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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
SIERRA LEONE: War crimes suspect protests at trial by white men
FREETOWN, 24 September 2003 (IRIN) - Santigie Kanu, a member of the military junta that ruled Sierra Leone in the late 1990s, protested that he was being tried by white men as he pleaded not guilty to war crimes and crimes against humanity, at the country's UN-backed Special Court.
"I do not understand why I am standing before white people," he told a court hearing, presided over by Canadian judge Pierre Boutet, on Tuesday.
Kanu's defence lawyer, Ibrahim Yilla, said his client would challenge the jurisdiction of the internationally-staffed court, which was set up with US and British funding to try those responsible for atrocities committed during Sierra Leone's brutal civil war that lasted from 19991 to 2001.
Speaking in Krio - a Sierra Leonean version of pidgin English - Kanu said: "If I have hurt the Sierra Leone people they should take me to the local courts." Looking confused and cornered, he added: "I see all over white men. What am I? Am I not a Sierra Leonean? Just white people around me. I am afraid now."
The court's prosecutor, David Crane, is American and its chief investigator, Alan White is British. But its panel of three trial judges is chaired by a Sierra Leonean, Judge Rosolu Thompson. The court's senior officers were all appointed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and the Sierra Leonean government
Kanu, who is widely known by his nickname "Brigadier Five-Five," was a non-commissioned officer who served on the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, headed by Johnny Paul Koroma, which ruled Sierra Leone from 1997 until 1998.
The military junta tried to join forces with the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel movement, but was swept aside by a Nigerian-led West African intervention force which restored to power elected president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.
Kanu has been in custody for eight months on charges of treason for his alleged part in a failed attack on Wellington Barracks in Freetown on 13 January. The assault was due to have seized arms for an attempted coup.
He was transferred to the care of the Special Court last week after being charged on 17 counts with war crimes and crimes against humanity. On Tuesday he pleaded not guilty to all of them .
Kanu is the 13th person to be charged by the Special Court since it published its first indictments in March and the ninth to be taken into custody.
Two key indictees, former RUF leader Foday Sankoh and his military commander Sam Bockarie have since died and two others are still at large.
Koroma, the former junta leader, went missing in January after the attack on Wellington barracks, in which Kanu was implicated. Former Liberian president Charles Taylor, who is accused of strongly backing the RUF in its policy of murdering and mutilating civilians, has meanwhile been granted political asylum in Nigeria.
Themes: (IRIN) Human Rights
[ENDS]
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