War Child Defends His Story

The author of a best-selling memoir about being a child soldier in Sierra Leone defended himself on Tuesday against reports that suggested he took license with the chronology of his book.

The book, "A Long Way Gone," by Ishmael Beah, describes its author being recruited into the Sierra Leone army after rebels attacked his village, killing his family. According to the book, the attack took place in 1993, and Mr. Beah spent two years in the army before entering a rehabilitation center in January 1996.

An article on Saturday in the Weekend Australian quoted a chief in a nearby village saying that the attack on Mr. Beah's village actually took place in 1995, which would mean that Mr. Beah was in the army for only a few months.

The article also quoted the principal of a secondary school, Abdul Barry, who claimed he remembered Mr. Beah being a student there in 1993 and 1994.

In a statement released on Tuesday by his publisher, Farrar Straus & Giroux, Mr. Beah stood firmly by the chronology of his account. "My story, as I remember it and wrote it, began in 1993 when rebels 'attacked the mining areas' (my words from the book) in my village while I was away with friends. I never saw my family again," the statement read.

"The Australian, presumably, is basing their defamation of me on reports that the Sierra Rutile Mine was closed down by rebels in 1995. But there were rebels in my region, my village, and my life in 1993. They attacked throughout 1993 and 1994 before closing down the mine."

Mr. Beah's statement also quoted the National Chairman of the Campaign for Just Mining in Freetown, Leslie Mboka, defending Mr. Beah's description of the timing of attacks.

"'The rebels made sporadic attacks on the mining communities between '93 and '94, leading up to and in preparation for the major assault in '95,'" Mr. Mboka is quoted as saying. "'Ishmael was caught in one of the earlier attacks.'"

Mr. Beah said he had never heard of Mr. Barry, the man who claimed to have been his principal, and that the principal of his school was named Mr. Sidiki Brahima.

Mr. Beah's book has sold more than 600,000 copies around the world. Before publication, it was excerpted in the New York Times Magazine.

The Australian's investigation seems to have been triggered by a tip from an Australian mining engineer, who claimed that he had found Mr. Beah's father, still alive and working in the Sierra Rutile mine. The newspaper's own inquiry revealed that the man was only a relative, the article on Saturday said.

Mr. Beah, in his statement, said he had told the Australian for months, through his publisher, his agent, and his adoptive American mother, that the man in question was not his father. "I was right about my family. I am right about my story," he said. He said the Australian's reporters had contacted his college professors and published his adoptive mother's address, "so she now receives ugly threats. ... [A]pparently, they believe anything they are told — unless it comes from me or supports my account. Sad to say, my story is all true."