Chiefdom Shading Key:

	No violations reported (in statements to the TRC)
	Less than 25 violations reported
	25 or more violations reported

Note: Chiefdoms are shaded according to the number of violations recorded in the TRC's statements. Unreported violations may have occurred in chiefdoms where none are shown. Also the reporting of violations within a chiefdom does not imply that the abuse occurred at a particular location within that chiefdom. Outliers are excluded where evidence supports this decision. See the methodology for further explanation.

Paralysis in Freetown

Wherever they tie the cow, that's where it eats

(Proverb)

Before the war began Sierra Leone had suffered from years of bad governance.

An early example of things going wrong was the Public Order Act of 1965. Journalists who attempted to expose corruption were prosecuted under the Act's criminal libel laws. Increasingly political parties were able to use the courts and Chiefs to harass their opponents. The President became all powerful as Parliament and the judiciary were cowed.

Successive governments dismantled vital parts of the country to preserve their power. The Sierra Leone railway; gone in 1971. District councils and elected local government; abolished in 1972. The revenue from diamond sales; largely lost to smuggling and corruption. In 1982, deteriorating living conditions led to a regime-threatening strike organised by the Sierra Leone Labour Congress. The strike action was violently crushed.

As the government became increasingly vicious, President Siaka Stevens created the Special Security Division (SSD), an elite paramilitary force within the police who were better equipped than the army. In the meantime, fear of a possible military coup meant the national army was starved of resources. With soldiers lacking proper training and weapons, they were hardly ready for a war against the RUF.

The decades of stagnation and decline also contributed to the formation of the RUF. A number of Sierra Leoneans had become convinced that change could only be achieved by violent means.

Now, progress to the beginning of the conflict: "1991 - The War Begins" or move to Liberia as "The RUF Assembles"

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See the TRC report for more on Sierra Leone's troubles before the war.

• The Antecedents of the Conflict and Governance chapters of the TRC report describe the 30 year decline in standards of government.
• The Mineral Resources chapter outlines the history of corruption and smuggling that affected the diamond industry (from paragraph 17)