RIGHTS-SIERRA LEONE: ICC Long Overdue

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Jul 2 1998 (IPS) - While delegates in Rome continue the debate on the proposed International Criminal Court (ICC), Sierra Leoneans have given their nod of approval for a place where war criminals can be tried.

After enduring years of civil war waged by rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and now, attacks on civilians by the ousted Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) junta, people here say the ICC is an institution long overdue.

“The Criminal Court is a brilliant idea, because those innocent civilians whose limbs and ears are violently slashed off by rebel troops, do deserve justice,” said the Minister for Presidential Affairs Momodu Koroma.

“Sierra Leone’s case is much more horrendous and here we have children, sometimes as young as eight, having their limbs and body parts severed off by retreating junta forces with machetes,” Koroma told IPS.

The West African nation’s Chief Justice, Desmond Luke, echoed this view. “The Court would certainly deter roving criminals from carrying out untold cruelties against civilians, so it is a welcomed move,” he told IPS.

Since the AFRC was ousted by the Nigerian-led West African Peacekeeping Force (ECOMOG) in February, remnant soldiers have killed, raped and amputated the limbs of civilians in the rural areas. Thousands of Sierra Leoneans are once again displaced and on the move to escape the gangs of marauding soldiers.

“We want reconciliation and national unity, but this would only come about after justice has been meted to the perpetrators of heinous crimes against civilians,” said the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Solomon Berewa.

The country’s media this week also focused on the Rome negotiations and the need for an International Criminal Court. The establishment of an ICC, said the independent ‘Observer’ newspaper would be a strong signal to the ousted AFRC junta.

“The time is up and these rebel bandits who think it’s fun to set ablaze residential homes with dozens of women and children locked inside should know now the world is ready to bring them to justice,” the newspaper said in this week’s edition.

Another weekly, ‘The Star’, catalogued the rebels atrocities and urged the international community to set up a strong, independent ICC. “What the retreating junta troops are committing against civilians is nothing short of genocide, with dozens of women and children massacred on a daily basis. Therefore, the idea of the criminal court is just too timely,” the paper said in an editorial.

Peter Sesay has had first-hand experience with the rebels and believes that an international Court would serve the interest of people like him. “Look at me. Both my limbs were chopped off by irate junta troops three weeks ago,” said Sesay who comes from the eastern district of Kono, where the AFRC rebels still operate.

“I want the perpetrators of this act to be brought to justice,” he said in an interview in Freetown, the Sierra Leone capital city, where he is being treated.

The West African nation’s civilian government, backed by ECOMOG forces which provide security in the country, has urged some neighbouring states to extradite top junta officials who are commanding the rebels from safe distances. Several of the former junta’s leaders are said to be in Liberia.

“We believe those neighbouring countries which harbour junta functionaries should be pressured by the international community to extradite them so that they can face trial,” an aide to Sierra Leone’s President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah told IPS Thursday.