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Britain’s Role in Promoting Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone

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The Palgrave Handbook of Peacebuilding in Africa

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Abstract

This chapter examines Britain’s military intervention to stabilise the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) in 2000 and its active support of a post-war security sector reform (SSR) programme that contributed substantially to restoring peace and stability in Sierra Leone. The British backed the rebuilding of the intelligence services, the police, the military, and the justice sector, which had been severely damaged by autocratic governance and the 11-year civil war. Despite some disaffection with the SSR programme, it produced Sierra Leone military and police forces that functioned better than in the pre-war era. Both forces became much more subordinated to (civilian) governmental authority, though they remain less accountable to civil society. Furthermore, the military and police continue to experience problems with recruitment, compensation, and equipment.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Britain is used synonymously with the United Kingdom (UK) in this volume.

  2. 2.

    Paul Williams, “Fighting for Freetown: British Military Intervention in Sierra Leone”, Contemporary Security Policy 22, no. 3 (2001), pp. 140–168.

  3. 3.

    Daniel Bendix and Ruth Stanley, Security Sector Reform in Africa: The Promise and Practice of a New Donor Approach (Durban, South Africa: African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes [ACCORD], 2008); Michael Kargbo, “International Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone: The Case of the United Kingdom”, in Tunde Zack-Williams (ed.), When the State Fails: Studies in Intervention in Civil War (London: Pluto, 2012), pp. 65–88.

  4. 4.

    Julia Gallagher, “Healing the Scar: Idealizing Britain in Africa, 1997–2007”, African Affairs 108, no. 432 (2009), pp. 435–451; David Chandler, “Rhetoric Without Responsibility: The Attraction of ‘Ethical’ Foreign Policy”, British Journal of Politics and International Relations 8, no. 3 (2006), pp. 331–350.

  5. 5.

    “The Ethics of Labour’s Foreign Policy: Angels and Demons”, The Economist, 10 September 2009.

  6. 6.

    Mark White, “The Security-Development Nexus in Sierra Leone”, in Peter Albrecht and Paul Jackson (eds.), Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone, 1997–2007: Views from the Frontline (Geneva: Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces [DCAF], 2010), pp. 71–91.

  7. 7.

    Nicole Ball, Spreading Good Practices in Security Sector Reform: Policy Options for the British Government (London: Saferworld, 1998).

  8. 8.

    Heiner Hänggi, “Conceptualising Security Sector Reform and Reconstruction”, in Alan Bryden and Heiner Hänggi (eds.), Reform and Reconstruction of the Security Sector (Münster: LIT Verlag, 2004), pp. 3–20; Adedeji Ebo, “The Role of Security Sector Reform in Sustainable Development: Donor Policy Trends and Challenges”, Conflict, Security, and Development 7, no. 1 (2007), pp. 27–60; Michael Brzoska and David Law, “Security Sector Construction and Reform in Peace Support Operations”, International Peacekeeping 13, no. 1 (2008), p. 6.

  9. 9.

    Robin Cook, “British Foreign Policy”, 12 May 1997, http://www.fco.gov.uk/ (accessed 19 August 2013).

  10. 10.

    The British military interventions during this period were in Iraq (1998, 2003), Kosovo (1999), Sierra Leone (2000), and Afghanistan (2001).

  11. 11.

    See Tony Blair, “Speech to Labour Party Conference”, Guardian Unlimited, 2 October 2001, http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/oct/02/labourconference.labour6 (accessed 14 February 2016); Department for International Development, Eliminating World Poverty: A Challenge for the 21st Century, white paper (London, 1997).

  12. 12.

    Peter Penfold implied that the attempt to start the British-assisted retraining of the military might have triggered the 1997 coup; Peter Penfold, Atrocities, Diamonds, and Diplomacy: The Inside Story of the Conflict in Sierra Leone (Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen and Sword, 2012), p. 15.

  13. 13.

    The British High Commissioner, Peter Penfold , had a budget of about £150,000 to rent premises, support governmental travels, and pay for programs for Sierra Leonean refugees. See Interview with Peter Penfold, conducted by Charles Cullimore, 10 July 2003, British Diplomatic Oral History Programme (BDOHP), http://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/media/uploads/files/Penfold.pdf (accessed 10 February 2016).

  14. 14.

    “UK Government Faces Sierra Leone Grilling”, BBC News, 18 May 1998, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1998/05/98/arms_to_africa_row/95823.stm (accessed 10 February 2016); The Guardian, “Foreign Office Savaged over Arms to Africa”, http://www.theguardian.com/politics/1999/feb/09/foreignpolicy.politicalnews (accessed 10 February 2016).

  15. 15.

    Tim Spicer, An Orthodox Soldier: Peace and War and the Sandline Affair (Edinburgh: Mainstream, 1999).

  16. 16.

    After Kabbah’s restoration, Penfold was crowned an honorary Paramount Chief, the second British to receive that honour. The first was H.R.H. Prince Phillip.

  17. 17.

    Funmi Olonisakin, Peacekeeping in Sierra Leone: The Story of UNAMSIL (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2008).

  18. 18.

    David Keen, Conflict & Collusion in Sierra Leone (New York: Palgrave, 2005), p. 265.

  19. 19.

    Mats Utas and Magnus Jorgel, “The West Side Boys: Military Navigation in the Sierra Leone Civil War”, Journal of Modern African Studies 46, no. 3 (2008), pp. 487–511.

  20. 20.

    Michael Kargbo, British Foreign Policy and the Conflict in Sierra Leone (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2006), p. 298.

  21. 21.

    However, British presence was evident in the leadership of the organisation with the appointment of Alan Doss , a British career United Nations (UN) official, who was the deputy special representative, deputy head of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), and UN Development Programme (UNDP) representative in Sierra Leone.

  22. 22.

    Peter Albrecht and Paul Jackson, Security System Transformation in Sierra Leone, 1997–2007, February 2009, http://www.ssrnet.net/documents/Publications/SierraLeoneBook/Security%20System%20Transformation%20in%Sierra%20leone,%201997-2007.pdf (accessed 13 August 2012).

  23. 23.

    International Monetary Fund (IMF), The Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Reduction Paper (Freetown, 2001), p. 8, http://www.imf.org/External/NP/prsp/2001/sle/01/index.htm (accessed 18 September 2012).

  24. 24.

    The inter-ministerial council, tasked by the cabinet to oversee the preparation of the interim PRSP , involved the following ministries: Development and Economic Planning (chair); Finance; Justice and Attorney-General; Health and Sanitation; Agriculture, Forestry, and Marine Resources; Social Welfare, Gender, and Children’s Affairs; Education, Youths, and Sports; Internal Affairs; Energy and Power; Local Government and Rural Development; Presidential Affairs; Labour and Industrial Relations; Social Security; Transport and Communication; and Lands, Housing, Country Planning, and Environment. The commissioner of the National Commission for Reconstruction, Resettlement, and Rehabilitation was also included in the inter-ministerial council. See IMF, The Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Reduction Paper.

  25. 25.

    Barry Riddell, “Sierra Leone: Urban-Elite Bias, Atrocity, and Debt”, Review of African Political Economy no. 103 (2005), pp. 115–133.

  26. 26.

    Jeremy Ginifer and Kaye Oliver, “Evaluation of the Conflict Prevention Pools”, Country/Regional Case Study no. 3, Evaluation Report no. EV 647 (London: Department for International Development [DFID], March 2004).

  27. 27.

    Author interview with officials of the Sierra Leone Office of National Security, 25 July 2013.

  28. 28.

    Author interview with officials of the Sierra Leone Office of National Security, 25 July 2013.

  29. 29.

    Author interview with officials of the Sierra Leone Office of National Security, 25 July 2013.

  30. 30.

    See Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Witness to Truth: Report of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission, vol. 3A (Accra: Graphic Packaging Ltd. GCGL, 2004).

  31. 31.

    Maria R. Haberfeld and Ibrahim Cerrah, Comparative Policing: The Struggle for Democratization (London: Sage, 2008), p. 135.

  32. 32.

    Kadi Fakondo, “Reforming and Building Capacity of the Sierra Leone Police, 1999–2007”, in Albrecht and Jackson, Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone, pp. 161–169.

  33. 33.

    Brice Baker, “Sierra Leone Police Reform: The Role of the UK Government”, paper prepared for the GRIPS (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies) State-Building Workshop 2010, “Organizing Police Forces in Post-Conflict Peace-Support Operations”, Washington, DC, 27–28 January 2010, http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww3.grips.ac.jp%2F~pinc%2Fdata%2F10-06.pdf&ei=131eUKjaE6nX0QHazYC4AQ&usg=AFQjCNHCA8T62vn_S-WcV4QHyKMVUEGQxA (accessed 18 September 2012).

  34. 34.

    J.P. Chris Charley, “Arms Regulations: A Challenging Issue for the Police Force in Post War Law Enforcement Order”, in Anatole Ayissi and Robin Edward Poulton (eds.), Bound to Cooperate: Conflict, Peace, and People in Sierra Leone (Geneva: UN Institute for Disarmament Research [UNIDIR], 2006), pp. 73–84.

  35. 35.

    Albrecht and Jackson, Security System Transformation in Sierra Leone.

  36. 36.

    UNDP, “New Independent Police Complaints Board to ‘Ensure Greater Accountability and Peace’”, 20 October 2015, http://www.sl.undp.org/content/sierraleone/en/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2015/10/20/new-independent-police-complaints-board-to-ensure-greater-accountability-and-peace-.html (accessed 14 February 2016).

  37. 37.

    Albrecht and Jackson, Security System Transformation in Sierra Leone.

  38. 38.

    Anthony Howlett-Bolton, “Justice Sector Reform”, in Albrecht and Jackson, Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone, pp. 95–112.

  39. 39.

    Osman Gbla, “The Role of External Actors in Sierra Leone’s Security Reform”, in Zack-Williams, When the State Fails, pp. 117–144.

  40. 40.

    “The National Security and Central Intelligence Act 2002”, Supplement to Sierra Leone Gazette 132, no. 42 (4 July 2002).

  41. 41.

    The ministries are Finance; Foreign Affairs; Internal Affairs; Information and Broadcasting; Defence; and Presidential Affairs.

  42. 42.

    Robert Ashington-Pickett, “Intelligence and Security Services Reconstruction”, in Albrecht and Jackson, Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone, pp. 19–36.

  43. 43.

    Albrecht and Jackson, Security System Transformation in Sierra Leone.

  44. 44.

    Author interviews with officials of the National Security Agency (NSA), officers of the International Military Assistance Training Team (IMATT), and senior military commanders of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF), who preferred to remain anonymous, August 2007.

  45. 45.

    Nearly all of these trained civilian personnel have since left defence headquarters and have been reassigned to other ministries. Author interview with officials of the Sierra Leone Office of National Security, 25 July 2013.

  46. 46.

    Osman Gbla, “Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone”, in Len le Roux and Yemane Kidane (eds.), Challenges to Security Sector Reform in the Horn of Africa, Monograph no. 135 (Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies [ISS], 2007), pp. 13–36.

  47. 47.

    Author interview with officials of the Sierra Leone Office of National Security, 25 July 2013.

  48. 48.

    Emmanuel B. Osho Coker, “Governance and Security Sector Reform”, in Albrecht and Jackson, Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone, pp. 109–118.

  49. 49.

    Author interviews with NSA officials, IMATT officers, and senior RSLAF military commanders, who preferred to remain anonymous, August 2007.

  50. 50.

    Alfred Nelson-Williams, “Restructuring the Republic of Sierra Leone Military Forces”, in Albrecht and Jackson, Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone, pp. 119–148.

  51. 51.

    Gbla, “The Role of External Actors”, p. 133.

  52. 52.

    The total number of IMATT personnel has varied over the years. As of 2007, it stood at around 105, of which 88 were British, 11 were Canadian, two were Nigerian, three were American, and one was Jamaican. The tour of duty for the officer is normally six months, with some tours lasting up to a year. Among the Nigerians who have served with IMATT are Lieutenant-Colonel Okay, Major B.E. Oyefuga, Major J. Ataguba, and Staff Sergeant Direala.

  53. 53.

    See Brigadier Samuel Omar Williams, “DCDS: A Dawn in the RSLAF”, Sierra Media Express, n.d., http://www.sierraexpressmedia.com/archives/37362 (accessed 23 September 2012). This article was culled from Defender Magazine, March 2012.

  54. 54.

    Author interviews with NSA officials, IMATT officers, and senior RSLAF military commanders, who preferred to remain anonymous, August 2007.

  55. 55.

    Author interview with officials of the Sierra Leone Office of National Security, 25 July 2013.

  56. 56.

    Author interview with officials of the Sierra Leone Office of National Security, 25 July 2013.

  57. 57.

    Author interviews with NSA officials, IMATT officers, and senior RSLAF military commanders, who preferred to remain anonymous, August 2007.

  58. 58.

    Author interview with officials of the Sierra Leone Office of National Security, 25 July 2013.

  59. 59.

    Nelson-Williams, “Restructuring the Republic of Sierra Leone Military Forces”, p. 140.

  60. 60.

    Aldo Gaeta, “Operation Pebu and the Ministry of Defence”, in Albrecht and Jackson, Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone, pp. 59–69.

  61. 61.

    Author interview with officials of the Sierra Leone Office of National Security, 25 July 2013.

  62. 62.

    Gbla, “The Role of External Actors”, p. 142.

  63. 63.

    See “Viewpoint, IMATT: A Problem to the Sierra Leone Armed Forces?”, Standard Times (Freetown), 28 May 2008.

  64. 64.

    Author interviews with NSA officials, IMATT officers, and senior RSLAF military commanders, who preferred to remain anonymous, August 2007.

  65. 65.

    Guy Thompson, Angus Morris, Chris Goostrey, Peter Wilson, and Piet Biesheuvel, Sierra Leone Security Sector Reform Programme III (SILSEP III): Output to Purpose Review (London: DFID, September 2005). These problems still continue to plague the military; see Captain Ken Josiah, “The Defender: Voice of the Institution or Political Publication?”, http://www.sierraexpressmedia.com/archives/40126 (accessed 23 September 2012).

  66. 66.

    David Chandler, “Rhetoric Without Responsibility: The Attraction of ‘Ethical’ Foreign Policy”, British Journal of Politics and International Relations 8, no. 3 (2006), pp. 331–350; Oliver Daddow and Jamie Gaskarth, British Foreign Policy: The New Labour Years (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011); Andrew M. Dorman, Blair’s Successful War: British Military Intervention in Sierra Leone (London: Ashgate, 2009), pp. 3–4.

  67. 67.

    Peter Albrecht and Paul Jackson, Reconstructing Security After Conflict: Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).

  68. 68.

    Lisa Denny, “Reducing Poverty with Teargas and Batons: The Security-Development in Sierra Leone”, African Affairs 110, no. 439 (2011), pp. 275–294.

  69. 69.

    White, “The Security-Development Nexus in Sierra Leone”.

  70. 70.

    See Samura Kamara, “Government Budget and Statement of Economic and Financial Policies for Financial Year 2011”, http://www.mofed.gov.sl/speeches/Bud1.pdf (accessed 10 February 2016).

  71. 71.

    “Sierra Leone: Time to End Country’s Dependency on Aid”, Concord Times (Freetown), 17 May 2011, http://allafrica.com/stories/201105180198.html (accessed 23 September 2012).

  72. 72.

    Jimmy Kandeh , “Intervention and Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone”, in Zack-Williams, When the State Fails, p. 89.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, USA

    Ismail Rashid

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. N’Zarama Centre for Peacebuilding, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

    Tony Karbo

  2. Centre for Conflict Resolution, Cape Town, South Africa

    Kudrat Virk

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Rashid, I. (2018). Britain’s Role in Promoting Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone. In: Karbo, T., Virk, K. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Peacebuilding in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62202-6_23

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