was a Timni area. Our cultural team was composed of a good number of talented officers and soldiers. Lunsar Town Hall was packed with spectators, comprised of the locals (general public and local leaders including the ex-rebels) and invited guests from UNAMSIL headquarters at Freetown, and also few representatives from various other contingents. The program started with the recitation from the holy Qur'an and a patriotic song in Bangla by our soldiers. Our team composed 'Zari songs', jokes and skits basing on various interesting experiences gathered throughout the year, during hard times. Some of them were in Bangla and some in Timni language. Everyone liked the mimicking of Michael Jackson's dance by one of our officers. The jubilant crowd broke into laughter when they found their brothers coming from a country thousands of miles away and presenting in their own language! Thereafter, when the locals found that their boys and girls are singing, presenting jokes and acting with the expressions in ‘Bangla language’ the whole City Hall was echoing endless joy and laughter!

Then, it was my turn to recite the poems. On the request of my officers I composed two poems, just for the cultural program, one in Bangla and the other in English. Though I was reciting self-composed poems, I was quite skeptic about how the audience present in the City Hall will take them! How many will understand them, was a question in my mind! Because, Bangla is for the Bangladeshi peacekeepers only, I know. But, how about the English poetry? How many of the locals would understand the spirit of a poem! Moreover, after such a joyous program, will an English poetry be at all interesting? However, with background music of softly played guitar, I read out the poems. First, I recited the Bangla poetry, and then the English one. There was pin-drop silence during the recitation and I had all my emotions in my tone! Deep emotion expressed in the poetic lines touched the audiences too. However, as the program ended, I checked back from my offices about the poetry session. To my utter surprise, I was told that, many locals were seen in tears during my recitation of the English poem! In fact, all these people who long suffered and lost everything of their lives during decade long bloody civil war became very emotional! Not only the elders, even the young men and women who were involved physically in the armed struggle or suffered from it, went back to their unforgettable sad memories! Almamy, a youth leader, told me, "your poetry shook us so much because within a moment memories of all our sufferings of struggling years came back to us! We couldn't but shed our tears." Fatimatu, a social worker, requested me for a copy of the poem, for sharing it with the war-victim girls, under the umbrella of her NGO. The priest of the local church requested for a copy of the poem for singing it on the Sunday Carol. The poem was later printed in an issue of the 'UNAMSIL Magazine' published from the UNAMSIL Headquarters at Freetown. The poem was also included in my book written on our experiences in Sierra Leone and published in 2005, titled "Shada Kaak O Kalo Manusher Golpo" (সাদা কাক ও কালো মানুষের গল্প).

As the program ended with the recitation of the poems, the Paramount Chief came up on the stage and spoke very highly about the performance of the Bangladeshi military throughout their stay at Lunsar and he termed it as ‘A Devine Blessing!’ He handed over some gifts to us. The deputy SRSG spoke very high about the Bangladeshi contingents, specially the Banarty-1 at Lunsar. The whole program ended with a very high note and no one will forget the pleasure it gave to everyone.

The success of the program was that: similar programs of mixed languages, languages of Bangladesh and Sierra Leone, were echoed by all Bangladeshi contingents. People of Sierra Leone felt a kind of bondage with Bangladesh and Bangla. This resulted into a statement by Ahmed Tezan Kabbah, the President of Sierra Leone, that "Bangla is the second language of Sierra Leone", an expression of deep respect for the people of Bangladesh. Truly speaking, we still feel like 'brothers apart' on the same planet.
Here is the poetry I wrote and recited for the people of Sierra Leone.

Give Me Some Tears ।। Colonel Z. R. M. Ashraf Uddin, psc, G (Retired)

Give me some tears, O' world! Give me a drop of tear,
Whoever you are - a white, a black, a boss or a peer;
O' people on the God's earth! Can you hear?
Give me some tears, O' World! Give me a drop of tear.

All over inside me you will find it dry,
That's the reason why I can't cry!
Whatever pain you force me to bear,
You squeeze my heart and my body you tear!
I can only look with motionless eyes,
Not even wet, it ignores all heighs!
Oh my God! All over it's dry!
I can't cry O' you see! Even if I try!

Seeing me so don't you be in fear,
I'm not a ghost, only I don't have tear;
'cause in Sierra Leone for past ten or more years,
I had been shedding
And shedding
And shedding all scalding tears!

I had cried when my toy was broken,
I had cried when they burnt my house;
I had cried when they send me to bush,
Forced me to starve and sleep with the mouse.
I had cried when they molested my mum,
Gagged me down and took my sister away;
I had cried when they dragged my dad,
We all cried when only fear was to sway!

We returned but again we were driven out by the war;
We became helpless, lost everything and it went too far!
Then we forgot to cry when each other they killed,
All over life was vacuum; only by war it was filled.

Now, I can't cry! I have no tear I'm exhausted;
The civil war has burnt and destroyed, left us wasted!
Nothing is clear why all these happened,
we were in the mist;
At the end we are left wounded,
bloody and tired like a beast.

It was their selfish power-struggle; hell had befallen on us;
O' World, see today! How shattered is this peace-loving mass!
O brothers, fathers, sisters, mothers! Lend me a drop of tear;
So that I may cry again, laugh and normal life can come near.
So much of pain and so much loss I can't alone bear;
Your helping hand has given me hope, O' world! You dear!
When I'm in need O' brethren of the world! You didn't sneer;
Give me some tear to bear the life; I shall be back, I swear!

Lunsar, Sierra Leone, 04 Feb 2002.

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