Global Policy Forum

By Chris McGreal

The United Nations and Sierra Leone's government yesterday agreed to establish a unique war crimes tribunal to try those most responsible for atrocities in a civil war noted for its horrific treatment of civilians, particularly children.

The announcement in Freetown came days after the UN officially declared the 10-year conflict over, as the last of 47,000 combatants handed in their weapons.

But the new court will be caught between the popular demand for justice and the realities of peace. Some of those most likely to face charges are now important political players.

The first target of the court is likely to be the detained leader of the rebel Revolutionary United Front, Foday Sankoh, who was captured shortly after British troops intervened in Sierra Leone, nearly two years ago. He is being held at a secret location.

There is a compelling case against Mr Sankoh as the head of a force which systematically raped, enslaved and mutilated thousands of people by cutting off their arms. Children were a favoured target: boys were taken as bearers or to fight, while thousands of girls were kidnapped for sex.

But the court is likely to face charges of selective justice if it does not also prosecute the leaders of other groups responsible for atrocities.

They include the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, which at one time ruled Sierra Leone and then, after the Nigerian army overthrew the council, sided with the RUF. AFRC soldiers committed numerous atrocities, including rape, murder and amputations, while fighting alongside the RUF during the battle of Freetown in January 2000.

The AFRC leader, Johnny Paul Koroma, has been a key supporter of elected President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and is popular with many civilians. Any attempt to put him on trial could further destabilise Sierra Leone. There are also questions about how the court will treat some of Mr Sankoh's commanders, who are expected to play leading roles in turning the RUF into a political party to contest May's presidential and parliamentary elections.

The Sierra Leone tribunal will be the first of the international courts to sit in the country where the crimes were committed. The tribunal at the Hague hears cases from the Balkans, while the Rwanda genocide court is based in Tanzania. The Freetown tribunal, to be called the Special Court, will also be the first where UN and local judges sit side by side. The prosecutor will be foreign.

This unusual set up could open the way for Mr Sankoh and others to be tried under international and national law, for instance for crimes against humanity and the diamond smuggling with which the rebels funded their war. To the disappointment of many Sierra Leoneans who endured abuses, the maximum penalty will be life imprisonment. National law imposes hanging for murder.

There has also been debate about whether to charge the many children who fought for the rebels and committed atrocities. The public would generally like to see them prosecuted, but human rights groups argue that the fighters, who were in their teens or even younger, are also victims. Many children were drugged and forced to fight and many now have profound psychological problems. Some have been rejected by their families.

Technically, children as young as 15 can be prosecuted, but nobody under 18 can be sentenced to prison. But it is unlikely that any child will be prosecuted. The UN's under-secretary general for legal affairs, Hans Correll, said the special court would "focus on very few people who bear the greatest responsibility for what happened in Sierra Leone over the years".

The establishment of the court and the elections scheduled for May are a remarkable turnaround from two years ago, when the rebels began reneging on a peace agreement that gave them seats in the government and a blanket amnesty for the atrocities.

That was apparently not enough for Mr Sankoh. His move to try to topple the government by force exposed the extreme weakness of the UN peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone and prompted the British military intervention.

That kept the RUF from seizing Freetown and led to the revival of the Sierra Leone army, which eventually forced the rebels to agree to end the war and disarm.

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