rial starts for Sierra Leone Rebels", so read headlines from the Associated press. Calling it a "tale of horror," a UN-sponsored war crimes court opened, at the beginning of July, the first trials for rebel military commanders accused in a vicious 10-year campaign for control of diamond-rich Sierra Leone and of its other mineral wealth. The court detailed the allegations in an 18-count joint indictment: systematic killings, rapes, enslavement of child soldiers, and mutilation.
Rebels adopted a trademark atrocity that made them notorious: chopping off the hands, legs, lips, ears, and breasts of their civilian victims with machetes. Rebels directed most of their attacks on civilians, to terrorize the population so that it would move away from the areas of the natural resources, which would then be exploited at will and smuggled out to finance, mostly, world terrorist organizations and groups. Today, maimed survivors struggle to make new livings or inhabit vocational training camps set up for the mutilated.
Prosecutors also described a network of foreign backing for the rebels, including training and forces from Charles Taylor, neighboring Liberia’s former leader, - and from Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy, who has been supporting and fomenting 23 conflicts in Africa.
Xaverian Missionary Fr. Rocco, a Norwood, MA native, has spent 12 years of his 27 years as a priest in Sierra Leone. On a recent "mission Evening" held at Our Lady of Fatima Shrine, run by his congregation in Holliston, MA, Fr. Rocco gave a quick overview of the history of that civil war, but "as much as I am troubled by the causes of that unrest, causes which are complicated and deep-seeded," he said, "I and the Xaverian Missionaries in Sierra Leone, and other humanitarian and NGO groups express even greater concern for the victims, many of whom are children, and former "child soldiers'."
"Between 15 to 20 thousand children, usually between the ages of 8 to 12, and often younger, were abducted from their schools by mercenaries, of African and of European origin.
Herded and marched out as animals to avoid their running away, taught to hate, trained and drugged on cocaine to make of them little war-machines and forced to go on looting and killing rampages, now, even after two years since the war ended, these children have still to face and come to terms with the human carnage that their terrorism wrought. SO filled are they with remorse, guilt and fears and other psychological problems that a high percentage of them is suicidal, and many do take their own life. An entire generation of children has been scarred. The abuse of these child soldiers might be the most horrific consequence of that civil war and the gravest injustice of all. They are the most traumatized and the number one victims."
"At one time, Sierra Leone, the size of North Carolina, was called the 'African Switzerland'. Its immense natural resources, a democratic multi-party system of government, unique in Africa, and the good use of the tourist industry seemed to assure the country of a slow but constant growth in the 60's."
The Saint Michael Center of Lakka alone, point out Fr. Rocco, "took in some 250 children at a time, who, in small groups of 6 to 10, 'as family', under the responsibility of a couple, received medical assistance, basic education and first instruction in a trade, until they could be reintegrated into society and possibly, into their extended families. A great challenge to that reintegration has been overcoming the resistance of the people themselves, still full of suspicion and mistrust."
But in the 70's, with the rise to power of the socialist All People Party (APC), with its incompetent and corrupt administration, the country began to slide into a downward spiral from which it is only now beginning to recover. The war began in 1992 when APC was overthrown by a State coup, but the change at the top did not change the administrative scene.
And the war erupted, reached its peak in 1999, when in the burning capital of Freetown alone more than 6,000 people were killed in one day. Then the rampage petered out till the spring of 2002 when, with the help of 15,000 UN peace keepers, it officially ended, leaving behind tragedy, suffering and many pieces to be gathered up."
The Xaverian Missionaries have been in Sierra Leone since 1950, and some of them were the only ones to remain during the Civil War with the Sierra Leoneans to help pick up those pieces.
Led by Bishop George Biguzzi of Makeni, that church is in the forefront of reconstruction, and counts today with 25 native priests. Father Rocco also said that "fear is the most deadly weapon. Once a sociable, neighborly country, the citizens of Sierra Leone lost, and are now struggling to regain, their sense of trust, and they are still understandably fearful of their own shadows... Currently, the religious of all faiths present there are the only ones who are trusted in the region.
Born out of the initiative of Xaverian Father Bepe Berton, the Family Homes Movement (FHM) for example, is an organization, which operates in collaboration with UNICEF and the Ministry of Social Works and is engaged in the rehabilitation of child-soldiers and refugee and lost children. The Saint Michael Center of Lakka alone, point out Fr. Rocco, "took in some 250 children at a time, who, in small groups of 6 to 10, 'as family', under the responsibility of a couple, received medical assistance, basic education and first instruction in a trade, until they could be reintegrated into society and possibly, into their extended families. A great challenge to that reintegration has been overcoming the resistance of the people themselves, still full of suspicion and mistrust."
Of the 6,000 or so who have gone through the 'family homes,' only 25 children have run away. The younger ones are reached far better than the more 'hardened' older ones.
"The 'salvaging' and rehabilitation into civil society of the young people is an indispensable element in the construction of a new Sierra Leone, and cannot and must not leave anyone indifferent to it, lest 'our children rise up against us for our neglect.' The diocese of Makeni and the Xaverian missionaries are an integral part of that 'humanitarian' effort."
It is the imperative and Christ-given task of religion, and in this instance, of missionaries in particular, especially in the face of shattering instances of insecurity, injustice, and apparent failure, to help the people regain their sense of value as human persons, and of our common divine origin. We have one Parent, 'your Father in heaven' (Matthew 23:9), one origin, we belong to the same family. We are indeed all brothers and sisters. The weakest and the youngest are the privileged for the Father. They must be for us a well.
Africa is the continent of Christian hope, and the 21st century is to be seen as the century of Christianity in Africa.
(From Xaverian Mission Newsletter)