Thursday November 11 4:21 PM ET
By FREDERIC J. FROMMER Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - A peace deal in July ended Sierra Leone's eight-year civil war but countless victims remain, including many whose arms or legs were hacked off by machete-wielding torturers.
The level of horror is such that the State Department is funding a mission to West Africa to rehabilitate victims, turning to a Minneapolis organization, the Center for Victims of Torture.
It's a significant departure for the center, which since opening in 1985 has primarily treated people who have been able to flee to the United States. And it's also new for the man chosen to run the mission, Charles Ellmaker, who has done two stints for the American Refugee Committee in Africa, but has never treated torture victims.
``I'm just going to take it as it comes,'' said Ellmaker, 37, shortly before leaving Saturday for Guekedou, Guinea, on the Sierra Leone border, where hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled. ``I'm in effect the lucky one because I'm just the manager.''
Working with a $766,000 State Department grant, Ellmaker will oversee a staff of three psychologists who will counsel victims, and then hire and train a staff of about 50 local people to recognize and treat victims of torture themselves.
Tens of thousands of people were raped, murdered, or had their arms, legs or ears chopped off during the rebel campaign of terror in Sierra Leone.
The focus of the mission will be on psychological help for torture victims, rather than health services, which are being provided by such organizations as Handicapped International.
Ellmaker said that the mission's long-term goal is to eliminate torture as a political weapon. One way to do that, he said, is to welcome victims - who are often isolated and feel ashamed - back into the community.
``It's a pretty powerful tool to take a community leader and break them and send them back to show what happens - this can happen to you, too,'' said Ellmaker. ``If torturers no longer get the political benefit that they expected, then that as a weapon becomes useless.''
But he said, ``There isn't a simple solution.''
The center also will try to make people more sensitive to the continuing trauma that victims experience. A recent episode of the television show ``ER'' portrayed this, when the brightness of an overhead lamp, the sight of sharp medical instruments, and the sound of a curtain being closed triggered a torture flashback for a Nigerian man being treated for a back problem.
``We want to get nurses and doctors and policemen to be able to understand the atmosphere of their offices,'' Ellmaker said. ``In a lot of cases, torture victims get to wait their turn, listening to someone else's pain, and knowing they're next.''
Ellmaker, a former newspaper reporter, has been working for the last two years in Washington as a consultant for AmeriCorps, President Clinton's volunteerism project. He was chosen for the Guinea project by Melinda Czaia, the center's director of training programs and a former classmate at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vt.
The State Department grant is for one year, although the
department may extend it, or open operations in Sierra Leone.
Thursday November 11 1:27 AM ET
By FREDERIC J. FROMMER Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - For 14 years, the Center for Victims of Torture has used its Minneapolis base to treat people who have fled repressive governments and armies around the world. This month, the center is going directly to the scene of some of the most horrific torture in Africa, Sierra Leone, where rebels have severed people's limbs as part of a campaign of terror.
For this daunting mission, funded with a $766,000 grant from the State Department, the center has turned to a soft-spoken Washington resident who has done two stints in Africa, but never has treated torture victims.
``This is new to me,'' Charles Ellmaker, 37, said last week shortly before leaving for Guekedou, Guinea, on the Sierra Leone border, where hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled. ``I'm just going to take it as it comes. I'm in effect the lucky one because I'm just the manager.''
Ellmaker is opening an administrative office in town and one or more field offices in refugee camps. He will oversee a staff of three psychologists who will counsel victims, and then hire and train a staff of about 50 local people to recognize and treat victims of torture themselves.
In establishing a mission near war-torn Sierra Leone, a South Carolina-sized nation on the West African coast, the Center for Victims of Torture is taking on its most extensive overseas project. ``This is very much of a departure for us,'' said Douglas Johnson, the center's executive director.
Rebels there have used machetes to hack off the limbs of people, including children, in a civil war with the government. The two sides reached a peace deal on July 7, although an alliance between rebels and ex-junta soldiers disintegrated into fighting last month.
The center made a proposal for the mission at the request of the State Department, which saw the need after torture victims started fleeing the country earlier this year.
The focus of the mission will be on psychological help for torture victims, rather than health services, which are being provided by such organizations as Handicapped International.
The worst victims will receive individual counseling; there will also be small groups for people such as rape victims; and larger, community-wide activities, including health fairs.
The mission's long-term goal, Ellmaker said, is to eliminate torture as a political weapon. One way to do that, he said, is to welcome victims - who are often isolated and feel ashamed - back into the community.
``Torture is used to scare societies into submission,'' Ellmaker said. ``It's a pretty powerful tool to take a community leader and break them and send them back to show what happens - this can happen to you too. If torturers no longer get the political benefit that they expected, then that as a weapon becomes useless.''
But he said, ``There isn't a simple solution.''
The center also will try to make people more sensitive to the continuing trauma that victims experience. A recent episode of the television show ``ER'' portrayed this, when the brightness of an overhead lamp, the sight of sharp medical instruments, and the sound of a curtain being closed triggered a torture flashback for a Nigerian man being treated for a back problem.
``We want to get nurses and doctors and policemen to be able to understand the atmosphere of their offices,'' Ellmaker said. ``In a lot of cases, torture victims get to wait their turn, listening to someone else's pain, and knowing they're next.''
Ellmaker, a former newspaper reporter, has been working for the last two years as a consultant for AmeriCorps, President Clinton's volunteerism project. He was tapped for the Guinea project by Melinda Czaia, the center's director of training programs and a former classmate at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vt.
In the mid-1990s, he completed two assignments for the American Refugee Committee in Africa, first as financial manager in Blantyre, Malawi, and then as country director for Mozambique.
The State Department grant is for one year, although the department may extend it, or open operations in Sierra Leone if that becomes feasible. The United States has funded previous refugee projects that had psychological components, but this one is taking a comprehensive approach to addressing psychological needs.
The Center for Victims of Torture was founded in 1985, the first of its kind in the United States, and treats about 150 people a year, mostly African immigrants. The center estimates that 400,000 torture victims live in the United States, 14,000 in Minnesota.
Johnson, the executive director, said the Guinea mission will be an important test for the center.
``It's an experiment - can we operate like this?'' he said.