Alas, diamonds are forever

"Oh yes, good governance," replied the Speaker of Parliament, a 70-year-old former judge who had studied law in the UK. "Good governance - whatever that may mean."

A moment earlier, he had just praised China for not attaching benchmarks to aid for his country, Sierra Leone. That remark had prompted the comment from one of us that the EU was the main aid donor for the general election in order to promote good governance.

We were a group of MEPs in Sierra Leone to monitor the election held there two weeks ago. The complexity and delicacy of those elections can be gauged by the fact that the official result was due to be issued today, with a possible second round in the first or second week of September.

Sierra Leone may seem to be a world away from Malta. But have no illusions. The cruel violence and poverty that make Sierra Leone such a contrast to Malta explain why some of Malta's irregular immigrants originated from there.

And while I was in the country I discovered another connection: our close neighbour, Libya, is taking an interest in the country - a close enough interest to be rattling the many Chinese working there, according to anecdotal information I picked up.

Sierra Leone is another African country that is rich in mineral wealth - diamonds, iron ore and bauxite - but whose people remain poor, having been robbed of their birthright by the rapacity of national leaders. Alas, diamonds are forever - and the country's recent bloody history has been shaped by the conflicts for control of the diamond trade. These conflicts have made the country a byword for instability.

Never have I seen people so attractive and yet so ravaged by the marks of civil war (1991-2002), remarkable for its atrocities: rape, amputation and random killings: a reign of terror that saw over 100,000 ferociously mutilated while thousands of others were landmine victims. And then there were the child soldiers: children abducted and trained to kill mercilessly. As young as nine or 10, they perpetrated horrors that will remain with them all their lives.

The country was totally lawless. Ultimately, various international institutions got together and dispatched the largest peace force in existence at the turn of the century.

Two years ago, the peace force left and today fewer than 400 British soldiers remain. The August 2007 election for the President and Parliament was the first since the peace force left.

The war had its toll on the economy and society. A life expectancy of 42 years, an illiteracy rate of 65 per cent, the majority of people earn less than a dollar a day. Most expatriates had left the country; so did the spouses of the diplomatic corps, in anticipation of the election.

Today, walking across the Aberdeen section of the capital, Freetown, one sees hundreds of people without limbs. But they are people who also have a remarkable personal pride.

With high cheekbones and a beautiful brown silky complexion, most try to dress as well as possible. Despite the fact that many live in corrugated box-like rooms in littered neighbourhoods among scavenging dogs and vultures, all are clean.

I thought I could decipher three patterns on their faces. The elderly appeared the most forthcoming; the middle generation had a somewhat blank stares probably a result of their shattered lives during the civil war. The younger generation were mixed: some appeared not to have a care in the world, others looked as if the world rested on their shoulders. The number of teenage mothers was large. HIV is rampant.

But despite rumours that the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) would make trouble if it lost the election to its rival, the All People's Congress (APC), ordinary people wanted the election. On polling day, they formed long queues outside schools to vote - some queues as long as one kilometre. They humbled me by their repeated thanks for being there to supervise their right to vote.

When I entered voting areas, I was repeatedly astonished by the classrooms where the voting was taking place: the blackboards were frequently full of the previous lesson's examples and exercises, and most suggested remarkably advanced education - in one case, complex numbers suggested a lesson in pure mathematics. As soon as we finished our work, we made our way back, trying not to be tripped up by chickens, cocks and, in one instance, a pig.

The beautiful potential and the sorry plight of Sierra Leone are captured for me in such images; as they are in others, like the lush emerald-coloured countryside, full of rivers and streams, which is however bare of the chimpanzees that once found a haven in the country - the animals were wiped out for food during the wars.

Then there is its intriguing possible future. China, an emerging economic world power, is clearly present in force. But Libya's leader, Muammar Gaddafi, has recently travelled there, although the visit was not given international coverage.

The colonel was driven all the way to Sierra Leone in a convoy of some 25 armoured vehicles. He sent two ships of rice and containers of meat, as well as donated several million dollars, to be distributed by the present SLPP government. He addressed a full capacity crowd in a stadium.

But until two weeks ago no ordinary person had yet seen any rice or meat, the prices of which had soared by six times as much during the last five years.

The last thing I remember before leaving Sierra Leone are the words of the ground staff at the foot of the stairways leading up to the aircraft: "Do not forget us." It was a chilling moment.

Dr Attard Montalto is a Labour member of the European Parliament.