What many have refereed to as a positive move, Prison Watch-Sierra Leone, has started a countrywide sensitization aimed at refreshing the minds of prison warders and the police on matters relating to detention.

Funded by the United States Embassy in Freetown, the project is to enhance training in human rights and other acceptable rules bordering on detention, for officials handling detainees in state prisons and police cells.

The first phase of the project was held in Freetown on Friday January14, 2005 targeting a number of warders and police personnel.

The training programme is to be replicated in the provinces between February and April this year.

At the ceremony marking the commencement of the project, the national co-coordinator of Prison Watch- Sierra Leone, Mr. Umar Paran Trawalie, stated that the mandate of the organization is directed towards the defence and welfare of prisoners and other persons in detention.

In pursuance of this mandate, Mr. Tarawalie explained that the organization monitored, documented and reported on prisons and detention conditions across the country.

The organization, Mr.Tarawalie went on, also mounted a campaign against unlawful arrest and detention, advocated for expeditious trials, monitoring court proceedings and holding vigils in memory of prisoners who die in detention.

Mr. Tarawalie also stressed that his organization has been instrumental in the quest to abolish the death penalty, among others.

Mr.Tarawalie said in a rather frustrating mood that despite the good intentions and moves of the organization, their work has been hard to understand and appreciate especially so when society view them as advocating for people who are better referred to as devilish creatures.

But rather than being discouraged however, Mr. Tarawalie maintained that such is their belief that they are fighting a genuine cause.

Prisoners, according to Mr. Tarawalie, are human beings who deserve the right to be treated humanly.

In her statement on behalf of the Sierra Leone Police, Madam Kadie Fakondor noted that members of the force are still receiving training in detention handling through the help of the CCSSP and the UNCIVPOL. She also noted that detention handling indeed forms part of the police-training curriculum.

In his own remarks, the deputy director of Prisons, Mr. Moses Showers, expressed delight that a number of local and international human right organizations have continued to manifest interest in detention matters across the country.

He maintained that the doors of the state prisons will be kept open to all such organizations once it is in the interest of the detainees.

Topics to be covered in the training include UN maximum standard on detention, torture and its effects on detainees, power of arrest and detention and human rights perspective in handling detention issues.

Resource persons were drawn from ICRC, NFHR, LAWCCA and Amnesty International.