|
|
|
Last Updated: Oct 12, 2008 - 7:23:10 AM |
FREETOWN- Demolition teams wielding axes and machetes this week smashed
up popular beach bars, one still bearing a sign saying "Paradise", as
part of an improvement scheme to develop tourism in Sierra's Leone's
capital Freetown.
Truckloads of soldiers and armed police stood guard and pushed back
journalists as demolition workers reduced illegal bars to rubble along
a five-km (three-mile) stretch of Lumley Beach in the West African
state's seaside capital on Wednesday.
"They have destroyed our lives," waiter Papa Yansanhe, 28, told Reuters
in front of the ruins of the Paradise Beach Bar.
"Now I have nothing, no job, and against these vigilantes, soldiers and
police I can't do anything. They have guns and weapons -- how can we
resist?"
Sierra Leone ranks bottom of the U.N. Human Development Index and is
trying to recover from a devastating decade-long civil war that ended
in 2002. The war destroyed a nascent tourist industry, but foreign
visitors are starting to return.
The Ministry of Tourism and Culture says the beach bars, where aid
workers enjoy sundowners and families play in the sand, contribute to
environmental degradation and are an eyesore. Many are rustic wood and
thatch structures.
"They are illegal and we want to improve that part of the beach,"
Tourism Minister Hindolo Trye told Reuters.
"They are unhygienic and they have not been contributing to the
economy. We gave them notice to move out by September 30 back in May or
June," Trye said.
Bar owners say they have not been consulted or offered compensation for
the destruction of their businesses, which Trye said would make way for
tree planting, electricity cables and measures against sand and soil
erosion.
TOURISM HOPES
A dossier defending the beach bars, distributed to President Ernest Bai
Koroma, government ministries and foreign embassies, said they were
worth 10.4 billion leones ($4.25 million) to the economy and supported
the livelihoods of 394 people.
"We cannot underplay the value and importance of small business in our
economy," Henry Akintola Macauley, president of the Sierra Leone
Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, told Reuters.
Up to two-thirds of Sierra Leoneans are unemployed and 70 percent of
the population live below the poverty line.
Bai Koroma, elected last year, has identified tourism as one of the
sectors he wants to promote to develop the struggling economy, which
depends on donor aid for a third of its income.
The government has been encouraging Sierra Leoneans who fled abroad
during the war to return to help rebuild the country.
"They said they wanted people to come back and invest, and this is your
reward," said Mike Kargbo, a construction worker with Canadian
citizenship who returned to his homeland to start Bunker Bar on Lumley
Beach in 2007.
"I did it all myself. It's crazy. How can you destroy your own people
like this? I'm worried about this country," he sai
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
Top of Page
|
|
|
|