By Lansana Fofana
FREETOWN, Mar 12 1997 (IPS)

The heavy-handed tactics of Sierra Leone’s police force have once again come under fire following a confrontation here between university students and riot police in which at least 15 students were reportedly injured.

Riot police Tuesday descended on a rally called by the National Union of Sierra Leone Students (NUSS) to plan a wave of protests against the government’s decision to give retirement benefits to former president Joseph Momoh.

“More than 15 students were injured by police batons and in the commotion that followed the firing of tear-gas cannisters,” said Abdulai Bayraytay, NUSS’ Secretary General.

“Already I understand a number of injured students are undergoing treatment in various hospitals and clinics across the capital, while several more are still being detained by the police,” he added.

NUSS organised the gathering in an open park here “to discuss burning national issues and to sensitise the public about the mismanagement of state funds”. Over 2000 students poured into the park despite warnings from the police and the Ministry of Education to call off the meeting.

“We explained to them (the students) that the climate wasn’t too conducive for the convening of a meeting of over 2000 students in the open park,” said John Fatoma, a senior official in the education ministry.

“We knew unruly ones and street thugs would cash in on the situation and cause chaos in the city,” Fatoma added.

The event turned violent when just before the Secretary General took the stage to address the crowd, a team of over 50 riot police stormed the meeting and attempted to arrest Bayraytay and other student leaders. When the students attempted to prevent the leaders’ arrest, the riot police opened fire with tear-gas and tried to disperse the crowd with batons.

One of the main reason for the students’ gathering this week was the government’s proposed plans to provide a generous retirement package for former president Momoh who returned home on Feb. 23. Momoh and his family fled to Guinea when he was overthrown in a military coup by Captain Valentine Strasser on April 29, 1992.

The new civilian government of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah invited the ex-leader to return home and offered him a house, security, a car and a monthly salary of about 900,000 Leones(One U.S. dollar is equal to 920 Leones).

Columnists in this week’s newspapers sided with the students and attacked Kabbah’s government for offering to pay for Momoh’s upkeep.

“Mr President, the decision you and your parliamentarians arrived at in giving Momoh a monthly pension of 900,000 Leones is too much and is discouraging the masses,” wrote one writer in this week’s independent ‘Pool’ newspaper.

“Do you really care about the masses? If yes, why take taxpayers money and pay an ex-President who did not retire peacefully, but was overthrown?”

The students charge that Momoh’s regime was corrupt and therefore he should not be entitled to state funds. “Momoh openly told this nation that he had failed. The Commission of Inquiry that investigated his reign found him guilty of massive embezzlement of state funds,” said an angry student from Njala University College.

“The military junta that toppled him even confiscated his assets and froze his accounts,” the student continued. “How come President Kabbah is offering him such favours? There must be something fishy in the whole arrangement.”

Tuesday’s incident was the second in the past two months in which the police have been accused of using excessive force against protestors.

Last month, the police opened fire on people seeking visas for the United States, who had stormed the central post office to protest the alleged dumping of their applications. Two people were killed.

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