Tribunal indicts rebel leader
2003-03-11 09:07
Freetown - Sierra Leone's international war crimes tribunal issued its first indictments on Monday against seven former warlords, including imprisoned rebel leader Foday Sankoh whose followers gained infamy with a campaign of chopping off hands, legs, ears and lips of innocent civilians.
Also charged was Internal Affairs Minister Samuel Hinga Norman, who was arrested and cuffed on Monday by police who surrounded him in his office in the capital.
Hinga Norman, the former deputy defense minister, orchestrated attacks by a pro-government militia of traditional hunters called the Kamajors whose alleged human rights abuses during the country's 1991-2000 civil war torturing and summarily executing opponents and recruiting child fighters.
Sankoh, whose Revolutionary United Front launched a vicious insurgency to control the country's government and diamond fields in 1991, will be among the first to go to trial, said David Crane, the court's American chief prosecutor.
The rebels' signature atrocity was cutting off the appendages of civilians in a tactic to spread fear among opponents.
Sankoh has been in prison since being captured in early 2000 after his fighters gunned down more than a dozen protesters outside his Freetown home.
"Today the people of Sierra Leone took back control of their lives and their future," Crane told reporters. "The dark days of the rule of the gun are over."
Crane said crimes alleged within the indictments include murder, rape, enslavement, looting and burning, sexual slavery, conscripting children and attacking humanitarian workers and UN peacekeepers.
Crane did not reveal when the cases would be heard. Court officials have been reluctant to give many details in advance for fear of jeopardising the safety of trial participants.
The court was launched by an agreement between the United Nations and Sierra Leone to try serious violations of international and Sierra Leonean humanitarian law since November 30, 1996, when Sankoh's rebels signed a peace accord with the government that was supposed to end five years of war.
That peace deal was followed by a military coup and several more years of fighting until the end of 2000.
Also indicted is Johnny Paul Koroma, a former junta leader who is wanted by Sierra Leone's government in connection with a failed January coup attempt - the first since peace returned to the country.
Koroma, who allied himself with Sankoh's rebels in overthrowing Sierra Leone's civilian government in 1997, is currently at large.
Since elections were held last year, in which Sankoh's rebels stood for parliament without winning a single seat, a shaky peace has emerged, protected by nearly 17 000 United Nations troops - the world body's largest deployment anywhere.
Sierra Leone's war crimes tribunal differs from those of Rwanda and Yugoslavia as it will be held in the country and have a mix of local and international prosecutors and judges.
The court is expected to operate for three years on a budget of just under US$60 million, paid for by contributions from about 20 countries, including the United States and Britain. - Sapa-AP
- SAPA