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NPRC and executions Surprisingly, giving the leading role he played in the coup, Bio initially took the fairly minor position of secretary of state for the south, and then, quickly, the post of secretary of information and broad- casting, though he was a key member of the Supreme Council of State, the NPRC governing body. Strasser became head of state and chair-


man of the NPRC, and SAJ Musa the deputy. Nyuma was appointed secretary of state for the east; and Benjamin, the only civilian member of the coup, was made chief secretary of state, or prime minister. On 29 December 1992, the NPRC,


barely seven months in power, an- nounced that it had foiled an attempted coup. Strasser announced that “a group of officers and civilians had attacked the presidential residence at Kabassa Lodge” in Freetown. Te very next day, he an- nounced that the coup plotters, according to him numbering 26, had been executed after a trial by a military court. Much of what preceded this announcement became clearer only later. It emerged that Lt. SAJ Musa, Strasser’s


choleric deputy, had coordinated the ar- rests and brutal murder of the alleged plot- ters who, in fact, numbered 29, and they included: a palm wine tapper; a pregnant woman of no known political affiliation; about half a dozen newly-recruited police trainees; several people who had been in detention at Pademba Road prison at the time of the alleged plot; and a fortune teller or “herbalist” who had been allegedly consulted by the alleged plotters. Even for a nation inured to brutality,


the announcement was shocking, and was made even more bewildering by the NPRC’s press statement that day. It baldly stated: “Te special military tribunal con- vened by His Excellency the Captain to immediately try the suspects apprehended has met and they have proved beyond all reasonable doubt that [the alleged plotters] did try to overthrow the government of the NPRC and has found each of them guilty of treason and has sentenced them to death by firing squad. Te confirm- ing authority of the NPRC have met and endorsed the sentence recommended and have ordered that the executions take place immediately.” It was a sordid moment in the life of the


52 | April 2011 New African


regime, and it certainly helped change the trajectory of the NPRC from the course of brash reform and national and inter- national embrace, to condemnation and a lapse into self-defensive neurosis. What was Bio’s responsibility for this?


He says he stands by his testimony to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC); its report in 2004/05 had this to say: “SAJ Musa had known some of those implicated in the coup from their time to- gether in the army; he regarded them un- ambiguously as traitors who had betrayed him, personally and politically. “According to Maada Bio, who had


known in advance of SAJ Musa’s volatile temperament and the likelihood that he would attempt to carry out some kind of summary justice, some of the implicated men were taken to Musa’s own residence and subjected to torture by Musa him- self: ‘When I went there at night, he had actually tortured them very seriously – their ears were cut off and they were practically dead’. “SAJ realised that by daybreak they


had been really badly tortured in his com- pound: ‘It was better to do away with them, than to keep them on his hands in this ter- rible state’ – he was then alleged to have organised the summary executions. “Maada Bio lamented their inability


to put the coup plotters through prop- er judicial process, blaming it on SAJ Musa’s ambitions for power: ‘To a very large extent, SAJ was somebody who liked power and could do anything to retain it…. that was the darkest side of our whole pe- riod in power’,” Bio told the TRC. “SAJ Musa’s quest for power was an obsession for the man; and he had a wife who in- culcated that into him; so it was a terrible combination. “SAJ was also responsible for the kill-


ings of looters. At this point in time, he was actually the key actor; Strasser was much more laid back, and to an extent he let SAJ get on with his business.” Tis account has been corroborated


by others who were in a position to know at the time, and who are no friends of Bio’s. Te TRC, however, concluded with a non-sequitur: “Maada Bio’s account is an attempt to shift responsibility for a gross failure of leadership by their government to the shoulders of one person. Te execu- tion of the alleged coup plotters did not advance SAJ Musa’s lust for power in any


way.” It somewhat betrays an ignorance of how the early NPRC, a ramshackle junta, operated. Strasser, weak, often dissipated, was hardly in control, and SAJ Musa was virtually running riot. But again, why did some members of the NPRC, including Strasser himself, defend and continue to defend the killings? Clearly there was no trial, though the NPRC’s spokesman at the time, Karefa Kargbo, told the BBC shortly after the killings that he and his colleagues had concrete evidence of the coup plot, including the most telling: “a written agreement” between the coup plot- ters and “an illiterate herbalist”. Talking about the 30 December kill-


ings was the most uncomfortable point of my conversation with Bio: he still clearly thinks that it was the most disastrous thing that happened under the NPRC, and Bio’s bitterness at SAJ Musa’s murder- ous behaviour that day was undisguised.


Bio as head of state Te revulsion that the killings caused for the NPRC became very infectious. Tings began to fall apart for the junta. In a move that was orchestrated by Bio, SAJ Musa was chased out of the country, and Bio, rapidly promoted to brigadier, became Strasser’s deputy and chief secre- tary of state. In that position, Bio became


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