By Sheila Patricka Dallas

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (Special to Mediachannel)
As peace agreements have collapsed into tragic and bloody conflict, this small West African country is finally getting some media attention after nine years of civil war. You have seen the images: fighting in the streets, child soldiers shooting off deadly weapons and U.N. peacekeepers taken hostage. It seems unbearably brutal, chaotic, bewildering and painful — and sometimes it has been. The United Nations is here to help make the peace, and it is using media to do so.

I am the General Manager of United Nations Radio, Radio UNAMSIL/103-FM, a station committed to offering objective information in an environment often charged with rumors and politically driven news from all sides. The airwaves have become a critical tool for supporting the U.N. peacekeeping mission.

My motto is: Misinformation is more deadly than no information at all.

Misinformation was feeding the conflict when the United Nations arrived last year. The only information people here were receiving was through their militia leaders, and this information was sometimes used to incite violence as opposed to encourage disarmament. The United Nations' message of peace and rehabilitation was not getting through.

A peace agreement negotiated in Lome was ostensibly in place, but its details and interpretation were conveyed differently by the warring parties. The U.N. mandate to disarm the nation was barely and badly understood. One solution was a technique the United Nations has used elsewhere: launch a radio station.

Radio is cheap to produce and to receive. There is a reason that radio is the media of the masses in the poorest parts of the world. Illiteracy is rampant, therefore newspapers are ineffectual. Unlike in the United States and other wealthier countries where television is the primary means of communications, the broadcast technology here is expensive and the price of sets is out of the reach of most people. There is some TV here in Freetown, but it doesn't reach the whole country. Radio can. In most places, electricity is erratic or even nonexistent. Radios can be powered by batteries or even hand-crank.

We are modeling our efforts here — which are aimed at building a national audience — on U.N. efforts elsewhere, like the U.N. station operated by the Central African Republic mission (C.A.R.). Their equipment was donated to the United Nations by the Danish government for use in the organization's peacekeeping operations. Now that the C.A.R. mission is successfully over, their radio equipment was available for redeployment for our use here in Sierra Leone.

Our station, Radio UNAMSIL/103-FM, or Radio U, is already on the air and covers a vast area of the country: Freetown, Lungi, Port Loko, Kaballa and parts of Bo. We have had to work fast. The equipment arrived on May 18. I started the test transmission on May 22, at first for 12 hours a day. Radio UNAMSIL is now running 24 hours a day.

This is not the kind of media start-up that entrepreneurs in the private sector would recognize. We are operating on low budgets with donated equipment in a country that has been at war. We need to do lots of research on how to communicate with the people and how to shape our own message to make sure it is credible and informative. Our goal is to promote awareness and understanding and tolerance among the peoples of Sierra Leone about the content and the progressive implementation of the Lome Peace Agreement. Stopping the war is a first priority. The United Nations is seeking to disarm the parties and get people talking to each other, not shooting each other. We want people to know what the United Nations is here to do, and what it can't and won't do. We need to dispel rumors and keep people up to date on our progress.

It is not as easy as it sounds. You can't be preachy. You can't just read U.N. resolutions with their often arcane language of diplomacy. You have to realize that nobody likes outsiders to tell them what to do. So we have to zoom into the local culture and be sensitive to its rhythms, vibes and grievances. When I arrived in the country my first task was to understand the society. I met with many Sierra Leoneans to find out about the cultural norms and the languages — for instance, what percentage of the population in what geographic locations speak Kriole, Mende, etc. I met chiefs from chiefdoms across the country to find out the best way to get information to their people. I consulted with U.N. agencies, NGO's, market women, women's associations, the Amputees Association and schools, including the Milton Margai School for the Blind, etc., to get a feel for where the peoples' heads were at and what they wanted to know about our U.N. mission.

The scariest challenge was venturing into the rebel-controlled areas. I went on a couple of trips outside the city and was able to talk face-to-face with combatants and ex-combatants. On May 7, I went to Lunsar, the RUF (Revolutionary United Front) area, where we met with more than 5,000 RUF combatants and their families. I interviewed Brigadier Issa, the RUF commander, Callon, and Gbow. I went with UNAMSIL's Deputy Force Commander.

Once my plan was approved and in place and the equipment had arrived, I had to recruit a diverse and talented staff. I couldn't put an ad in The New York Times but had to reach out to communities throughout Freetown. I hired six fellow "radio peace warriors": one on-air presenter/producer, one associate producer, two production assistants, noted cartoonist Mr. Christopher Parkinson ("Paki"), and a very popular jingle musician, Mr. Ahmed Janka Nabay.

We reached out to schools and set up a competition for jingles and songs about the U.N. mission. The Milton Margai School for the Blind contributed a wonderful song, which was professionally produced. The jingles composer has written our first official jingle in Kriole, Mende and Temne, three of the main languages here, and he is presently in production. We are also working on dramas with a noted local dramatist, Michael Charlie Hinga, who will write dialogues that will resonate with the local listeners.

We have also sought to market the station by branding it. We created a logo. Our cartoonist designed a radio with radio waves around it. The words Radio UNAMSIL appear in the half circle and on the diameter is 103.FM. It is very cool. To promote the station, we are doing what radio stations do worldwide — printing t-shirts with the logo on the front and a peace message on the back. In addition, we will use buttons, bumper stickers, posters, etc., which will be posted on all U.N. vehicles and local public transportation and will be wheat-pasted all over Sierra Leone. We want the people to tune in.

Music is driving our message to the youth of this country — they are the most vulnerable in the crisis. The music is also aimed at the rebels. The music promotes peace and humanity. Just recently, one U.N. agency representative told me that everywhere she went kids were glued to the radio, and when she asked them what they were listening to, they said "Radio UNAMSIL." "Why," she asked, and they replied, "dem ha di bes music, music we na dar a Salone." (Because it's the best music in Sierra Leone). And many others have shared similar feedback with us.

We are reaching the kids, some of whom will be taking part in our on-air quizzes. I already have 150 CDs and cassettes — new music — to give away. And when the t-shirts are ready, we will use them as giveaways, too. The local staff is helping to shape all these outreach programs.

103-FM is happening, it's working. Our transmitter reaches as far as Conakry in nearby Guinea. Our next step is to feed the output of the FM into the respective short wave transmitters to transmit internationally, so MediaChannel readers will be able to hear us.

We will also move a new transmitter to Magburaka, in the center of the country, as soon as the security situation grants us safe passage there. From the Magburaka site, we will pick up the signal via satellite and feed it into the transmitter to be rebroadcast all over the country and beyond. All of West Africa may then be able to hear our signal.

More international producers are arriving, and soon we will have five additional local staff in training. Though we are from an international agency, we are grounding our work in the local community, in its languages and through its culture.

Our programming effort is just getting into high gear. Radio UNAMSIL will develop and produce energetic programs directed at all ethnic groups and including women's and children's shows. We will soon be featuring special programming on health, current affairs, civic education, human rights, arts, theatre, etc. Arts programs, current affairs, news and sports will be prominent in the line-up.

All of this programming aims at maintaining calm and cultivating trust among groups and in individuals.

The U.N. agencies on the ground will have a weekly slot, as will the local and international NGOs, the National Commission for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (NCDDR), and other agencies. The Special Representative for the Secretary-General, Ambassador Oluyemi Adeniji, the Force Commander, General V.J. Jetley, the Deputy Force Commander, General Garber and other components of UNAMSIL, will explain their role and give updates of the situation in the country once or twice each week. We have also received offers of outside help. I have contacted many African celebrities to contribute to this effort. South Africa singer Jimmy B, a Sierra Leone national, has offered his support and will be writing us a song. He has asked me to sing with him. An interested expert from the United Kingdom is offering free training in radio broadcasting to the staff while another will provide marketing strategy. It would be great if radio broadcasters worldwide supported Radio U and its peace mission.

A radio station can't solve the problems of Sierra Leone, but it can help. And the good news is: it is.

We would love to hear from friends and supporters.

AS THE MEDIA WATCH THE WORLD, WE WATCH THE MEDIA.

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