Today I have decided to revisit Victor Sylver's smear campaign following my talkback to Tambaryoh about five weeks ago. My apologies for the delay in coming back to this issue; the reason being I have been very busy lately. What I have done here is to take it up from where Victor and I left off in 2001 when, as I indicated in my talkback to Tambaryoh, I deliberately refused to engage in verbal fisticuffs with him because I thought I would only have been wasting my time. But because he has in the past two years renewed his hounding of me with bucketful of lies and smear campaign for nothing short of envy and jealousy, coupled with the fact that David Tambaryoh, his brother in the same conspiracy, recently teamed up with him, I finally took the decision to hit back. And so here I am reproducing my reply to him in March 2001, his reaction to that reply in BLUE, and my counter-reaction in BROWN....:

Seaga Shaw's Reply (March 2001):

It was indeed the Freedom Forum European Centre Director, John Owen, who drew my attention to the contents of Victor Sylver's letter (SEE ANNEX 1 at the end of this article), copy of which had been forwarded to him by the Forum's African centre based in South Africa. I was shocked but far from surprised. This is because I knew, and I still know, deep down my heart that with all the encouragement I've been receiving from majority of Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad, as well as other well-wishers in my die-hard struggle to re-establish myself and my newspaper, there may still be the very few likes of Victor Sylver who may attempt to pull me down. And that is exactly the sum total of what Victor Sylver sought to achieve in that letter full of bile, jealousy and intellectual dishonesty. I am however consoled by the fact Victor Sylver would never succeed in tarnishing the reputation I have been able to build for my self and my newspaper despite all odds.

When my colleagues at the Expo Times, Kofi and Osman, read the letter, they went ballistic and suggested that I seek legal action. But my friends at the Freedom Forum advised against the idea of legal action for libel as the only winners will be the lawyers who will end up making a lot of money. They advised that I write him requesting permission to publish his letter in my newspaper along side my reaction as a way of provoking a public debate on the charges, all of which are totally baseless. My colleagues and I heeded the advice and settled for the latter.

The following day I sent Victor Sylver an e-mail requesting permission to publish his letter along side my reaction. But he didn't even have the courtesy to send me a reply let alone accept my request. After waiting for almost a week I sent him a reminder. But still no reply. I felt snubbed and disappointed but again far from surprised. Perhaps he was shocked to learn that his letter finally landed in my hands. I however warned him in the last message that if I do not hear from him, I will interpret his silence to mean consent and go ahead with the publication reminding him that after all he had already gone public by sending the letter out to one of my paper's potential funding organisations.

Since I am a very busy man, editing and uploading the web site as well as co-ordinating the print version in Freetown on line, I will only attempt a brief, but to the point, reply to all the charges levied against my person and that of my newspaper. The rest I prefer to leave to readers and colleagues who were living witnesses one way or the other to some of the events and developments Victor Silver tried to recount in his letter.

I hope some of those who have time can join this discussion by sending letters to help bring out the truth, and nothing but the truth.

SILVER'S RETORT (dated April 2001): Got the drift? Ibrahim Seaga Shaw wanted a "debate" on a serious accusation based on facts. Yet he was asking for a "debate" on the kinds of discussion forums on the internet set up or "moderated" by another junta supporter, Babatunde Blyden's daughter, Sylvia who could be seen all over setting up one website after another in support of the junta. Yes indeed. It's like convicted Rwandan journalist Hassan Ngeze asking for such a public debate on his own website to try him!!!

SEAGA SHAW'S COUNTER RETORT (DATED 07/07/07):   Of course Sylver never wanted a debate on his accusation against me because he knew this was going to expose his ocean of lies.  And for the records mine was, and remains, a newspaper web site and not a discussion forum as Victor Sylver wanted people to believe.

Just as I was planning to write my reaction I received a readers' letter on Sunday March 25 from a colleague, Joseph Sherman, former editor of Sierra Leone's Foot Prints Newspaper, now based in Washington. He was reacting to news that Paul Kamara, of the so-called For Di People newspaper, attacked my newspaper on its second coming on the news-stands in Sierra Leone calling on the authorities to ban it for allegedly supporting the former AFRC junta. The timing of Sherman's letter was no less appropriate. At least this letter went at great lengths in vindicating me from some of the baseless charges made by Victor Silver.

SILVER'S RETORT (dated April 2001): Joseph Sherman's letter has been left out for every obvious reasons. He could well have got the message by now.

SEAGA SHAW'S COUNTER RETORT (DATED 07/07/07): Victor Sylver should be bold enough to tell the world why he chose to leave out Joseph Sherman's letter in that brief retort of his; he should be bold enough to admit that this was simply because the hard truths in that letter (published with my reply) sent him finding a place to hide.  I am sure Victor was merely trying to downplay what was really one goal against him but as God destined it he got lost mid stream.

I was particularly consoled by Sherman when he wrote in that letter published below where he said: `In spite of the vulnerability of your staff especially from the Nigerian occupational army, EXPO TIMES indeed braved the storm by exposing the schemes of both the Nigerian army and the rebels. This statement from a neutral colleague flies in the face of the charge made by Victor that I was in Sierra Leone consenting the human right abuses of the rebel junta and never carried a line in my newspaper about such abuses. I am sure this should be enough to leave him (Victor) scurrying for cover. And Sherman was reacting to Paul Kamara, and not Victor.

But it is not difficult to see how both of them are partners in both pro-government journalism and pull-him-down (PHD) syndrome. The truth of the matter is when Seaga Shaw and his colleagues were busy exposing the atrocities committed by both the junta rebels and the Nigerian led ECOMOG troops, as well as pro-Kabbah militias, Victor Sylver was telling the world in his despatches to the BBC Focus on Africa that all the atrocities against innocent civilians in Sierra Leone during the period under review were committed by the rebel junta soldiers. For Victor Silver, the atrocities committed by ECOMOG troops against civilians in broad daylight were not human right abuses because they sought to restore the so-called democratically elected government.

SILVER'S RETORT (dated April 2001)As every journalist and citizen on the ground knows, Seaga Shaw's Expo Times newspaper was one of several known as junta news outlets and never criticised the junta for its crackdown on journalists who wrote against the murderers. In fact Seaga Shaw used his connections with the junta to intimidate and harass journalists who had been labeled "pro-democrats". Kindly click this link to see what IFEX, the organisation responsible for free expression published about events in 1997. Kindly note also that Victor Sylver was complaining about events that he witnessed in 1997 before he was forced to flee for his life in early September 1997. Victor went underground and subsequently escaped in October 1997 when the junta was still in power. He never reported from Sierra Leone for the BBC after that. We are talking about 1997. Sorious Samura's documentary was on events in 1999!!!!!!

SEAGA SHAW'S COUNTER RETORT (DATED 07/07/07):  Only those pro-Kabbah-government-in-exile journalists and citizens like Victor Sylver branded EXPO TIMES as a “junta news outlet” because my newspaper chose to give a voice to the majority of Sierra Leoneans who were calling for a peaceful diplomatic solution to the impasse created by the AFRC junta takeover as they were already paying a heavy price as the daily recipients of loads and loads of shelling from the Nigerian soldiers then operating from Lungi. This was within the context of peace journalism which the likes of Victor Sylver were opposed to because it did not serve their selfish political interest. For most Sierra Leoneans who were boldly weathering the storm of the crisis in the country EXPO TIMES did not waiver in echoing their views which made the paper to win yet a second best seller award in 1997, this time from the Classical DJs.  I did not have any special connection with the Junta let alone use it to harass my colleagues. In my Talkback to David Tambaryoh published on this web site a little over a month ago, I clarified the issue of the CPJ dispatch circulated by IFEX, which Victor Slyvia is alluding to here, and which I said was in fact written by Tambaryoh himself as the then CPJ stringer in Sierra Leone emphasizing that he would not have been said to be neutral in writing a story in which he was directly involved (see the article for more on this).  I was indeed talking about events not only in 1997 but also early 1998—up to March 10 to be more precise. My reference to Sorious Samura documentary was to show how it further threw light on the fact that the Nigerian troops were also guilty of gross human rights violations. In fact findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) point to far more  human rights violations committed between the Nigerian led ECOMOG intervention  to kick out the AFRC junta in February 1998 to the notorious RUF/AFRC January 1999 bloody attack on Freetown than what happened during the 9-month junta rule. And so there is no point talking about human rights violations only in terms of what happened under junta rule. I would like to draw Victor Sylver's attention to three specific findings (281. 282,283) of the TRC that relate to the point I am trying to make here:

281.    The Commission finds that at times broadcasts by Radio Democracy 98.1 FM were inflammatory and created the context for mob justice, in which human rights violations and abuses were carried out against civilians who were alleged, often wrongly, to have collaborated with the AFRC.

282.    The Commission finds that messages contained in broadcasts by Radio Democracy served to enrage and exacerbate the brutal backlash carried out by the group led by the AFRC warlord, SAJ Musa.  AFRC commanders ordered their men to commit heinous violations and abuses against civilians, including amputations, to avenge the propaganda directed against them.

Mob Justice
283.   The Commission finds that the mob justice prevalent during the transitional period between the ECOMOG intervention of 12 February 1998 and the restoration of President Kabbah on 10 March 1998 was not sufficiently quelled or controlled.  Many civilians were executed arbitrarily on allegations of so called “collaboration” while many others were beaten up, harassed or molested on similar grounds.  A clear message or other assertion of control by the Government or ECOMOG may have prevented such violations.

These were among the many findings of the TRC Report based on research grounded in testimonies of victims and witnesses of human rights violations and so there is every reason to take them seriously. The period covered by all the above three findings spans that under junta rule up to the notorious January 6 1999 AFRC-RUF reprisal attack on the nation's capital Freetown, which claimed the lives of over 5000 people  in a matter of days. The 282th finding above itself attributed the AFRC-RUF ‘brutal backlash' of that bloody attack to attempts by the rebels to ‘avenge the propaganda directed against them' by the so-called Radio Democracy 98.1 FM, which seem to suggest that this radio station cannot escape sharing the blame of all the ‘heinous violations and abuses against civilians, including amputations' carried out in the wake of that attack. And of course in findings 281 and 283, the ‘inflammatory' propaganda of this station was roundly held responsible for the mob justice that culminated into the broad day light arbitrary execution of hundreds of civilians on allegations of so called “collaboration”, and the beating, harassment and molestation of many others on similar grounds, often wrongly.

With these findings one would have expected the managers of the managers of this station that can aptly be likened to the genocidal Radio Mille Collins in Rwanda to have been brought before the Special Court For Sierra Leone to answer charges for their role in these heinous crimes against humanity. At least the survivors of those killed as a result of the ‘inflammatory' propaganda of this station, people like Alhaji Musa Kabia, Sakomah, Sheik Mustabah etc (whose names were among hundreds announced on that so-called Radio Democracy as wanted for elimination in the wake of the February 1997 Nigerian led ECOMOG intervention to remove the AFRC junta), would have definitely come forward to bear testimony. In fact I was number 54 on that death list and it was only by the grace of God that I was able to escape being burnt to death by pro-Kabbah government death squads let loose with tyres and petrol. And yet the two FM 98.1 station managers, Dr Julius Spencer and Alie Bangura, were compensated with ministerial and ambassadorial posts respectively for their genocidal role in the restoration of the so-called Kabbah democracy. While the former quickly fell out of grace with the Kabbah government, ostensibly haunted by the ghosts of the thousands who died in the notorious 1997 ECOMOG intervention to remove the junta and the 1999 January 6 rebel attack on Freetown due largely to his inflammatory propaganda and flip-flops, the latter is still holding out in Ghana as Kabbah's surrogate. But it is easy to see why the TRC kept short of recommending the managers and reporters of the FM 98.1 station to face the Special Court for Sierra Leone because this would have meant extending the dragnet to Kabbah, Berewa and co. Then of course all those reporters who were clandestinely reporting for this station, I mean the likes of Victor Sylver and Tambaryoh, would have been roped in. The syllogism goes like this: All employers and employees of FM 98.1 must face charges for crimes against humanity; Kabbah, Berewa and co., and Spencer, Bangura, Sylver, Tambaryoh and co, were employers and employees of FM 98.1, respectively; therefore Kabbah, Berewa and co., and Spencer, Bangura, Sylver, Tambaryoh and co must face charges for crimes against humanity.

Victor was among those few journalists who helped the western media to misinform the world that all the atrocities committed in Sierra Leone were the handiwork of rebels. Thanks to the Sorious Samoura CRY FREETOWN award winning footage, which at least helped to change that perception a little by telling the world that, after all, both sides of the conflict committed violations. At least it's on record that a journalist was shot to death in broad day light by an ECOMOG soldier acting under the advice of a local militia who was merely trying to settle old scores with the journalist.

SILVER'S RETORT (dated April 2001)Again, using events to confuse with half truths and time manipulation. The Sorious documentary was on the 1999 invasion of Freetown by junta forces and what happened during that murderous attempt by the junta to capture Freetown resulting in at least 5,000 civilian deaths. What Victor Sylver is writing about relate to events well before that. It was 2 years earlier in 1997 when the junta was in power. There is no need to confuse and deceive. Both Seaga Shaw and Victor Sylver were not in Freetown, Sierra Leone for the events of 1999 documented by Sorious. The accusations relate to when the Johnny Paul AFRC/RUF junta was in power in 1997!!!

SEAGA SHAW'S COUNTER RETORT (DATED 07/07/07):  I am sure Victor Sylver would not deny the fact that the two events in 1997 and 1999 were very much related as the circumstances of the first led to the second as confirmed by the TRC (facts already reiterated above) and that in fact the human rights violations carried out  by Nigerian soldiers and rebels during the two events are still human rights violations and in any case the difference lies in the volume of casualties which was in fact higher in the 1999 reprisal attack.

I thought Victor could have been bold enough to include in his letter what finally forced him into exile during the AFRC junta rule. I am sure he would not want the Freedom Forum and others to know that he was hounded by angry civilians who felt betrayed and frustrated over his report to the world that some 20 coffins, containing people (including their relatives) killed by missiles thrown from ECOMOG's base in Lungi and displayed at the National Stadium, had no corpses in them but stones.

SILVER'S RETORT (dated April 2001)The BBC as well as all who were on the ground that Thursday morning after the Mabaylla murders can confirm that no such report was sent by Victor Sylver. Victor was in hiding after he sent the first report for the BBC Focus on Africa 1st edition in which he mentioned that he had seen with his own eyes, two bodies in an omolankay cart taken to the Connaught Hospital mortuary. He even quoted junta spokesman Alieu Kamara who told him that 50 people had been killed. After that report, Victor Sylver went into hiding as junta supporters went on a manhunt after he was marked for death. So how could Seaga Shaw write about Victor Sylver reporting that those coffins were full of stones? That's Seaga Shaw, junta supporter for you.

SEAGA SHAW'S COUNTER RETORT (DATED 07/07/07): Victor Sylver should remember BBC's Elizabeth Ohene's interview with AFRC junta spokesman Allieu Kamara broadcast on Focus on Africa where the latter noted that he (Sylver) was not wanted by the government or soldiers but by ordinary people who took offence over his report on the recent bombings by the Nigerian ECOMOG troops in the Marbayla area of Freetown. Perhaps Victor Silver would be bold enough to publish transcripts of his dispatches that invited the fury of survivors of victims of these bombings against him. Perhaps he would like to explain why other stringers of foreign news agencies like Reuters, AP and AFP were not targeted by these desperate people; the answer is that they were conducting their work honestly and carefully taking into consideration the volatile security situation at the time and so had no cause for worry.  In fact EXPO TIMES reported an appeal made by these journalists (Christo Johnson, Roy Macauley and Rod-MacJohnson) to the AFRC junta  to provide security for Victor Sylver should he come out of hiding; this goes to expose Sylvers' accusation of EXPO TIMES' lack of concern for colleagues hounded  by the junta.

Those civilians would find it difficult to forgive Victor Sylver for been so heartless as to allow his sentiments to come into naked play into his career as a journalist whose duty it's to tell it as it is and not as he wants it even when it's a big terrible lie.

SILVER'S RETORT (dated April 2001)Of course, everyone on the ground knew at the time that those killings were carried out by the junta and the Mabaylla residents can tell you of the level of intimidation and fear under which they lived after this event. Anyone who dared to whisper that they saw uniformed men during those fateful hours, was gunned down. But there are survivors who can tell things as they occurred. Indeed, the Chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Bishop Joseph Christian Humper has also publicly stated that the Mabaylla attacks were carried out by the junta because they wanted the international community to put pressure on Nigeria to remove its troops from Sierra Leone!!!!! And you know what that could have meant to civilians and all those opposed to the junta. Let Seaga Shaw deny this.

SEAGA SHAW'S COUNTER RETORT (DATED 07/07/07): I have read the TRC Report and there is no area where Bishop Humper was quoted as saying that the Marbayla attack was carried out by junta forces because they wanted the IC to put pressure on Nigeria to withdraw its troops from Sierra Leone. Perhaps our dear Victor Sylver can help out by quoting directly from the proceedings or findings of the TRC Report, or perhaps the medium the TRC chairman used to air such a very serious comment. In the first place Victor added that bit about Bishop Humper quite recently and not in 2001 when he wrote that counter against my reply since the TRC had not been formed by then. The fact of the matter is that the contrary is the case here since the Nigerian ECOMOG were targeting their bombs at the junta forces but most of these were missing their targets and instead landing on innocent civilians like what happened to those people in Marbayla. As a so-called journalist one would at least expect Victor to source his narrative when making such huge statements even when it is clear that he is not being honest with the truth. Victor Sylver should also remember that for some obvious political reasons the human rights violations, including the many arbitrary executions, carried out by Nigerian ECOMOG soldiers, were ignored by the TRC even when rights organizations like Human Rights Watch documented many of these violations; this represents one of the fundamental failings of this commission although I must add that they did a good job and could have done better if their hands were not tied.  In fact if anything, the TRC succeeded in exposing the ‘inflammatory propaganda' of FM 98.1 which provoked massive human rights violations against innocent civilians, and this should be a cause for concern for Sylver since he too has got blood on his hands for his role in keeping the ideals of this radio alive.

This brings me to Victor's other charge that I carried a readers' letter attacking him as he was chased out of the country.                                                                                                                                                                             

I remember publishing a letter from one frustrated civilian whose relative was among those killed by the Nigerian bombs. The reader merely vented his anger at Victor in the letter. I published that letter in keeping with my paper's policy of allowing members of the public to vent out their feelings in the LETTERS column on matters affecting their lives in the spirit of free speech and there was absolutely no malice intended against the person of Victor Sylver, who in any case had, and still has, the right of reply.

SILVER'S RETORT (dated April 2001)As Editor, it was Seaga Shaw's duty to decide what letters get published in his newspaper. He carries the editorial responsibility of whatever is carried in that newspaper. And part of his editorial responsibility is to weigh the pros and cons of allowing such a letter to be published at a time when the junta was on the manhunt for Victor Sylver. By publishing that so-called letter from "one frustrated civilian", he was clearly sending a message to the junta that he was with them in their search to get rid of Victor Sylver. Seaga Shaw would never have published any such letter if it had been attacking the junta for its crackdown on journalists or the massive human rights abuses visited upon a civilian population that was held hostage by the junta.

SEAGA SHAW'S COUNTER RETORT (DATED 07/07/07): Yes as editor I carried editorial responsibility for publishing that letter from one of our readers who was merely voicing his frustration over Victor's failure to do justice to his job because he had clearly taken sides with the government in exile. The letter that was published in the Wednesday September 10 1997 edition of the EXPO TIMES had no inflammatory propaganda that was inciting violence against Victor Sylver and so I see no reason why Victor is making a lot of noise about it. Besides, as I stated somewhere above, the AFRC spokesman was quoted as saying that Victor had problems with survivors of victims of Nigerian ECOMOG bombs who were not happy with the way he was reporting their suffering and therefore the junta had nothing to do with it. As I stated in my reaction to Tambaryoh, the EXPO TIMES covered many cases of human rights violations against civilians by both junta and Nigerian ECOMOG forces and that the records are there to show for anybody who is interested to find out more, and so it is not true that I would not have published any letter that had been attacking the junta for their violations. The fact of the matter is that there was much more anti-Nigerian sentiments not necessarily because people liked the junta but because they were living in a constant state of fear because of the ECOMOG alpha jet bombs as well as bombs from Lungi.

Coming to the issue of the Mercedes Benz, I think Victor has only succeeded in exposing himself as very a naïve and envious colleague. He insinuated that I acquired my Mercedes Benz illegally although he did not supply specifics. He also failed to mention that I had changed two cars before acquiring the Benz car he alluded to in his letter.

I first had a Datsun car and later a flashy Toyota Camry sport car, which in actual fact was among many cars commandeered by junta rebels in the wake of the notorious AFRC coup. I never set eyes on it again.

A month later I had cause to buy a used Mercedes Benz car from one Used Car Dealer at Goderich Street in Freetown called Amadu Bah. When the Pro-government militia radio 98.1 and the so-called For Di People attacked me for driving an allegedly commandeered car, I had cause to publish to all documents pertaining to the purchase of the car, including custom and port clearances to clear my name.

SILVER'S RETORT (dated April 2001) Nice attempt, but extremely flawed because of deliberate inaccuracies and the attempt to continue playing the symphony of deceit. Anyone in Freetown at the time of the junta take-over knew that apart from its brutality and human rights abuses, the AFRC and the RUF were known for looting. Favourite targets included vehicles and the property of residents, not only in Freetown, but throughout the country. The car dealer along Goderich Street, as everyone knows was quite popular and he would have his "Belgium" cars parked on either side of the road, as on-going construction of the drainages by that Senegalese company was still on. That was before the May 25, 1997 coup. Everyone, except perhaps Seaga Shaw and his cohort, knew that such car sale outlets were comprehensively looted. Not one road-worthy vehicle was spared. Ask Goderich Street residents and they will confirm.
Update: We have now been informed that the car in question was stolen from the compound of a lieutenant in the Sierra Leone army in 1997 after the May 25 coup and that he confronted Seaga Shaw around the Cotton Tree area about this, but he drove off at speed.

SEAGA SHAW'S COUNTER RETORT (DATED 07/07/07): I do not think I have anything more to say than publish the facts with supporting documents regarding my Mercedes Benz 230 car. And perhaps Victor would be bold enough to come up with the name of, and more details about, the so-called lieutenant in the Sierra Leone army from whom this Mercedes Benz 230 car was stolen and who he said confronted me around Cotton Tree about this, but I drove off at speed. Anybody in their right senses would find it difficult to believe this version of Victor Sylver's narrative; how on earth would I have sped off from a gun totting lieutenant when these were the guys who were lording it over us with impunity? I must have been a superman to have succeeded in doing that but unfortunately I was an ordinary civilian going about my normal business. If Victor was really interested in going into the bottom of this Benz issue he could have investigated further at the CID to test my claim that it was safely released to my younger brother in Freetown when it was realized after thorough investigation that I genuinely bought it from one Goderich Street ‘Belgium' car dealer. But Victor Sylver would not go down that path because he knows that he will end up bowing his head in shape and apologize for this malicious slander and defamation for which I have all right to take him to court. Victor Sylver should also remember that my nice Toyota Camry car was looted from my house in the wake of the AFRC junta take over and I never set eyes on it again but that did not deter me from continuing my work.

I've sent for the original copy of that paper which I intend to scan and publish in due cause.

SILVER'S RETORT (dated April 2001) Yes, we are still waiting for that original copy to be scanned and published. And while scanning that "original" document, please do not forget the little matter of another receipt that you produced purporting that a certain computer in your possession was bought in Nigeria. Kindly do not forget also what emerged during investigations by the Criminal Investigations Department, CID, after they contacted Nigeria through the international police network, INTERPOL. Or have you forgotten how you got the name "Tech" while at Fourah Bay College for your first Certificate course?

SEAGA SHAW'S COUNTER RETORT (DATED 07/07/07): Yes I would publish the original copy of that page carrying receipts and other documents of the transaction for the Benz that I published after a lot of criticism from the so-called 98.1 FM and later by one of its Clandestine reporters David Tambaryoh as I have done above And talking about the computer for which former Inspector General of Police took me to court, the fact of the matter was that it was established through INTERPOL that I genuinely bought the computer from Nigeria during one of my business trips; in fact the matter was later thrown out of court for want of evidence thereby vindicating me of any offence and in a way exposing the police as an institution that was used by the politicians to harass journalists like us. I got the name “culture tech” at Fourah Bay College for being among the founders, including colleagues like the late Conrad Roy (may his soul rest in perfect peace), and first president of the Sierra Leone Cultural Society, and so there was absolutely no negative connotation attached to that nick name.

I'm sure Sylver was envious to see a young man like Seaga Shaw driving flashy cars including the much talked about Benz when he couldn't even lay claim to a motor bike not to talk of owning or driving a car with all his many years as a BBC stringer.

SILVER'S RETORT (dated April 2001)Yes indeed Victor Sylver would rather remain the proud non-owner of a car or bicycle than use his profession to blackmail traders and businessmen in order to acquire such. Victor Sylver would rather walk the streets of Freetown while doing his job than engage in coasting along the Lebanese and other business districts in the country. And do not forget that Victor Sylver as BBC stringer then had the resources to get these things several times over, but is not and never will walk the path of the envious. Contentment with his lot has always been one of Victor Sylver's guiding principles.

SEAGA SHAW'S COUNTER RETORT (DATED 07/07/07): For the records I was comfortable with what I was making from proceeds accrued from newspaper and so had no business going about ‘coasting' like the Victor Sylvers were doing; do not forget that my newspaper was the best seller with the largest circulation and largest salaried newspaper staff at the time.

When the junta was forcefully removed and the Kabbah Government returned, a campaign of revenge on the part of pro-government militias and fanatics became the norm. And so all those accused of collaborating with the junta were targeted.

After fleeing the situation, the government militias seized my Mercedes car. But after investigating how I acquired the car for almost a year, the police detectives released the car to my younger brother in Freetown.

The police records are there for every one interested to go and see. This was enough to lay to rest the issue of that car.The outcome of the police investigation no doubt vindicated me that I indeed acquired the car genuinely out of my sweat as a successful publisher and editor.

But no the few Victor Sylvers and the Paul Kamaras would not allow the Benz issue to rest even if Scotland Yard is invited to establish the truth. And for Silver to charge that I was bent on fingering colleagues because I was not satisfied with my work as I journalist and as such was out to seek favours from the Junta borders on intellectual dishonesty.

Victor ought to wake up and live to the reality that my paper, which won two best newspaper awards in a row in 1996 and 1997, was one of the most, if not the most successful, newspapers in the country in both it's marketability and acceptability. I was happy as a Proprietor/Editor and therefore did not see myself currying favours from any political class, be it a junta or a so-called democratic government.

May be Victor and Paul were currying favours from the then exiled Kabbah government. To conclude I would like to remind Victor Sylver that my editorial stance on the need for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Sierra Leone remain unchanged. I'm also happy to announce that this is the popular thinking of a majority of Sierra Leoneans.

SILVER'S RETORT (dated April 2001)Yes, everyone was interested in a peaceful resolution of the conflict. True. But should this involve the massive human rights violations that were visited on the civilian population? There is enough documentation to show the level of brutality in the year under review - to quote Seaga Shaw, which is 1997 - the year Victor Sylver was forced to flee from the clutches of the junta.

SEAGA SHAW'S COUNTER RETORT (DATED 07/07/07): No Victor Sylver and co were no way interested in the peaceful resolution of the impasse otherwise he could have done justice to his reporting of the damages to lives and property the constant ECOMOG bombs were inflicting on the population in Freetown in the name of military intervention. No Victor Slyver did not flee because of Junta harassment, we are told that he fled because he was hounded by people who were not happy with his distorted dispatches to the BBC.

I'm still determined to run my newspaper as an independent voice of the voiceless masses who rely on us to help in the process of empowering and liberating them,   to quote Sylver, from the shackles of repressive regimes, of which the so called democratically elected Kabbah government is no exception.

As I write this piece, a state of Emergency regulation, a recipe for dictatorship, is still in force in Sierra Leone and the government has banned public discussion on the political future of the country. Just the other day militias apparently acting on behalf of the government threatened to kill my paper's Sierra Leone Bureau editor, Osman Foday Koroma for working for Expo Times. For Paul and Victor that is the democracy worth shedding blood for.

I will stop here for now and allow others to join the discussion.

SILVER'S RETORT (dated April 2001)Sorry, there are no more others to join you. Such matters are not verified by your types using those internet discussion forums. The use of so many false names on those forums is now known to many Sierra Leonean internet users. They now know how you and your type manipulated the internet to further your support for the junta.

Sylvia Blyden has been exposed as a junta sympathiser using her knowledge of the art of web designs to further the interests of the junta.

Your massive cover-up and deception to gain the sympathy of some international media outlets is being taken to pieces as they truly discover your role during those trying times of 1997. You never told them of that incident with David Tam Bayoh, nor the letter you published against Victor Sylver in 1997 when he was being hunted by the junta.

You have to stand and face what you did in support of your friends and benefactors in the AFRC/RUF coalition of evil. There is no running away from what you did, especially in fingering colleagues who were opposed to the atrocities unleashed upon the unarmed and defenceless population in 1997!!!!!

Remember Elfriede Rinkel 84, a US citizen hid her past but was eventually found out and stripped of US citizenship, Guenter Grass could not bear his guilt over his role during the Second World War and eventually confessed that he served in Hitler's SS forces.

Seaga Shaw, you Gibril Gbanabome Koroma, Babatunde's daughter, Sylvia Blyden and all of your type will one day have to answer for your continued denial of what you did in furthering the cause of the murderous junta led by Johnny Paul Koroma.

History has time on its side.

SEAGA SHAW'S COUNTER RETORT (DATED 07/07/07): When I said others I was more or less referring to my colleagues at the EXPO TIMES and not members of the public; and my colleague Gibril Gbanabome Koroma rightly joined the fray and used the occasion to properly lampoon Tambaryoh who wanted to use his connection with High Commissioner Alie Bangura and the Ghanaian authorities to finger him when he was working there for the Ghanaian Independent newspaper (SEE ANNEX 2). When the dust settles properly in Sierra Leone we would see who will be called one day to answer to charges of ‘inflammatory' propaganda carried out by the so-called democracy radio FM 98.1 that the TRC Report recognized but could not bring down the sledge hammer, at least not just yet. Wonders never end; Victor Sylver who was busy singing the praise of Tejan Kabbah and co has suddenly decided to turn the curve.  Here him recently on his web site : “ Mark our words President Kabbah. It is when you are stripped of the trappings of power that you will know who your real friends are.....so keep on getting the waters dirty.” Is it because Tejan Kabbah  turned down his campaign to be his Spokesman and opted instead for  Kanji Daramy with whom he was eventually locked up in a bitter exchange of verbal fire? Or has the reality suddenly dawned on him that he was taking all the big risk during the junta years telling all sorts of lies to the world in the name of helping Kabbah, and that he was in fact backing the wrong cause of democracy by force? Either way, I can only say ‘bra yu faint late!!!' (meaning: You were late in seeing reality)

ANNEXES

ANNEX 1 ( VICTOR'S FIRST LETTER OF SMEAR CAMPAIGN

From: Victor.sylver@btinternet.com (mailto:victor.sylver@btinternet.com)

Sent: Friday, March 16, 2001 5:45 AM

To: dfowler@freedomforum.org

Cc: africacentre@freedomforum.org

Subject: Seaga Shaw and Expo Times

I heard with dismay and utter disbelief this morning on the BBC NETWORK Africa programme the utterings of a live guest on the programme, Seaga Shaw who says he receives funding from your organisation.

One thing the programme succeeded in doing was to make me search for your web site. My first visit--and I am heartened by the fact that there is such an organisation that above all promotes free press, free speech and I like the free spirit bit. You need to have the spirit of the free in you to appreciate the yearnings of those who wish to be liberated from the shackles of repressive regimes.

And that is why I find it particularly disturbing that an organisation with such high ideals could fund Seaga Shaw and the Expo Times.

In all my years of journalism, I have come to appreciate the diverse views of not only those people and events that we report about, but of media practitioners who could be in the business for one reason or the other. Fine, very fine and democratic. It may sound a bit odd but I do not condemn any situation in which a colleague would be in cahoots with a repressive regime. What I abhor and which I believe is against the tenets of free speech--is where a colleague, not satisfied with gains from his association would use that to finger colleagues for elimination.

I had been reporting for the BBC in Freetown, Sierra Leone before the 1997 coup that brought in the Johnny Paul junta. I reported on some of the widespread atrocities, never before witnessed in Sierra Leone, committed by the junta. Some of these are well documented on some web sites, but there are more despicable ones that never got to the attention of the free press and which as I speak to you now brings on those horrors anew.

And all the time when these massive human rights abuses were been committed, Seaga Shaw was there and consenting--hardly mentioning the atrocities committed by the junta.

Please try to find out just how in the days following the very bloody coup he acquired a Mercedes benz car and how he got fuel at a time when that was in short supply.

Please be so good as to ask him for back issues of his newspaper. There was one piece under `letters to the editor` in which I was roundly condemned as been anti-junta even as mass gangs armed with kalashnikovs, machetes, clubs and petrol went about in search of me. But for the grace of god and the actions of other persecuted journalists, I would have been very very dead.

Please ask Seaga Shaw about any article that he ever carried in his newspaper that condemned the rampant human right abuses of the junta before I was forced out of the country in early September 1997 and thereafter.

Please contact genuine journalists who were forced to flee for their lives and who are either still in Freetown or in other countries. The continued hatred for pro-democrat journalists by the rebels are documented in stories of colleagues listed for elimination and the 1999 invasion of Freetown paints a clear picture as journalists were brutally hunted.

I am not talking of cronies of his, but genuine colleagues who believe in your ideals.

Also please be so good as to ask Seaga Shaw what became of his colleagues on the newspaper who could have got away like him but were abandoned when the junta was overthrown.

So to hear him talk about getting funding from you, in my opinion, is not only an insult to freedom-loving colleagues but to all those who perished or have to live with amputations in Sierra Leone.

Let us all hold up high the ideals of democracy and freedom.

I do not believe that your organisation should be rewarding evil!!!

Victor Silver

(Reproduced unedited)

ANNEX 2

Victor Sylver Makes Me Sad

ExpoTimes (Freetown)
OPINION
March 30, 2001
Posted to the web March 30, 2001

Gibril Gbanabome Koroma
Vancouver

My friend Victor Sylver's attack on Shaw through the FREEDOM FORUM left me with mixed feelings tinged with overwhelming sadness.

Let me first of all state that Victor, in all probability, did not expect the Forum to go public with that malicious, libellous, irrational and vindictive piece of writing.

Since the crisis in our country in May 1997 some people calling themselves journalists, in a self-righteous sort of way, have, instead of finding something useful to do with their lives, been contacting international media organisations to vilify colleagues with whom they have an axe to grind. I never knew Victor can come down so low until I saw his letter.

But what angers me a whole lot is that some of these organisations never cross check the information they receive about some people but will stupidly swallow everything hook, line and sinker and then go on to blacklist such people. I have a couple of such organizations in mind and at the appropriate time I shall expose them for the world to see the kind of creatures they are.

People should realise that there is nothing the average Sierra Leonean knows more than to bring his brother down and smash him in the dust, this is one of the many causes of the present war which again many foreigners stupidly attribute to diamonds alone. I would therefore like to doff my hat to the FORUM for having the good sense to inform Shaw about what Victor had said and thus allowing him to defend himself. Other organizations I know very well would have just insanely kept mute about this very damaging letter, believe everything and develop an attitude about about the victim. This kind of epistolary warfare has been going on and is still going on, we are just lucky to hear about this latest stinker. Shaw has already adequately defended himself but Victor referred to Shaw's "cronies", so I have to jump into the fray. I am going to tell the world what I know about Victor, so that people can understand why he wrote such a disgraceful letter.

Victor Sylver studied Agriculture at university but ended up stringing for the BBC after a jail sentence at the hellish Government Information Services. He is the perfect intellectual slave the BBC likes to recruit in Africa - somebody who can sacrifice THE TRUTH for a few miserable British pounds.

Victor has always been close to the powers that be and he used to be very proud of his close association with ministers, directors, permanent secretaries and presidents. He was particularly very close to Kabbah and the SLPP. When the latter was overthrown in 1997, Victor took it as a personal affront, which gravely affected his reporting to the BBC. He never reported anything good about the junta, which angered a lot of people and the BBC lapped up anything he faxed or sent by telephone.

But he got into real trouble when he deliberately falsified a story on the ECOMOG bombing of the Mabayla slum in central Freetown. At that time everybody was glued to a radio and the slum dwellers heard Victor's report while their loved ones laid in pools of blood. With a loud cry of rage they went on the streets with stones and sticks looking for him. It had nothing to do with EXPO TIMES. WE ONLY REPORTED THE INCIDENT AS CORRESPONDENT OF REPORTERS SANS FRONTIERES IN FREETOWN AT THE TIME. I EVEN INFORMED PARIS ABOUT IT AND WROTE A COMMENTARY IN EXPO TIMES CALLING ON THE PUBLIC TO STAY CALM. THE RECORDS ARE THERE.

Anyway, despite everything Victor is still our friend and brother at EXPO TIMES. I for one used to have a drink with him and we used to have lengthy discussions. I will tell Shaw to forgive him. But to be frank, Victor has really disappointed me. This is the kind of game small boys like David Tam Baryoh, who onced tried unsuccessfully to tarnish my name in Ghana, should play, not a man like Victor for whom I had some respect. For Victor to Nicodemously send a letter like that to the FORUM has exposed him as a veritable enemy of press freedom and free expression. The man still believes in unfree ways to express himself and damage others. But he went to the wrong people.

LONG LIVE FREEDOM FORUM!