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Timeline
March 1991 – Civil war breaks out when former army corporal Foday Sankoh and his Revolutionary United Front (RUF) clash with President Joseph Saidu Momoh, capturing towns on the Liberian border.
October 1991 – A new constitution providing for a multiparty system of government goes into effect.
April 1992 – Captain Valentine Strasser leads a coup that deposes President Momoh and establishes the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) as the ruling authority in Sierra Leone.
January 1996 – Strasser is deposed in a military coup led by defense minister Brigadier Julius Maada Bio.
March 1996 – Ahmad Tejan Kabbah is elected president, after four years of military rule.
May 1997 – President Kabbah is toppled in a military coup led by Major General Johnny Paul Koroma and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC). Following the coup, Koroma suspends the constitution and abolishes political parties and demonstrations. The Commonwealth suspends Sierra Leone.
February 1998 – Koroma is ousted by West African peacekeeping forces, known by the acronym ECOMOG. President Kabbah returns to power in March.
January 1999 – RUF rebels launch another coup attempt, occupying parts of Freetown until ECOMOG forces drive them out. The battle devastates the city and leaves thousands dead and wounded.
July 1999 – President Kabbah and RUF leader Sankoh sign the Lome Peace Agreement, making Sankoh vice president and giving government posts to other RUF members.
February 2000 – Parliament adopts an anti-corruption bill, which paves the way for the establishment of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to focus on the worst aspects of corruption in the country, including bribery of public officials and the misuse of public funds. By 2006, it is estimated the ACC has conducted over 560 investigations and brought 54 cases to court, 24 of which resulted in convictions. Nevertheless, the ACC is criticized as being subject to political manipulation and for prosecuting mostly lower-level officials.
May 2000 – Members of the RUF shoot and kill dozens of protesters demonstrating outside Sankoh's house in Freetown. Sankoh and other senior members of the RUF are arrested and stripped of their government posts. Sankoh is charged with war crimes in March 2002. He dies of a stroke while awaiting trial in July 2003.
June 2000 – Marine Resources Minister Lawrence Kamara is accused of embezzling US$45,000 in public funds. He is forced to resign and reimburse the government.
March 2001 – Agriculture Minister Dr. Harry Will is convicted of embezzling US$1.5 million in World Bank development funds. Justice Mohamed Taju Deen is later convicted of having accepted bribes in exchange for imposing an unduly favorable sentence on Will: a paltry US$250 fine. A week after Will's conviction, Soluku Bockarie, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Education, is convicted of mishandling nearly US$1 billion in funds intended for teachers' salaries. Bockarie's testimony implicating his boss, Education Minister Dr. Alpha Wurie, is disregarded by the court.
October 2001 – Freetown tabloid editor and outspoken government critic Paul Kamara accuses Justice Minister Solomon Berewa of accepting bribes in exchange for releasing two foreigners held on drug charges. The following month, the ACC begins investigating Kamara for tax evasion. Kamara is eventually cleared of the charges, but in October 2004 he is convicted under the criminal defamation law and sentenced to four years in prison for publishing an article critical of President Kabbah.
January 2002 – President Kabbah declares the civil war officially over. The government establishes a UN-backed war crimes court, the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The four-year state of emergency is lifted in March.
May 2002 – President Kabbah and his Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) win a landslide election victory and secure a majority in parliament.
September 2003 – Former Transportation Minister Momoh Punjeh is convicted and sentenced to one year in prison for the illegal possession of diamonds. His conviction is overturned on appeal.
May 2004 – The country holds its first local elections in more than 30 years.
June 2004 – SCSL war crimes trials begin.
October 2004 – The Truth and Reconciliation Commission releases its final report. The report blames the 11-year civil war on decades of corrupt rule by the political elite and recommends various judicial reforms and ways to improve government accountability. The government's official response to the commission's recommendations is criticized as being ambiguous and noncommittal. The report is released to the public in mid-2005.
February 2005 – The Government launches the National Anti-Corruption Strategy, a comprehensive national anti-corruption program developed over several years in consultation with a cross section of citizens and stakeholders in Freetown and regional capitals.
August 2005 – The U.N. Security Council establishes the U.N. Integrated Office for Sierra Leone (UNIOSL), a peace-building mission that, beginning in January 2006, will help fight corruption and improve governmental transparency.
July 2005 – Harry Yansaneh, editor of the independent daily newspaper For Di People, dies two months after being assaulted by five men. It is alleged that Member of Parliament Fatmata Hassan Komeh ordered the men, two of whom were her sons, to attack Yansaneh for his paper's unfavorable coverage of the ruling SLPP. Attorney General Frederick Carew declares the following January that he will not bring manslaughter charges after investigators fail to conclusively establish whether Yansaneh's death was a direct result of the attack or an unrelated chronic kidney problem.
December 2005 – The last U.N. peacekeeping troops leave Sierra Leone.
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