IRIN chronology of significant events since independence (as of 29 December 2000)

1961: 27 April - Sierra Leone, which was founded as a haven for liberated slaves in the 18th century, receives independence from Britain with Milton Margai as prime minister. 1964: Milton Margai dies. Succeeded as prime minister by his half-brother, Albert Margai. 1967: Siaka Stevens - who in 1957 broke away from the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) to form his All People’s party (APC) - is elected prime minister. However, he is prevented in a coup led by Brigadier Andrew Juxon-Smith from assuming his position. 1968: Stevens is returned to power in an army mutiny. 1971: Two assassination attempts on Stevens in one day. A March attempted coup suppressed with aid of Guinean troops. April - Sierra Leone declared a republic. Stevens named president and head of government. 1973: Opposition SLPP does not contest general elections. Stevens, of the APC, is the sole candidate. 1976: March - Stevens re-elected to the presidency for a second five-year term. 1977: 1 February - Stevens, responding to student demonstrations, declares state of emergency which remains in effect for one year. May - General elections holds a year earlier than schedule following more political unrest. 1978: June - Referendum approves a new constitution that provides for a one-party state. APC becomes the sole legal party. 14 June - Stevens in for a seven-year term as president. SLPP MPs join APC. 1981: Increasing opposition to government following scandal involving government officials and several cabinet ministers in the misappropriation of public funds. August - State of emergency declared to suppress a general strike against rising prices and food shortages. December - Stevens assumes temporary control of the Ministry of Finance, following a second financial scandal implicating senior civil servants. 1982: May - General elections take place. Serious outbreak of violence. 1983: May - violence between political factions in Punjehun District results in heavy casualties. 1984: January - Student demonstrations against food shortages and rising prices leads to riots. Four people are killed. Late in the year, teachers and council workers strike through to early in 1985 after the government fails to pay salaries. 1985: April - Stevens announces he would retire at the end of his mandate later in the year. Maj-Gen Joseph Momoh runs for president unopposed and is elected to replace the ageing Siaka Stevens. November - Relations between Sierra Leone and Liberia are strained after Liberian President Samuel Doe accuses the Freetown government of involvement in an attempted coup in Liberia. Doe closes the border which is reopened in August 1986. 1987: January - Student demonstration against inadequate food allowances results in violence. March - The government announces it has foiled a coup in which at least 60 people are arrested. In early April, Vice President Francis Minah is arrested and later charged with treason. 1989: Minah and five others are executed for plotting to assassinate Momoh and overthrow his government. 1990: Early in the year, there is widespread popular support for multiparty politics which Momoh rejects in June. 1991: The Constitutional Review Commission submits draft for a multiparty system of government. March - About 100 fighters based in Liberia cross the border into Sierra Leone in an attempt to overthrow Momoh, who had been supporting a Nigerian-led West African peacekeeping force, known as ECOMOG, which was preventing Liberia’s Charles Taylor from capturing Monrovia. The fighters who invade Sierra Leone eventually call themselves the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and include Sierra Leonean dissidents and Liberian fighters loyal to Taylor. They are led by Foday Sankoh, a former photographer and ex-army sergeant, who reportedly had spent time training in Libya with Taylor. April - Government launches retaliatory raid against RUF rebels in Liberia. Midyear, the army - with Ghanaian and Nigeria help - recaptures several RUF-held towns in the east and south of Sierra Leone. The government troops were also helped by 1,200 Liberian soldiers who fled to Sierra Leone in September 1990. 23-30 August - A national referendum on a new constitution is approved by 60 percent of voters in a 75-percent voter turnout. September - Legislation is introduced permitting formation of political associations and a number of political parties are granted legal recognition. Former Doe supporters - the United Liberation Movement of Liberia (ULIMO) attack National Patriotic Front of Liberia forces in northwest Liberia, from Sierra Leone. 1992: 30 April - President Momoh flees the country after believing a coup is in the making when Captain Valentine Strasser and other junior officers of the Sierra Leonean Army (SLA), go to State House to complain about the poor conditions for soldiers at the front, including lack of food and pay. The presidency lands in the lap of Strasser who dubs himself “The Redeemer” and establishes the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC). At the time Strasser, 26, was the world’s youngest leader. He affirms his commitment to the introduction of multiparty politics. Meanwhile, the RUF gains strength and some members of the SLA, angry over their poor conditions, join the RUF’s campaign, if only to discard their uniforms to loot at night and then step back into them by day. They become known as soldier-rebels, or “sobels”. 1 May - Strasser formally convenes the NRPC. 6 May - Strasser is sworn in as head of state. December - Attempted coup mounted by former army officers calling themselves the Anti-Corruption Revolutionary Movement. Nine suspected coup plotters and 17 other prisoners convicted in November on treason charges are executed. 1993: March - Nigeria, which had peacekeeping troops based in Monrovia, moves two battalions to Freetown to support Strasser and his war against the RUF. November - Government announces it has pre-empted a coup after four British of Vietnamese origin - alleged to be mercenaries - are arrested in Freetown. December - Government ends state of emergency that had been in force since April 1992. 1994: January - Strasser launches an army recruitment drive, more than doubling the military’s ranks to about 12,000. Some of the new recruits, however, are street children as young as 12 years old. 1995: March - Strasser invites the South African private security company Executive Outcomes (EO) to help the government fight the RUF, which is closing in on the capital and controls much of the country’s diamond areas. EO begins by training government troops and then defends the capital alongside West African peacekeepers. December - EO expands its operations into the countryside and retakes a number of key diamond areas from the RUF. EO also begins to collaborate with a rural pro-government militia, the Kamajors. EO troops provide training and logistical support for the Kamajors, which are commanded by Hinga Norman, a former army captain. The RUF suffers a number of defeats and initiates peace negotiations with Strasser. 1996: January - Brig-Gen Julius Maada-Bio deposes Strasser in a palace coup one month short of general elections. The RUF demands the suspension of the elections until peace talks are held. However, arrangements are too advance for the elections to be called off. 26 February - Elections are held despite intimidation by the RUF. 29 March - Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who worked for the UN Development Programme for 20 years, wins the country’s first relatively free and fair election. He gets 59.4 percent of the votes in a second round. His party wins 51 of the 80-seat legislature. Kabbah appoints Hinga Norman as deputy minister of defence and agrees to keep on foreign security companies. His close relationship with the Kamajors angers the army. November - A peace agreement is signed in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, between the Kabbah government and the RUF, stipulating that EO leave Sierra Leone by January 1997. Public opinion had turned against EO because of the high fees it charged - US $1.8 million per month - and its activities in the country’s diamond areas. However, EO’s affiliate company, Lifeguard, stays on in Sierra Leone through security contracts with several mining companies. 1997: January - Executive Outcomes formally withdraws from Sierra Leone. March - Sankoh is arrested on an arms charge in Nigeria. 25 May - Major Johnny Paul Koroma topples Kabbah, who flees to Guinea. Koroma, who was over-promoted with the army expansion under Strasser, suspends the constitution, abolishes political parties and establishes the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), including members of the Sierra Leonean Army. Days of looting by soldiers follow the coup. An attempt by Nigerian troops, backed by some South Africans working with Lifeguard, to oust the Koroma junta fails. Nigerian troops and foreigners are briefly trapped in Freetown’s Mammy Yoko Hotel in Freetown. June - Koroma invites the RUF to join the junta. July - The British company Sandline is hired by allies of Kabbah with the financial support of Indian-born Thai banker Rakesh Saxena. He offers to provide up to US $10 million for a counter-coup in Sierra Leone in exchange for diamond concessions. October - UN Security Council adopts a resolution imposing sanctions against the regime in Sierra Leone, including barring the supply of arms and petroleum products. December - A meeting is arranged between Kabbah and Sandline. Saxena is arrested in Canada on charges of possessing a forged Yugoslavian passport. 1998: 13 February - Nigerian-led West African troops, backed by logistical and intelligence support from Sandline, and the Kamajors storm Freetown, ousting the AFRC/RUF junta. The RUF and AFRC, including members of the SLA, retreat to the countryside. 9 March - Nigerian-led peacekeepers return Kabbah to power. October - High Court in Sierra Leone sentences Sankoh to death for his role in the 1997 coup. Kabbah makes repeated calls for rebel forces to surrender and offers amnesty. 1999: January - A mixture of RUF rebels and former Sierra Leonean Army troops launch an assault on Freetown, seizing parts of the city from ECOMOG. The peacekeepers retake control of the capital, but not before at least 5,000 people are killed and many neighborhoods lay in ruins. Thousands of other people are abducted by rebel forces. Many are used for forced labour, as sex slaves or terrorized into joining the rebel army. April - Sankoh is temporarily released from prison and allowed by Kabbah to go to Togo for internal consultations with his field commanders in capital, Lome. May - Rebels submit their peace proposal to Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema, who is leading regional mediation efforts to end the war. The RUF calls for Sankoh’s release as a condition for negotiations to end the fighting. July - Peace accord signed between government and RUF. Controversy surrounds a clause that provides a blanket amnesty following years of atrocities that included rape, mutilation and the killing of civilians. The accord also provides for the establishment of a unity government that includes members of the RUF and former AFRC junta. Sankoh becomes the country’s minister for mineral resources, including diamonds. August - Former SLA soldiers hold several UN officials, ECOMOG troops, journalists and others hostage. Most are released within a week. RUF commanders who were also held were freed a month later. October - Sankoh and Koroma return to Freetown. November - UN troops begin arriving to replace West African peacekeepers. Security Council expresses concern about ceasefire violations. 2000: February - UN Security Council expands size of the UN Mission in Sierra Leone, UNAMSIL, from 6,000 to 11,100 and revised its mandate to provide security at key locations, including government buildings and sites used in the country’s disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programme. It is also to help law enforcement authorities. (Secretary-General Kofi Annan later asks for the troop strength to be increased to 13,000 and then to 20,500.) April - Rebels attack UN forces in the east of the country, seize weapons and equipment. May - More than 500 UN peacekeepers are abducted by the RUF. Sankoh, accused of obstructing the peace process, is captured by pro-government forces and imprisoned nearly two weeks after a demonstration by thousands of people who marched to his home in Freetown. At least four of the demonstrators are shot dead by RUF fighters. The abducted peacekeepers are eventually released. British troops arrive in Freetown to evacuate British nationals if security deteriorates. British advisers also arrive to provide support for the UN forces. June - The Kabbah government ratifies a treaty to establish an International Criminal Court for Sierra Leone. The issue of trying child soldiers raises controversy because many were forced to join armed factions and to carry out atrocities. July - The UN Security Council imposes an 18-month ban on the trade of uncertified rough diamonds from Sierra Leone to stem sale of the gems by rebel forces for arms. The last batch of detained UN peacekeepers rescued by UN forces. August - West Side Boys hold 11 British troops hostage. They release five but keep the six others hostage. The RUF gets a new leader, Issa Sesay, to replaced Sankoh. September - British paratroopers attack the camp of the West Side Boys in the Occra Hills and rescue the detained British troops. One British soldier and 25 West Side Boys are killed. Most of the remaining West Side Boys surrender later. India announces its decision to withdraw its troops from UNAMSIL following a dispute with Nigerian officers in the force. Jordan also decides to withdraw from UNAMSIL. November - Secretary-General Kofi Annan names Lt-Gen Daniel Opande, of Kenya, to replace Maj-Gen Vijay Jetley, of India, as commander of UNAMSIL. The Lome peace accord is revisited. Ceasefire agreement is signed between the government and RUF which is to be reviewed each 30 days. A taskforce of 500 British Royal Marines arrive in Freetown to reinforce British troops who are already training the Sierra Leonean military. December - The British Ministry of Defence announces that 300 Gurkha soldiers are to help train the Sierra Leone Army.