“A letter was sent to all diplomatic missions in Freetown on this subject, last year. Upon receipt of the letter, the British government noted the matter but no action was taken as this is an internal Sierra Leonean matter,” a Foreign and Commonwealth spokesperson, said.

Relatives of the executed individuals, last year, tripled their efforts to seek justice for their loved ones: holding press conferences, rallies and calling on the Sierra Leone government – whom they’ve accused of not doing enough, if not nothing – to facilitate the setting up of an inquest into the reported brutal and extrajudicial killings of the 29 Sierra Leoneans in 1992.

In a somber rally, draped in marching black clothing, late October 2011, the families in the company of children, stormed several foreign high commissions and hand-delivered a petition, according to Rachael Bangura – whose father was among those executed.

The petition outlined futile efforts taken by the bereaved families in their dogged quest for justice to be meted into the killings of their family members and equally so, for the remains of the deceased to be handed over to them, for proper burial – but to no avail.

There have been unsubstantiated reports that the executed persons were dumped in a mass grave with acid poured over their bodies – but nineteen years later, the site of the most-talked-about mass grave still remains an enigma.

In its final report on Sierra Leone in 2004, after series of public hearing phases, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), heard from about 8,000 people giving accounts of atrocities committed to the people of Sierra Leone by all factions including the National Provisional Ruling.

Ex-junta leader and former Head of State, Valentine Esegragbo Melvin Strasser, during his testimony to the commission, asserted that there was indeed a hatched plot to overthrow his government and that, “a group of officers and civilians had attacked the presidential residence at Kabassa Lodge,” his official residence in Freetown, according to TRC reports.

Damningly, the Commission stated, Mr. Strasser hinted that his government was too busy fighting the rebel war to immediately organise a trial for the alleged coup plotters but, “a trial was subsequently organized after the coup plotters have already been executed.”

More implicating was the testimony of current opposition presidential candidate, Maada Bio – also, a former junta top military brass and later Head of State in ’96, after unseating Strasser as Head of State in a palace coup.

In his testimony, the Commission reported that, Maada Bio claimed some of the alleged coup plotters were taken to the residence of former NPRC second-in-command, Solomon Anthony James (SAJ) Musa (himself killed mysteriously in 2000, during the rebel war) – who personally subjected them to torture.

According to the TRC, Bio said, “When I went there at night, he had actually tortured them very seriously – their ears were cut off and they were practically dead. By daybreak, SAJ realized that they had been really badly tortured in his compound and decided it was better to do away with them than keep them on his hands in this terrible state.”

That was when SAJ Musa allegedly organised the summary executions of the victims, according to Bio’s statement to the TRC, as reported by the Commission - whose mandate, among others, was to impartially create evidence of abuses and violations of human rights and international humanitarian law linked to Sierra Leone’s armed conflict from 1991.

Surmising, the TRC therefore stated: “What is obvious to the Commission is that there was no trial of the suspects. This much was admitted by Captain Strasser at his public testimony before the Commission that the suspects were tried retroactively. The Commission is dumfounded to think that the Government of Captain Strasser, first killed people and then put them on trial,” it concluded.

The executions were widely condemned worldwide and the British government in protest, cancelled an aid package worth £4m in 1993, maintaining the supposed plotters were not allowed an impartial trial.

Events leading to the executions unfolded suddenly; and many people almost immediately doubted and questioned the authenticity of the proclamation of an attempted coup plot - when it was first announced on the airwaves on December 29, 1992.

Then on the 30th, the very next day, came a second announcement that 26 of the coup plotters had been arrested and executed, after a military court-martial trial.
It was later explained that three other alleged coup plotters were killed during a firefight at the presidential lodge, in their attempt to overthrew the strasser regime.

Police officers, military personnel and civilians were also among those executed.
Bambay Kamara, former Inspector General of Police; Colonel Yayah Kanu, former Commanding Officer of the 4th Army Battalion - were actually in prison, months before the alleged coup plot attempt.

Nevertheless, the ex-junta leaders contended that both men were members of the purported foiled plot and therefore deserved to be executed - as was done.

Meanwhile, the US State Department is yet to issue an official response to the petition – which was handed to Michael Owen, US Ambassador to Sierra Leone.