Diamond In the Rough

GEORGES GOBET/AFP

His war-ravaged and impoverished country ranks dead last in the United Nations' latest tally of development levels around the world, but Sierra Leone's newly re-elected President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah sees reason for optimism even in that ignominious distinction. "I hope it will send a very powerful message to our people that we should learn to live in peace together and work hard to reconstruct our country," he says. "It's not a pleasant thing to be rated as trailing all the other countries in the world."

When Kabbah, a former civil servant and longtime U.N. official — the U.N....

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