Special Court Verdict Imminent in Sierra Leone

It was a bru­tal civil war that saw thou­sands maimed and killed. For some in Sierra Leone it was the first time to expe­ri­ence dis­place­ment from their homes. Fam­i­lies were sep­a­rated from loved ones. Chil­dren lost their Mums and Dad’s or both. Houses were burnt down even some towns and vil­lages were com­pletely wiped out of the geog­ra­phy of a coun­try that had never in its his­tory wit­nessed such bar­baric acts of ter­ror by one of its own.

Foday Sankoh and his army of thugs ripped through the heart of Sierra Leone with sav­age intent to kill and maim as many Sierra Leoneans as they could in a ter­ror cam­paign that lasted years and one that saw the world watch­ing as another Rwanda unfolded and could do noth­ing as women were raped and chil­dren as young as seven where forced into ban­ditry and a mil­i­tary war­fare that would scar them for life. It is incom­pre­hen­si­ble that such car­nage could be designed and imple­mented by men and women born and breaded in Sierra Leone.

ECOWAS, The Eco­nomic Com­mu­nity of West African states, that was called to inter­vene to stop this crimes against human­ity, is equally cul­pa­ble for crimes against the peo­ple of Sierra Leone, as accord­ing to reports fully doc­u­mented in media archives; stated that the then Pres­i­dent Tejan Kab­bah gave orders to the West African force to do what­ever nec­es­sary to bring him back to power after he was briefly over­thrown and exiled to neigh­bour­ing Guinea. Ecowas in its quest to get rid of the rebels, who had infil­trated the Cap­i­tal Free­town, attacked the city with fighter jets and bomb­ing civil­ian areas at ran­dom killing hun­dreds if not thou­sands in the process. Tejan Kab­bah may equally be cul­pa­ble of crimes against human­ity but have used his UN influ­ence to sup­press calls for him to face trial as well.

There were also reports of sum­mary exe­cu­tion of rebels by the West African force. When Kab­bah was restored into power he went after those who he alleged where behind his over­throw. Hun­dreds of senior mil­i­tary and police offi­cers were arrested and put on trial with­out any sup­port­ing evi­dence of their involve­ment and some had to face the Gal­lows as Kab­bah went on the ram­page to elim­i­nate those he accused of con­spir­acy. Kab­bah expected all politi­cians and mil­i­tary per­son­nel in Free­town dur­ing the coup to have fol­lowed him to Guinea in Sol­i­dar­ity as a few oth­ers did; fail­ing to do so you are auto­mat­i­cally a sus­pect of plot­ting against the gov­ern­ment. Kab­bah seized on the oppor­tu­nity to incar­cer­ate mem­bers of the oppo­si­tion in an effort to sup­press any chal­lenge to his dra­con­ian acts. It is with­out doubt that Kab­bah him­self should be inves­ti­gated for crimes against his peo­ple. His hands are stained with the blood of some of Sierra Leones’s finest men and women. He is indeed a criminal.

As the trial of those who have been charged with atroc­i­ties in the rebel war comes to a close, Sierra Leoneans around the world will take time to reflect on the path their coun­try has taken and how a few men defined these ter­ri­ble moments in the his­tory of our coun­try. The UN Backed court in Sierra Leone is about to hand its ver­dict on three of the most vicious and dan­ger­ous rebel lead­ers who took ter­ror into the face of their own peo­ple with dis­dain and repug­nance that had no moral com­pass as guide.

Issa Sesay, Mau­rice Kallon and Augus­tine Gbao are about to learn their fate; but will the ver­dicts bring jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for the mil­lions of dol­lars spent on pros­e­cut­ing the case; or would it be seen as jus­tice being served to those who still can’t come to terms with why a peace lov­ing nation like ours could have been allowed to wit­ness this fero­cious tyranny that will for­ever paint a dark side of our his­tory?

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Tags:  Crimes Against Humanity, rebel war, special court.Foday Sankoh

By Ahmed M Kamara