2007年VOA标准英语-Sierra Leone President Kabbah Steps Down With M

A new president, opposition¹ leader Ernest Koroma, has been sworn-in in Sierra Leone. With Koroma's inauguration², outgoing President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah - who is often credited with bringing the nation out its decade-long civil war and ushering³ in an era of peace - is stepping down from power. Kari Barber spoke⁴ with people in the capital Freetown and the second-largest city, Bo, about how they will remember Mr. Kabbah's presidency⁵.

President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah gives his farewell address to Sierra Leone parliament, 18 Sept 2007

"The state was overwhelmed by the victory of guns over normal politics, mired⁶ in one of the bloody⁷ civil conflicts in history, torn by fear," he said.

Kabbah was overthrown⁸ by a junta⁹ in 1997 and fled the country. A year later, with the help of ECOWAS troops, he was reinstated as president. He signed a deal with the rebel groups to officially end the war in 2002 and then was re-elected to second five-year term in that same year.

Sierra Leoneans say while they will always be grateful for the role Mr. Kabbah played in ending the war, which left tens of thousands dead, many feel he did not do enough to recover the nation's economy.

Denis Manda Kassay, from the southern city of Bo, says he was an official in Mr. Kabbah's party, but quit supporting him when he tapped Vice¹⁰ President Berewa as his successor. Bo is a traditional stronghold for Mr. Kabbah's party.

"He just imposed Solomon Berewa who is not the choice of the people," he said.

Market vendor¹¹ and mother Kadie Sendefu says she was happy Mr. Kabbah made education more available, but she says education is useless when unemployment is so high.

"People have gone to colleges, but they do not have jobs," she said.

Freetown businessman Mohammed Jabbie says he thinks Mr. Kabbah, who formerly¹² worked for the United Nations, did fine as president considering he was tasked with rebuilding a war-shattered nation.

"His enemies want things overnight, which I do not think is possible," he said. "It takes time to achieve some aims."

The editor of a popular political satire¹³ newspaper, Olu Richie Awoonor-Gordon, says in addition to ending the war Mr. Kabbah will be remembered for the country's high corruption¹⁴ and for being politically naive¹⁵.

"He was a very strange leader," he said. "To be frank and honest he is a very likable man as an individual, but as a president he seemed to always make the wrong decisions. He was very reluctant to listen to advice. He made a lot of errors that affected¹⁶ our country very deeply."

Before walking out of parliament for the last time, Mr. Kabbah thanked officials from all of the parties.

"Thanks to your cooperation, understanding and resilience, the dark days in our country's tragic¹⁷ history are over and together we have courageously¹⁸ brought back peace, security and hope to ourselves," he said.

Mr. Kabbah has not said what he will do now, but he has said he will support opposition leader Ernest Koroma as the new president, and many say this transfer of peaceful democracy is the greatest legacy¹⁹ he could leave.