HUMAN RIGHTS-SIERRA LEONE: Mass Graves Unearthed

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Apr 7 1998 (IPS) - The discovery of a series of mass graves in this West African nation has heightened fears for the lives of civilians still held hostage by remnants of a military junta ousted in late February and their rebel allies.

In early April, civil defence forces operating in the southern district of Bonthe discovered two mass graves containing more than 500 decomposed bodies.

“We became suspicious of the site because of the stench and when we saw dozens of vultures hovering and an assortment of torn clothes littered around,” said Murray Sandi, a 26-year-old member of the Kamajors. He was referring to the first of the two sites, which contained about 300 bodies.

The Kamajors are a militia force made up of traditional hunters who fought on the side of the state against Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels while the insurgents were fighting against the army.

When the RUF rallied to the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) that toppled elected president Ahmed Tejan Kabbah in May 1997, the Kamajors fought against the combined AFRC and its new allies. They kept on fighting until the junta was ousted in late February by ECOMOG, a peacekeeping force deployed in Sierra Leone by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which reinstated Tejan Kabbah.

Sandi said the clothing found in and around the mass grave included women’s dresses as well as men’s wear, while a few other personal belongings were scattered around.

Elders in the area, which is about six hours by sea from Freetown, said that the bodies were those of civilians killed six weeks ago by retreating AFRC forces, who had bombarded the island of Bonthe, believing it to be a kamajor stronghold.

“We have to be aware of the health risks involved as many of these killings and burials were done in the last three weeks of February,” said David Kamara of Handicap International, a non- governmental organisation (NGO) that has been monitoring the situation.

The Democrat, an independent tabloid, reported in its weekend edition that the majority of the victims were women and children. “These criminals must be made to pay for their horrible deeds,” it wrote in a front-page article titled ‘Junta Genocide — 550 slaughtered’.

While the corpses have since been reburied by the Kamajors, health officials from Bonthe district said cholera had broken out in the area.

Mass graves have also been discovered over the past two weeks in the town of Bo, 270 kms from Freetown and administrative capital of the Southern District. Sources told IPS that one grave had more than 100 decomposed bodies.

Sam Lappia, a medical officer in Bo, said he was convinced that the corpses were those of civilians “who may either have refused to cooperate with the rebel/military AFRC junta or were killed by the heavy bombardments from junta troops”.

More mass graves have been found in the eastern town of Kenema, around 300 kms from the capital, and one of them contained the body of a former minister, Brima Massaquoi. Burnt out homes with charred bodies locked inside have also been discovered in some areas vacated by the AFRC/RUF.

“These are instances of rebel atrocities perpetrated on innocent people and the culprits must be tried for genocide and war crimes,” commented Mustapha Conteh, a legal consultant here. “These rebels are heartless and they must be made to pay for their dastardly crimes against humanity.”

The ECOMOG (ECOWAS Monitoring Group) troops have been conducting mopping-up operations against pockets of rebels in various parts of the country. The main battleground is now the eastern diamond-rich district of Kono.

However, ECOMOG has had to proceed carefully there, according to an ECOMOG ground commander. “We understand that up to 2000 civilians are presently being held by the rebels as hostages whom, they may want to use as human shields,” he said. “That is why we are working on a precise strategy to dislodge the bandits from Kono once and for all.”

People from the area spoke of massacres perpetrated by the AFRC/RUF, but also admitted that civilians had retaliated in places taken from the former junta forces. Alusine Small-Say-Ni, a vigilante youth, said he had participated in the necklacing of members of the AFRC/RUF around Koidu, the commercial capital of Kono.

“We discovered three mass graves on the outskirts of Koidu and one of them contained at least 22 junta forces,” he said. “Ours was basically an act of revenge killings. We saw the mass graves of civilians and so we went after the soldiers and meted out the same punishment to them.”

More evidence of the atrocities committed by the AFRC/RUF is likely to be unearthed as ECOMOG, the Kamajors and vigilante groups pursue their strategy of searching for mass graves in each area from which the forces loyal to the former junta are pushed.