By Daniel Flynn

GRAFTON, Sierra Leone, Aug 10 (Reuters) - For many in West Africa, a decade of civil wars has become just a terrible memory, but Mamou Su Toronka cannot leave the past behind.

The poor Sierra Leonean was dragged from her home eight years ago by Revolutionary United Front rebels who hacked off her left hand at the wrist. Today she earns living begging on the streets of the capital Freetown.

"They killed my brother, they raped my sister and took her away," said the 42-year-old, who has three children. "I pray to God we never suffer like that again."

From Liberia to Ivory Coast, West Africa's savage civil wars have ended and fragile democracies are taking root, but the causes of the region's nightmare decade still linger.

Sierra Leone will hold its first presidential elections on Saturday since the departure of U.N. peacekeepers two years ago, with high unemployment and rampant corruption -- two causes of its 1991-2002 civil war -- high on the agenda.

Nearly two-thirds of Sierra Leone's youths lack jobs, many finding solace in drugs, and there is widespread anger at the ruling Sierra Leone People's Party, which has failed to provide water, electricity or roads despite generous foreign aid.

Some ex-rebels languish in Freetown's slums or scrape a living in the transport sector.

"If somebody gives a call for arms would they answer that call? My guess is that maybe the majority of them would answer it," said Allan Quee, founder of the PRIDE non-governmental organisation which deals with ex-combatants in Sierra Leone.

LIBERIA FRAGILE

Scores of jobless young ex-combatants crossed from Sierra Leone into Guinea in February in hope of earning money as fighters when opposition unions clashed with the military supporting President Lansana Conte, Quee said.

Others have been working as illegal tappers in rubber plantations in Liberia, which was for many years the epicentre of regional instability under former warlord Charles Taylor.

The precariousness of Liberia's recovery from its 1989-2003 civil war was underscored this year when the government foiled a coup plot by a former army chief. Elected two years ago in U.N.-backed polls, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has the backing of 17,500 peacekeepers.

"Peace in Liberia and Ivory Coast helped improve the neighbourhood," said Victor Angelo, head of the U.N. mission in Sierra Leone.

"But if they go wrong, these countries will destabilise not only their domestic situation but the whole region."

A peace process in Ivory Coast due to lead to elections next year to reunite the former French colony narrowly missed upset in June when the ex-rebel chief, Prime Minister Guillaume Soro, escaped an assassination bid.

For many observers, Guinea is central. Conte's weakening grip, shaken by the strikes which forced him to name a consensus government, has raised fears of a power struggle.

Long and porous borders with Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ivory Coast mean any conflict in Guinea could easily spread.

"With Guinea, there is a threat of spill-over effect. We increased border patrols around the time of the general strikes," said Brigadier Iain David Cholerton, head of the British military mission in Sierra Leone. "But it's not the borders which are the real threat here. Jobs are the key."

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