"LET US STOP TALKING TO OURSELVES AND START TALKING TO THOSE WHO DISAGREE WITH US. ONLY THEN WILL THE BASE OF UNDERSTANDING EXPAND INTO ALL AREAS OF SOCIETY." David Icke - Bridge of Love Newsletter http://www.davidicke.com/icke/index1a.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Reptiles Protect Cousin Genocidist, Murderer, Torturer, Enslaving Dictator ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- 'Butcher of Sierra Leone' on dole in suburbia BY IAN COBAIN AS ANARCHY reigns over much of Sierra Leone, the man widely held responsible for the country's collapse into chaos was relaxing yesterday in a large detached house in a pleasant London suburb. Valentine Strasser, who is claiming the dole, was 25 when he seized control of the West African State in April 1992. Over the next four years his troops murdered, burnt villages and chopped off the hands and feet of countless men, women and children. The former dictator, who was 34 yesterday, has changed his name to Reg Strasser and spends his time watching spaghetti western videos and reading pulp novels at his home in northwest London. He lives rent free in the four-bedroom house, which is owned by the Sierra Leone High Commission, and he is largely funded by the taxpayer, receiving �52 income support each week. So anxious is Strasser that the families of his victims may try to track him down that the Department of Social Security has agreed to treat his claim as a sensitive case, which means he is offered the degree of confidentiality usually afforded to battered wives hiding from their husbands. The Home Office will not comment on his immigration status and refuses to say whether he is applying for asylum or has been granted permission to stay permanently in Britain. There is increasing anger that a man who presided over such human rights abuses should be given a safe haven. Amnesty International pointed out that under the 1984 Convention Against Torture it would be possible to prosecute Strasser in Britain for crimes committed by his men in Sierra Leone. Strasser was an infantry captain in the Sierra Leone Army when he came to power. Tired of fighting rebels in the jungle without receiving regular pay, he led his men in a march on the capital, Freetown. The President, Joseph Momoh, fled as Strasser approached and the young officer found that he could simply walk into the President's office, sit in the President's chair, pick up the President's telephone and start running the country. He appointed himself Chairman of the Supreme Council of State and head of the National Provisional Ruling Council and for a short period Western leaders and the international media clamoured to meet this handsome and swashbuckling figure who had become the world's youngest head of state. Strasser was introduced to the Queen, John Major and Nelson Mandela in quick succession. When he met President Clinton he exchanged his army fatigues for a Savile Row suit, but declined to remove his trademark wrap-around Ray-Ban sunglasses. The West appeared willing to turn a blind eye to the absence of free elections and to reports that Strasser had been seen flying into Antwerp on board a private jet, clutching a small suitcase full of gems.However, it could not ignore his decision, eight months after seizing power, to execute 26 political opponents without trial, lining them up in front of a firing squad on a beach near Freetown. Britain suspended aid immediately. Worse followed as Strasser's forces waged war against the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). According to Amnesty International, his troops were responsible for "torture, ill-treatment and arbitrary killings of unarmed civilians" around the country. Amnesty says that Strasser's men attacked several villages and, in the guise of rebel forces, lopped off the hands and feet of civilians while using others for bayonet practice. The RUF was still in control of vast swaths of the country in 1996 when Strasser was toppled in another coup mounted by his right-hand man, Captain Julius Maada Bio. Strasser and his wife, Gloria, were flown in handcuffs to neighbouring Guinea where he applied to enter Britain with a student's visa. The United Nations paid for him to be educated to A-level standard in Coventry and he enrolled in a law degree course at Warwick University. He dropped out a few months later, separated from his wife and moved to London, where he began claiming benefits. This week a gold-coloured 7-series BMW was parked on his drive but a woman who answered the door insisted that "Reg" had gone away and could not be contacted. As she chatted on the doorstep, an old and battered Nissan Micra with diplomatic number plates pulled up and two occupants walked into the house. Asked if they were in contact with Strasser, they smiled. The former dictator could be prosecuted under Section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1988, which incorporates the Convention Against Torture and makes such human rights abuses a crime in Britain, regardless of where they were committed. An Amnesty spokesman said: "We should point out to the investigating authorities that there is a wealth of evidence of human rights abuses being committed in Sierra Leone while he was in power. If the authorities who are invested with the obligation to investigate fail to do so, they need to be asked why. Under the terms of the Act they are obliged to investigate; they cannot simply sit on their hands." That authority is Scotland Yard. A spokeswoman there said: "There is no investigation into this man." Colony that became a cauldron of strife 1787: Freetown ceded to English settlers, though the Portuguese were the first Europeans to explore the land and named it Sierra Leone (lion mountains). 1808: Coastal area becomes a British colony. 1896: A British protectorate proclaimed over the hinterland. 1961: Independence declared. 1971: Sierra Leone becomes a republic. 1992: Rebel soldiers led by Captain Valentine Strasser overthrows the Government of President Joseph Momoh. Since the 1930s Sierra Leone's economy depended on the exploitation of minerals, such as bauxite, iron ore and, especially, diamonds. But during Strasser's rule, the Revolutionary United Front moved into Kono, the main diamond-producing area, thus depriving the Government of its main revenue. January 1996: Military coup overthrows Strasser. February 1996: Ahmed Tejan Kabbah becomes first democratically elected President. May 1997: Kabbah ovethrown in military coup by Johnny Paul Koroma, who becomes head of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, destroys the economy and begins reign of terror. 1998: Kabbah reinstated after counter-coup by Nigerian-led Ecomog force, helped by London-based Sandline International. January 1999: Rebels storm Freetown and demand ousting of Kabbah. May 1999: Ceasefire signed by rebels after Ecomog intervention. July 1999: Lome accord signed, bringing Revolutionary United Front and Armed Forces Revolutionary Council into the Government. United Nations peacekeeping mission ordered. May 2000: 800 British paratroopers arrive to evacuate nationals from Freetown as rebels arrive on the edge of the capital. Then replaced by Royal Marines. British military help to stabilise the country as UN reinforcements arrive. But country's economy still in bad shape, with GDP at �375 per head, a literacy rate at 21 per cent and infant mortality rate at 148 per 1,000. source: http://www.the-times.co.uk <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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