SIERRA LEONE-HUMAN RIGHTS: Summary Executions

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Jun 13 1997 (IPS) - An Anti-Looting Squad set up by the new military authorities in Sierra Leone has executed at least 10 suspected criminals, mostly soldiers and ex-rebels, in recent days.

The biggest single execution was that of four soldiers who tried to rape a group of nuns at their residence in the east end of Freetown and plunder the building. The four were shot this week by the Squad and their bodies dumped into the sea.

The killings are seen here as a bid by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) to save its image, tarnished by the massive looting and destruction of property that have followed its May 25 coup against elected president Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.

At the start of this week, the ruling junta announced on state radio that “looters will be shot on sight” and warned soldiers not on duty to report to military headquarters.

One of the things that appear to have contributed to the disorder is the arrival in the capital of hundreds of former rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), instructed to support the AFRC in a message their leader, Foday Sankoh, managed to get to them although he is in protective custody in Nigeria.

Members of the RUF, which now calls itself the People’s Army, can be seen parading in Freetown, armed to the teeth, desperate, and hungry, and they do not appear to be under any central command.

The chaotic situation in the Sierra Leone capital has many of its residents worried. “We don’t sleep at night at all,” 40-year- old James Conteh, who lives in the eastern suburb of Clara Town, told IPS on Thursday. “The armed robbers shot and killed one trader on Tuesday amd more than five homes have been broken into in the past four days. I am really frightened.”

People here generally believe that many of the armed robberies carried out since the coup have been the work of the RUF.

RUF commander ‘Colonel’ Sam Bockarie, alias ‘Mosquito’, has warned his men that any members of the People’s Army who commited such crimes would be shot, but this has not allayed the fears of Freetown residents, many of whom are terrified by the sight of heavily armed teenage rebels and soldiers on the streets.

While some of the armed robberies have been attributed to the RUF, even more have been blamed on criminals the soldiers released from prison when they sprang their comrades — including AFRC leader Johnny Paul Koroma — who had been jailed in connection with earlier coup attempts.

Some of these criminals were given military combat fatigues and arms to help in the May 25 takeover.

However, the AFRC announced this week on state radio and TV that it would apprehend all hardened criminals who “benefitted” from the jail break and send them back to prison. The formation of the Anti-Looting Squad is apparently part of that effort.

In mid-week, a gang of 12 uniformed armed robbers died when their vehicle, which was being pursued by the Squad in the east of the city, crashed after the driver lost control of it.

At Elizabeth Lane in the west of the capital, an armed robber was hacked to pieces by the squad, which decapitated another man, identified only as Bockarie. Members of the squad then took the head to Bockarie’s home and recovered an assortment of stolen property after allegedly using threats to force his mother to show them where he had hidden the goods.

“The Anti-Looting Squad is vicious and efficient,” remarked Josephine Coker, a resident of west Freetown. “My only fear is that some of the armed robbers are soldiers and rebels so I’m not so sure how long the squad will take to clean up Freetown.”

What compounds the situation is that neither the judiciary nor the prison system has been functioning since the coup. Judges, lawyers and other civil officials have stayed away from work as part of a civil disobedience campaign against the AFRC.

Moreover, the Pademba Road Maximum Security Prison was partly destroyed when the soldiers broke into it on May 25 and freed over 500 prisoners.

“Where would they take the armed robbers?” asked barrister Sulaiman Banja Tejan-Sie, chairman of the Civil Liberties Organisation. “These were the same inmates that were freed by the coup plotters. I believe that is why they are resorting to summary executions.”

Human rights groups have condemned the executions and called for a restoration of constitutional rule, while capital residents have been urging the AFRC to confine all combattants to barracks as a way of curbing the armed robberies.