Fr. Piero Lazzarini sx
“No need to recall the past… See, I am doing a new deed…” (Is. 43,18) What I write here refers to a period of about two years I spent in Guinea with the refugees of Sierra Leone. There I lived an extraordinary experience, a human as well as a faith experience, that left a deep mark in me. Since then I never stopped thanking the Lord for it.
After the forced evacuation of the xaverian missionaries from Sierra Leone, in June 1999 I was sent with two confreres to do ministry among the refugees from Sierra Leone in Guinea. There were about 600,000 of them, mostly concentrated in the southern part of the country, along the border. We went to the Forecariah Region in the north east, close to the Atlantic coast, just over the border from our missions of Kambia and Madina in Sierra Leone.
Being based in Forecariah, we used to visit regularly the three most populated camps close to this town: Kaliah, Farmoriah, Kalako, with a total population of 30,000. Many refugees were living in the towns and villages of Guinea, pretty well integrated, since they were interrelated. The Susu are present both in Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Our work was carried out in a situation of relative tranquillity, even though Guinea, officially a democracy, was governed by a rather brutal dictator. Then suddenly the war broke out. The war, that had come to an end in neighbouring Sierra Leone – though still under the control of the rebels – was exported to Guinea. This took place at the beginning of September 2000. Repeated attacks were carried out by the rebels over the border in Guinea, right in the area where we were based. It was on that occasion that two of our confreres, Frs Mosele and Manganello, were abducted and held by the rebels. We were 20 miles away.
Several attacks took place all along the border as far as Liberia. The reaction in Guinea was angry and violent. President Lansana Conte, in a speech to the nation, pointed the finger at the refugees: “They are all conniving, they are all responsible for the attacks, the destructions and the killing of Guinean citizens. That is how they are rewarding us for sending and sacrificing our soldiers to defend their country and for the hospitality we have offered them all these years… Lock them up in the camps, do not allow them to move about in the country”.
Immediately a manhunt of the refugees living outside the camps or moving outside the camps, began. Thousands were caught, beaten, robbed of everything, humiliated and abused in every way. All staff working under UNHCR (UN High Commission for refugees), all NGO’s and similar organizations disappeared after the first attack and were not seen for several months. A real calvary began for the refugees, a reign of terror, made worse by scarcity of food and total lack of medical assistance. The threat was not coming only from the local people, but also from the rebels, who in their advance, were now close to the refugee camps. The refugees were convinced that on reaching the camps, the rebels would have forced all the men, especially the young, to join them in the bush.
We were visiting the camps every week-end: the permit given by the Archbishp of Conakry, Archbish. Sarah, only allowed us to go for the Sunday service, but in fact we were staying on two or three days. It was good and rewarding to be among the refugees in such circumstances, but it was also painful. We were bombarded from every side: “Fathers, please, help us, take us away from this place. Here we are dying”. After the Sunday Mass, the muslims would call us to their makeshift mosque and add in their turn: “Fathers, help us, we are threatened from every side. We cannot live here”. We would invite everyone to have confidence and pray – and indeed we were all praying with great sincerity and real faith! We would promise to report everything to the Sierra Leone ambassador in Conakry. But we were saying to ourselves. “How can we solve this problem? What can we do to really help all these people?” Then an idea hit us: “SURELY THEY CAN GO HOME, THEY HAVE THE RIGHT TO GO HOME! They can go home by the sea, from Conakry to Freetown. Surely the ambassador can demand that such right be respected.”
The ambassador, who deeply appreciated our presence and work for the refugees, did listen to us. He agreed that we all had to do something. What was needed was to carry the refugees from the camps to Conakry, first (about three/four hours’ journey by truck). Then a ferry or boats had to take them to Freetown. But WHO would foot the bill for such an ambitious and expensive plan? Surely not the ambassador of Sierra Leone, the poorest country in the world now enmeshed in a dreadful civil war. Here the finger of Providence became evident! The Director of CRS (the USA catholic humanitarian relief organization) happened to be passing through Guinea right at that time. Having heard about the plight of the refugees and about our plan to rescue them, he made available the funds required for the transport operation from the camps (over 20,000 US dollars). The Caritas of Conakry took charge of the practical aspects: A convoy of 8 large trucks to be sent to the camps once a week. The Sierra Leone ambassador contacted the government in Freetown to ensure that a ferry be sent to Conakry for the repatriation of the refugees once a week. The plan eventually took off. We did not expect things to go smoothly. But we did not anticipate, either, that the Guinean authorities would do everything in their power to frustrate our plan. Refugees were loaded on the trucks like animals, kept waiting in the burning sun for hours, blocked at the various check- points and even sent back for stupid pretexts!
Yet even with numberless problems and obstructions, the plan continues, repatriation becomes a reality. Every week the number of refugees is being reduced by 700/800 people. And we, who gather every Sunday to celebrate the eucharist and to plead with the Lord, realize that something extraordinary is taking place. A few thousand years ago theLord Yahweh did snatch the Israelites from the hands of Pharaoh the oppressor. He did open for them a way through the sea and a road through the desert. Today he is renewing the same wonder. He Lord is bringing home thousands of refugees: WE, US! We who have been at the mercy of the oppressors, the Guineans; who have been threatened, beaten, humiliated, are now being freed by the Lord from the fangs of those who were ready to devour us.
To the onlooker, nothing appears to be unusual or extraordinary: a lucky coincidence (the CRS Director happens to pass through Guinea), trucks moving towards the refugee camps and returning loaded with people exhausted but happy, long delays due to burocracy, soldiers as usual addicted to exploitation of the weak… But those who are aware of what is going on, those who have suffered the threats and indignities of this oppressive system, those who have turned to the Lord in prayer and in near despair day and night, they know and are convinced that this is A MIRACLE: the Lord has listened to the cry of the humble and the oppressed. Once again he has shown the power of his hand to free and save them.
Then we also understand the text of the prophet Isaiah, when announcing the new Exodus, namely the return of the exiles from captivity, he states: “Thus says the Lord: No need to recall the past… See, I am doing a new deed, even now it comes to light: can you not see it?” (Is. 43,18). Yes, indeed, the Lord as never ceased to work wonders. Those mentioned in the Bible are marvellous, but by no means the only ones. He has never ceased and will never cease to do them in every age. But only those who have eyes to see and ears to hear will be able to discern them and rejoice over them.
The repatriation of the refugees was not completed in a few weeks. It continued from Nov. 2000 till May 2001. It was stopped several times: on two occasions the trucks were sent back to Conakry empty, thanks to the narrow mindedness of the Forecariah authorities. The UNHCR, which exists for the purpose of defending and protecting the refugees, initially ignored and later positively discouraged the repatriation plan. But after several months, probably to save their face vis-à-vis the media and public opinion that was watching and monitoring, took full responsibility for it. When they, “the professionals”, as they like to call themselves, started moving, it was no longer the huge and rough trucks that were transporting the refugees home, but comfortable buses for people and smart trucks, marked UNHCR, that carried their luggage. And even the boat service from Conakry to Freetown was organised by them almost on a daily basis.
On Sunday 20th May I paid my last visit to the refugee camp at Forecariah. Very few people were attending the Mass, but right from the start I said to them: “Please, do not be sad, on the contrary, let us rejoice and thank the Lord. The reason why we are so few is that the Lord has worked a great miracle. He has listened to our prayers, he has freed you, he has indeed taken our people home”. That morning the last convoy of refugees was being readied. From that day the camps were left totally empty. By whose power? By the power of the UNHCR buses? Certainly not! It was through the mighty hand of our merciful God.
“No need to recall the past… See, I am doing a new deed…” (Is. 43,18) What I write here refers to a period of about two years I spent in Guinea with the refugees of Sierra Leone. There I lived an extraordinary experience, a human as well as a faith experience, that left a deep mark in me. Since then I never stopped thanking the Lord for it.
After the forced evacuation of the xaverian missionaries from Sierra Leone, in June 1999 I was sent with two confreres to do ministry among the refugees from Sierra Leone in Guinea. There were about 600,000 of them, mostly concentrated in the southern part of the country, along the border. We went to the Forecariah Region in the north east, close to the Atlantic coast, just over the border from our missions of Kambia and Madina in Sierra Leone.
Being based in Forecariah, we used to visit regularly the three most populated camps close to this town: Kaliah, Farmoriah, Kalako, with a total population of 30,000. Many refugees were living in the towns and villages of Guinea, pretty well integrated, since they were interrelated. The Susu are present both in Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Our work was carried out in a situation of relative tranquillity, even though Guinea, officially a democracy, was governed by a rather brutal dictator. Then suddenly the war broke out. The war, that had come to an end in neighbouring Sierra Leone – though still under the control of the rebels – was exported to Guinea. This took place at the beginning of September 2000. Repeated attacks were carried out by the rebels over the border in Guinea, right in the area where we were based. It was on that occasion that two of our confreres, Frs Mosele and Manganello, were abducted and held by the rebels. We were 20 miles away.
Several attacks took place all along the border as far as Liberia. The reaction in Guinea was angry and violent. President Lansana Conte, in a speech to the nation, pointed the finger at the refugees: “They are all conniving, they are all responsible for the attacks, the destructions and the killing of Guinean citizens. That is how they are rewarding us for sending and sacrificing our soldiers to defend their country and for the hospitality we have offered them all these years… Lock them up in the camps, do not allow them to move about in the country”.
Immediately a manhunt of the refugees living outside the camps or moving outside the camps, began. Thousands were caught, beaten, robbed of everything, humiliated and abused in every way. All staff working under UNHCR (UN High Commission for refugees), all NGO’s and similar organizations disappeared after the first attack and were not seen for several months. A real calvary began for the refugees, a reign of terror, made worse by scarcity of food and total lack of medical assistance. The threat was not coming only from the local people, but also from the rebels, who in their advance, were now close to the refugee camps. The refugees were convinced that on reaching the camps, the rebels would have forced all the men, especially the young, to join them in the bush.
We were visiting the camps every week-end: the permit given by the Archbishp of Conakry, Archbish. Sarah, only allowed us to go for the Sunday service, but in fact we were staying on two or three days. It was good and rewarding to be among the refugees in such circumstances, but it was also painful. We were bombarded from every side: “Fathers, please, help us, take us away from this place. Here we are dying”. After the Sunday Mass, the muslims would call us to their makeshift mosque and add in their turn: “Fathers, help us, we are threatened from every side. We cannot live here”. We would invite everyone to have confidence and pray – and indeed we were all praying with great sincerity and real faith! We would promise to report everything to the Sierra Leone ambassador in Conakry. But we were saying to ourselves. “How can we solve this problem? What can we do to really help all these people?” Then an idea hit us: “SURELY THEY CAN GO HOME, THEY HAVE THE RIGHT TO GO HOME! They can go home by the sea, from Conakry to Freetown. Surely the ambassador can demand that such right be respected.”
The ambassador, who deeply appreciated our presence and work for the refugees, did listen to us. He agreed that we all had to do something. What was needed was to carry the refugees from the camps to Conakry, first (about three/four hours’ journey by truck). Then a ferry or boats had to take them to Freetown. But WHO would foot the bill for such an ambitious and expensive plan? Surely not the ambassador of Sierra Leone, the poorest country in the world now enmeshed in a dreadful civil war. Here the finger of Providence became evident! The Director of CRS (the USA catholic humanitarian relief organization) happened to be passing through Guinea right at that time. Having heard about the plight of the refugees and about our plan to rescue them, he made available the funds required for the transport operation from the camps (over 20,000 US dollars). The Caritas of Conakry took charge of the practical aspects: A convoy of 8 large trucks to be sent to the camps once a week. The Sierra Leone ambassador contacted the government in Freetown to ensure that a ferry be sent to Conakry for the repatriation of the refugees once a week. The plan eventually took off. We did not expect things to go smoothly. But we did not anticipate, either, that the Guinean authorities would do everything in their power to frustrate our plan. Refugees were loaded on the trucks like animals, kept waiting in the burning sun for hours, blocked at the various check- points and even sent back for stupid pretexts!
Yet even with numberless problems and obstructions, the plan continues, repatriation becomes a reality. Every week the number of refugees is being reduced by 700/800 people. And we, who gather every Sunday to celebrate the eucharist and to plead with the Lord, realize that something extraordinary is taking place. A few thousand years ago theLord Yahweh did snatch the Israelites from the hands of Pharaoh the oppressor. He did open for them a way through the sea and a road through the desert. Today he is renewing the same wonder. He Lord is bringing home thousands of refugees: WE, US! We who have been at the mercy of the oppressors, the Guineans; who have been threatened, beaten, humiliated, are now being freed by the Lord from the fangs of those who were ready to devour us.
To the onlooker, nothing appears to be unusual or extraordinary: a lucky coincidence (the CRS Director happens to pass through Guinea), trucks moving towards the refugee camps and returning loaded with people exhausted but happy, long delays due to burocracy, soldiers as usual addicted to exploitation of the weak… But those who are aware of what is going on, those who have suffered the threats and indignities of this oppressive system, those who have turned to the Lord in prayer and in near despair day and night, they know and are convinced that this is A MIRACLE: the Lord has listened to the cry of the humble and the oppressed. Once again he has shown the power of his hand to free and save them.
Then we also understand the text of the prophet Isaiah, when announcing the new Exodus, namely the return of the exiles from captivity, he states: “Thus says the Lord: No need to recall the past… See, I am doing a new deed, even now it comes to light: can you not see it?” (Is. 43,18). Yes, indeed, the Lord as never ceased to work wonders. Those mentioned in the Bible are marvellous, but by no means the only ones. He has never ceased and will never cease to do them in every age. But only those who have eyes to see and ears to hear will be able to discern them and rejoice over them.
The repatriation of the refugees was not completed in a few weeks. It continued from Nov. 2000 till May 2001. It was stopped several times: on two occasions the trucks were sent back to Conakry empty, thanks to the narrow mindedness of the Forecariah authorities. The UNHCR, which exists for the purpose of defending and protecting the refugees, initially ignored and later positively discouraged the repatriation plan. But after several months, probably to save their face vis-à-vis the media and public opinion that was watching and monitoring, took full responsibility for it. When they, “the professionals”, as they like to call themselves, started moving, it was no longer the huge and rough trucks that were transporting the refugees home, but comfortable buses for people and smart trucks, marked UNHCR, that carried their luggage. And even the boat service from Conakry to Freetown was organised by them almost on a daily basis.
On Sunday 20th May I paid my last visit to the refugee camp at Forecariah. Very few people were attending the Mass, but right from the start I said to them: “Please, do not be sad, on the contrary, let us rejoice and thank the Lord. The reason why we are so few is that the Lord has worked a great miracle. He has listened to our prayers, he has freed you, he has indeed taken our people home”. That morning the last convoy of refugees was being readied. From that day the camps were left totally empty. By whose power? By the power of the UNHCR buses? Certainly not! It was through the mighty hand of our merciful God.