Claire Curtis-Thomas has spoken of her experiences in Sierra Leone in Parliament. Mrs Curtis-Thomas, who has been very involved in the work of the Waterloo Partnership in the African nation, first visited the country in 2003 with Bridgend MP Win Griffiths, then chairman of the all-party group for Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone had just emerged from civil war and Mrs Curtis-Thomas faced 17 injections to go there. Speaking in the House of Commons, she said: “The requirement to carry insect repellent everywhere put the tin lid on the suggestion that this was some sort of beano that we were all going on. It was quite a serious undertaking.” The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association funded the visit to the mineral-rich country that had been torn apart by continuous battles for control of the diamond and sapphire mines. Mrs Curtis Thomas said: “There were fantastic repositories of wealth, but even today, very little of that wealth permeates through to the people of Sierra Leone. “There are several companies involved, but they play no role in re-investing the benefit that they have taken out of the country.” Mrs Curtis-Thomas has seen first-hand how grateful the people of Sierra Leone are for the help that has been offered to them by the UK. She said: “All over Sierra Leone, many children are called Tony Blair. When he went to receive the country’s highest award, he was greeted by a group of children who had been named after him. “Without a shadow of a doubt, these people realise that we helped them to exit from a horror acknowledged by a war crimes tribunal as one of the worst this world has ever seen. “Almost 53 per cent of the Sierra Leone government’s budget comes courtesy of us. That is, 53p in every pound paid to a Minister there comes from British taxpayers. That is a staggering commitment. “I can well hear some people wondering why we are doing that, but the only answer is that people must visit Sierra Leone to find out. If they went, there would be no argument about why that funding was necessary. “We have been fortunate enough to be allocated, or to agree to support, Sierra Leone in considerable measure. Next door, in the Cote d’Ivoire, there is French support and Liberia has the US, so everyone is bearing a share of the responsibility for supporting vulnerable countries that are either in conflict, post-conflict or now considered to be fragile states.”
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