RIGHTS-SIERRA LEONE: Setting up Truth/Reconciliation Commission

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Jul 9 2002 (IPS) - Following the holding of general and presidential elections in May, the authorities in this impoverished West African country have started the process of healing the wounds of a devastating civil conflict through the setting up of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

“We should see the work of the TRC as a therapeutic process,” said President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah who swore-in the commissioners on Friday. “I know it will be painful or even humiliating for some people to relate their experiences as perpetrators, victims or observers of abuses during ten years of war.”

Over the weekend, the commission’s chairperson Bishop Joseph Humper told IPS the TRC would be impartial and endeavour to document cases of rights abuses, as well as bringing together victims and perpetrators together to tell their stories.

“The TRC is a family affair,” Bishop Humper said. “We will ensure that whatever information is given whether open or in camera, will not be used to prosecute individuals.”

Sierra Leone, with a population of about five million went through a decade-long civil war that erupted in Mar 1991. Rebels calling themselves the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), then led by cashiered army corporal Foday Sankoh, waged a vicious guerrilla campaign against the government in Freetown.

More than 200,000 people were killed, hundreds of civilians mutilated and several towns and hundreds of villages burnt down.

The rebels only gave up the armed struggle last year and declared the war over, after demobilising their forces along with thousands of pro-government militia.

Now, the TRC will investigate and report on causes, nature and extent of the violations and abuses of human rights during the conflict. It also aims to create an impartial historical record of the atrocities perpetrated against civilians in the course of the war.

A team of Argentinian forensic analysts is already in town under the auspices of the United Nations, to examine slaughterhouses in order to put together evidence for the TRC as well as the proposed UN special criminal court for Sierra Leone. The TRC will commence its operations in three months, but the commission has already complained of lack of funds.

“We are in the preparatory stage and are appealing to all Sierra Leoneans as well as the international community to assist the commission with whatever they could to enable us do our job,” Bishop Humper told IPS.

The TRC chairperson also said that the model in Sierra Leone is different from that established in post-apartheid South Africa. “The South African model focused on the racist monster called apartheid while in Sierra Leone we are looking at crimes committed during the bloody civil conflict.”

The commissioners, numbering seven, including three expatriates, claim they are not subject to the dictates of any other body both local and international. The TRC also does not have the power to prosecute individuals.

Meanwhile, reactions to the setting up of the TRC in Sierra Leone have been sharp both among the civilian population and ex-combatants.

“We need the TRC if we are to foster genuine national reconciliation,” remarked housewife Marie Kamara whose daughter was allegedly raped by rebel forces during the war. “Our wounds are still fresh and hurting. So if we are to forgive the perpetrators, then they must come forward and own up to their crimes.”

A former rebel commander, who prefers anonymity, told IPS “I am prepared to face the TRC provided I am not arrested and prosecuted. I believe the war is over and so we should let sleeping dogs lie.”

John Conteh, a political analyst, doubted whether the main perpetrators would be willing to face the commission. “These people have not been sufficiently educated to encourage them to face such a commission. They may simply be terrified.”

Apart from the TRC, a UN special criminal court is underway to try those believed to bear the greatest responsibility for gross human rights violations.

The UN Under Secretary General for legal affairs Ralph Zacklin said in Freetown that the court will target no particular group. “It will look across the board, we are talking here of those political and military leaders that were greatly responsible for the horrible crimes committed during Sierra Leone’s civil war,” he told IPS recently.

That court has not commenced its operations yet, nor have its potential suspects been named. However corporal Sankoh of the RUF who is currently being detained and facing murder charges in a local court is believed to be a prime suspect.