First S Leone war crimes verdicts

FREETOWN – Sierra Leone’s special war crimes court handed down its first verdicts yesterday, finding three leaders of a militia guilty of war crimes that include killing, raping and mutilating civilians.

The verdicts against Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu stem from charges related to Sierra Leone’s 1991-2002 civil war that also target former Liberian President Charles Taylor, facing a separate trial in The Hague. The three men were commanders of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), former government soldiers who split from the army and sided with the RUF rebels during the conflict that devastated the former British colony.”They were found guilty but not on all counts,” said Peter Andersen, a spokesman for the Special Court for Sierra Leone.The UN-backed tribunal found them guilty on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity which covered terrorising the civilian population, unlawful killings, rape, the use of child soldiers, abductions and forced labour, and looting.No judgement was entered on two counts of sexual violence while the three were found not guilty on one count of physical violence, Andersen said.The men, all of whom pleaded not guilty, were due to be sentenced on July 16.”Captured women and girls were raped …AFRC/RUF also physically mutilated men, women and children, including carving ‘AFRC’ and ‘RUF’ on their bodies,” the prosecution said in its indictment against them.The Special Court for Sierra Leone was set up jointly by the former British colony’s government and the United Nations in 2002 to try those deemed most responsible for human rights violations during the later stages of a 1991-2002 civil war.It initially issued 13 indictments against leaders from all three of the main warring factions during Sierra Leone’s conflict, but three suspects have since died and the whereabouts of one is unknown.The AFRC staged a coup on May 25 1997, ousting President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah just six months after he signed a peace deal.They then joined with the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in a bid to gain control of Sierra Leone’s diamond mines.Nampa-ReutersThe three men were commanders of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), former government soldiers who split from the army and sided with the RUF rebels during the conflict that devastated the former British colony.”They were found guilty but not on all counts,” said Peter Andersen, a spokesman for the Special Court for Sierra Leone.The UN-backed tribunal found them guilty on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity which covered terrorising the civilian population, unlawful killings, rape, the use of child soldiers, abductions and forced labour, and looting.No judgement was entered on two counts of sexual violence while the three were found not guilty on one count of physical violence, Andersen said.The men, all of whom pleaded not guilty, were due to be sentenced on July 16.”Captured women and girls were raped …AFRC/RUF also physically mutilated men, women and children, including carving ‘AFRC’ and ‘RUF’ on their bodies,” the prosecution said in its indictment against them.The Special Court for Sierra Leone was set up jointly by the former British colony’s government and the United Nations in 2002 to try those deemed most responsible for human rights violations during the later stages of a 1991-2002 civil war.It initially issued 13 indictments against leaders from all three of the main warring factions during Sierra Leone’s conflict, but three suspects have since died and the whereabouts of one is unknown.The AFRC staged a coup on May 25 1997, ousting President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah just six months after he signed a peace deal.They then joined with the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in a bid to gain control of Sierra Leone’s diamond mines.Nampa-Reuters