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14 August 2000

War Crimes Court Being Set Up for Sierra Leone

Holbrooke says it would help bring peace to African nation
By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- The U.N. Security Council on August 14 unanimously adopted a U.S.-initiated resolution to establish a special court to try those accused of war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law in Sierra Leone.

After the vote U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke said that the council took an "important step towards truth and justice" in Sierra Leone by voting to ask Secretary-General Kofi Annan to establish the judicial body.

What is significant about the resolution, he explained, is that the court will not distinguish between the atrocities committed during the brutal civil war, which were given amnesty under the Lome peace accords of July 1999, and those committed afterwards. When the Lome accords were signed, the United Nations entered a reservation declaring that it would not recognize the provision as it applies to international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law. Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leader Foday Sankoh was taken into custody earlier this year after his forces took peacekeepers hostage in May and renewed fighting against the government.

Holbrooke stressed that the new court will judge equally the crimes committed by RUF prior to the accords and recent actions by the RUF.

"Let the word go forth ... people are going to be held liable under this approach for actions they committed prior to the Lome agreements if those actions constituted crimes against humanity," he said.

The ambassador said that the council is not worried that RUF rebels will retaliate against the 13,000 U.N. peacekeepers stationed in the country.

"Let the United Nations do the right thing and let the evil people face up to the consequences of their own actions," Holbrooke said. "If the U.N. didn't pass this [resolution], the RUF would be aggressive. If they pass it, the RUF might try to retaliate. But now they know the noose is continuing to close on them."

Sierra Leone Ambassador Ibrahim Kamara congratulated the council for passing the resolution. "It is a very, very bold step, considering the present situation in our country. We believe this is a step forward in bringing sanity to that country," he said.

The vote will assure the people of Sierra Leone that "our country will enjoy peace and justice very, very soon," Kamara said.

The resolution asks the secretary-general to negotiate an agreement with the government of Sierra Leone to create an independent special court that will include international and Sierra Leone jurists, and an appeals process, as well as an alternative to follow if the security situation worsens. It asks Annan to send a team of experts to the country, if necessary, and to report back to the council in 30 days.

The resolution recommends that the court "have personal jurisdiction over persons who bear the greatest responsibility for the commission of crimes ... including those leaders who, in committing such crimes, have threatened the establishment of and implementation of the peace process in Sierra Leone."

The resolution also asks the secretary-general to consider an appeals process, including the advisability and feasibility of sharing the appeals chamber of the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

"This court is going to be of a hybrid nature," Holbrooke told journalists outside the Security Council chambers. "For purposes of speed and efficiency we have not asked the United Nations to set up another international war crimes tribunal such as the ones that exist for Rwanda and Yugoslavia, but rather we have asked the secretary-general to work with the Sierra Leone government for what I would call a 'mixed court,' although the actual phrase is 'special court.'

"We also think the appeals process should have an international character, and we want to keep open the options of a venue of the trials outside Sierra Leone if the security conditions do not permit," the ambassador said.

Holbrooke said that during negations on the resolution he "pushed the hardest" for the appeals court, but he emphasized that he is open to how it should be handled.

The International Tribunals' appeals court, which is located in The Hague, has a difficult workload, he noted, so the resolution asks the secretary-general to study the issue while the rest of the process is being established.

"We have the full support in this of the government of President [Ahmad Tejan] Kabbah and Sierra Leone, and we hope those people who have consistently violated all the rules of international and national behavior, who committed such gross violations of human rights, will understand that the noose continues to tighten around them as this policy evolves and gets more and more firm and robust as we move forward," he said.

Holbrooke also pointed out that RUF fighters "have every opportunity under the Lome agreement, which is still in place, to rejoin the community that is trying to rebuild Sierra Leone. They're welcome to do so."

"The individual foot soldier -- as long as they themselves haven't committed crimes against humanity -- need only apply," he said.

However, the ambassador said that as of now the "RUF leadership has written itself out of any legitimate role" in the reconciliation process.