December 5, 2002
Sierra Leoneans who had their limbs chopped off in a brutal 10-year civil war said on Thursday they would boycott a UN tribunal probing war crimes because they were being ignored by the government and the international community.
Andrew Allieu, secretary general of an amputees' association, said in a statement that while major efforts had been made to re-settle former rebels and renegade soldiers who took part in the war, their victims had been overlooked.
Allieu said the amputees had to "resort to begging to survive". Between 100 000 and 200 000 people are believed to have been killed in the war, launched by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group in 1991.
Thousands of civilians had their limbs hacked off. Mass rape was also used to terrorise the population.
The United Nations and the Sierra Leone government signed an agreement after the civil war was formally declared ended in January to set up a tribunal to probe crimes against humanity and war crimes. Allieu said officials of the tribunal, also known as the Special Court, had asked amputees to testify but they had turned down the appeal.
"We explained that we will be willing to cooperate provided the provision for war victims in the Lome Accord is honoured," he said, referring to an accord inked earlier in the Togolese capital which called for the establishment of a fund to compensate all amputees.
The fund has not been set up so far.
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