IRIN Focus on the challenges of reconciliation

At a routine consultative meeting last year in Sierra Leone's northeastern town of Makeni between UN staff, Sierra Leone government officials and leaders of the former rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), former rebel spokesman Gibril Massaquoi raised a "burning issue". He said he wanted more information on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the proposed UN Special War Crimes Court for Sierra Leone, and his interlocutors spent quite a bit of time explaining what the two institutions were. This scenario has since been repeated in many other meetings because ordinary people are still largely ignorant about these institutions, a Sierra Leonean official said. Matters are not helped by the fact that the dark memories, the official added, are "still fresh and the reminders are all around us". The "reminders" are evident to visitors as soon as they arrive in the capital, Freetown. At Mammy Yoko helipad, where helicopters from the international airport at Lungi drop off passengers coming into Freetown, young Joseph Fofanah - perhaps 13 years old - walks up to one of the cars taking the visitors to their various destinations. Without a word, he holds up the remnants of his arms - amputated above the elbows by combatants during the war - and begs for help. Other amputees do likewise. "I don't know what the TRC or the Special Court is. I have nothing to say about him [the person who cut off his arms] but just help me with something to eat," Joseph says when asked if he would be willing to appear before either of the two institutions to give information on the circumstances surrounding his amputation. A humanitarian worker said apathy towards the two institutions needs to be addressed. "Sierra Leone’s judicial systems collapsed during the decade of war. The two new institutions shall be an important stopgap measure while the country reorganises its own judiciary. But building understanding and trust in them remains a big challenge," he told IRIN in Freetown. President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, while swearing in the seven TRC commissioners on 5 July, expressed the urgency of the challenge thus: "The guns may have fallen silent or been destroyed, but the trauma of the war lingers on. We have a lot of healing to do, especially since many of the perpetrators of the atrocities were also victims of widespread abuses of human rights and humanitarian law related to armed conflict." The Truth and Reconciliation Commission The TRC was created under the auspices of the Lome Peace Agreement of 1999 between Sierra Leone's government and the RUF, which paved the way for the end of the war. It is intended "to address impunity, break the cycle of violence, provide a forum for both victims and perpetrators of human rights violations to tell their story and get a clear picture of the past in order to facilitate genuine healing and reconciliation... from 1991". It will report to the President at the end of its term, according to the parliamentary act that established it. Modeled on past commissions in Chile, Guatemela and South Africa, the TRC hopes to investigate and report on the causes, nature and extent of human rights violations that occurred in the country, help restore the human dignity of victims, and promote reconciliation. It expects to receive statements from the public and begin hearings in October. But the TRC has started on a difficult note with barely a tenth of its 12-month budget in place. At the time the commissioners were sworn in, it had received under US $1.5 million in cash and pledges - far short of its $9.6 million budget, TRC Executive Secretary Yasmin Jusu-Sheriff told reporters. "Without firm commitments, the commission cannot plan how to carry out its work," Jusu-Sheriff said. "The commission has a limited time for its operations, exactly 12 months. It will be an unfortunate distraction from its [objectives] for the Commission to be fundraising simultaneously with its other activities." Staff at the commission's head office on Freetown’s bustling Pademba road said they lacked basic facilities. "We are embarking on the tasks ahead, especially countrywide sensitisation, but we are so constrained that we hire public transport to go on sensitisation missions. Yet this is the best opportunity that this country has to heal its deep wounds," Ozonnia Ojielo, Operations Advisor, told IRIN. The commission is expected to operate side by side with the Special Court. The UN Special Court The court is still at the establishment stage. Estimates are that it will eventually cost about $56 million. A skeptical official in Freetown told IRIN some of that money should have been used instead to strengthen the country’s own judicial system. The court was set up under an agreement signed in January 2002 by the government of Sierra Leone and the UN "to prosecute persons who bear the greatest responsibility" for serious violations of international humanitarian and Sierra Leonean law which have taken place since 30 November 1996, the date of a failed peace agreement between the government and the RUF. The tribunal will have power to prosecute those who committed crimes against civilians, including murder, torture and rape, as well as those who "committed or ordered the commission of serious violations against the Geneva Convention". However it will not have jurisdiction over anyone who was under the age of 15 years at the time of the alleged crime, the agreement said. Among the people likely to face the court is former rebel leader Foday Sankoh. Jailed with other RUF members on charges relating to the death of about 20 demonstrators outside his house in May 2000, Sankoh is largely viewed as the architect of the atrocities perpetrated by the RUF. The process of creating the court started in 2000 with the adoption of UN Security Council resolution 1315, in which the Secretary-General was asked to negotiate its creation with the Sierra Leonean government. In January 2002, a planning team led by UN Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Ralph Zacklin visited Sierra Leone to examine practical arrangements for its operation. The team said that by the third quarter of 2002, the judges would have been appointed, the offices of the Prosecutor and the Registry would be functioning in Freetown and construction of permanent premises started. In April 2002, Annan appointed a senior attorney with the US Department of Defense, David Crane, as the chief prosecutor of the court and Robin Vincent of the United Kingdom as registrar. The court hopes to start business in late 2003. Public awareness of the commission But many Sierra Leoneans are unclear about the roles of the Special Court and the TRC and are worried about overlaps in their responsibilities. A leading civil society group, the Campaign for Good Governance, wrote in March to then Attorney General Solomon Berewa (now vice president) expressing concern over a lack of clarity in the roles of the two institutions. Berewa said the TRC, "far from being fault-finding and punitive, is to serve as the most legitimate and credible forum for victims to reclaim their human worth, a channel for perpetrators to expiate their guilt. The process has been likened to a national catharsis involving truth telling, respectful listening and compensation for victims. "The court is to operate as an international entity subject to international criminal law. Its objects are entirely punitive and, like any court, will apply predetermined laws and rules of procedure. It is by no means a cheap exercise." But ordinary Sierra Leoneans remain wary. "The main problem is the question of motivation. Suppose I was a victim, why should I go to the TRC? How does it help me? Maybe I'd rather go to the Special Court where penalties may be handed down on the perpetrators. But even then how sure can I be that justice will be delivered?" Ibrahim Kowah, a hotel employee in Freetown, said. The TRC has been conducting an extensive public awareness programme to explain to Sierra Leoneans what it is supposed to do. The programme includes a radio and television campaign involving skits, jingles, drama, discussions and phone-in programmes. The commission is negotiating memoranda of understanding with various radio and television stations to air its messages. It is also planning workshops for journalists and newspaper articles, supplements and advertisements. Sensitisation programmes to be conducted in conjunction with major NGOs and civil society groups are also being drawn up, while commission staff are scheduled to visit most parts of the country to spread the message of truth and reconciliation in villages, schools and communities. Commission staff see the TRC as complementary to the general culture of tolerance that was characteristic of Sierra Leoneans. They say there had always been a tradition, inherent in the various ethnic groups, of resolving differences and disputes amicably through dialogue and of taking measures of appeasement and penalty acceptable to both victim and culprit without resort to violence. Some diplomats in Freetown were skeptical: "There is a need to support the commission, but how do you guarantee reconciliation in such a fragile situation? Yes, the stories will be told, but people will go back to live with the amputees in the same community. How do you guarantee that revenge will not occur?" a European envoy said. "Genuine reconciliation is in the mind" Sierra Leone witnessed one of the most brutal rebel wars the world has ever seen, starting in March 1991 when RUF rebels, supported by the Liberian warlord Charles Taylor - now president - crossed from Liberia to attack Kailahun District. The ensuing 10-year civil war, which ended in January 2002, devastated economic, political and social life of Sierra Leone. A report released in January 2002 by Physicians for Human Rights, which documented the brutality, said 53 percent of displaced women and girls who had face-to-face contact with RUF rebels experienced some form of sexual violence. The rate for women who had had contact with other groups of fighters was six percent. One third of those who reported sexual assault said they were gang-raped. The NGO noted the need for education and adequate protection and support for survivors as "thousands of women in Sierra Leone may be willing to testify to the TRC about these crimes". It urged the Special Court "to prioritize crimes of sexual violence and ensure the protection of witnesses". But it also noted that "of the respondents, 42 percent thought their perpetrators should be punished. The most common reason cited for not punishing a perpetrator were the spirit of reconciliation, fear of reprisal, no confidence in the system or wanting to forget about the incident". Only 35 percent of the women believed punishment would prevent further sexual violence and only 23 percent were willing to give their names to either the Special Court or the TRC. At least 60,000 ex-combatants, including ex-RUF, have been disarmed and are being reintegrated into ordinary life again. "The main worries are whether the communities where the victims, including amputees and rape survivors, live will not try to exact revenge and whether the ex-combatants will not reorganise out of some frustration and start wreaking havoc again," said a government official. Sierra Leone Journalists Association Chairman Ibrahim El-Tayib believes it will take a while to achieve genuine reconciliation and forgiveness. "True reconciliation is in the mind. Until the mindset changes, genuine reconciliation will remain elusive," he said. Sierra Leone faces many other challenges, including that of rebuilding a destroyed economy. But the search for truth, reconciliation and justice remains a priority. In the words of the top UN envoy in the country, Ambassador Oluyemi Adeniji: "Without truth and reconciliation, grievances will remain deep seated, reintegration will be illusory, development will remain a mirage and peace may be no more than an interlude between periods of war."