Sierra Leone

Abstract

An amazing survival story which can easily pass for a thriller in the field of fiction. But it is true. Journalist Hilton Fyle packs his bags and heads back home to Sierra Leone after 20 years as a star broadcaster with the BBC in London England, during which he became a household name in Africa and most of the English-speaking world. His new challenge is to participate in the new democracy that the United States and its allies are planting in the country, after 25 years of dictatorship and oppression.

Unfortunately, he gets a bad deal from the new , "democratic" government of president Tejan Kabba. His newspaper is forced to close after publishing a "Corruption" story involving two cabinet ministers. Kabba is overthrown in May 1997 and is planning to return with military force. But journalist Hilton Fyle uses his FM radio station to campaign for a peaceful return. Kabba does return with a bang. His opponents are shot and burned alive on the streets of the capital. Fyle escapes instant death, but he is beaten, imprisoned, tried and sent to Death Row awaiting execution. The climax of it all is that he walks out of Death Row without the consent of the government or the prison authorities. All this would not have happened he says, if United Nations peacemakers in Sierra Leone had not played a "dirty game."