FIRST SENTENCES OF THE SPECIAL TRIBUNAL FOR SIERA-LEONE: ANOTHER VICTORY FOR INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE

Rebel forces raped and mutilated defenceless innocent civilians

Sierra Leone’s UN-backed war crimes court has sentenced three leaders of a militia for war crimes including murder, rape and mutilating civilians.

Alex Tamba Brima and Santigie Borbor Kanu were jailed for 50 years each and Brima Kamara for 45 years.

All three were senior members of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council that toppled the government in 1997.

They are the first sentences given by the court, following the end of Sierra Leone’s civil war five years ago.

The three defendants have the right to appeal.

If they lose they are likely to serve their prison sentences in Europe rather than Sierra Leone because of security concerns, court officials said.

The charges linked them to fighters from the rebel Revolutionary United Front, who raped women, burned villages, conscripted thousands of child soldiers and forced others to work as labourers in diamond mines.

“The three accused persons have committed violations of human rights in which civilians were mutilated, [and] other civilians were killed and burnt in their houses,” Judge Julia Sebutinde said, passing sentence in the capital Freetown.

“They also were participants in abducting children for slavery and as child soldiers,” she said.

The court has indicted a total of 12 people in connection with the war, including the former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who is accused of backing the RUF.

Mr Taylor is on trial in The Hague because of fears that trying him in West Africa could jeopardise the new-found peace of Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Three of those indicted, including RUF leader Foday Sankoh, died before their verdicts were delivered.