UN Rights Commissioner visits

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, arrived on Thursday in Freetown via Conakry. Robinson, who met with the heads of UN agencies in Sierra Leone and state officials, was scheduled to sign a human rights manifesto later Thursday afternoon, along with representatives of the government, local human rights groups and the UN Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL). Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued statements welcoming Robinson’s visit to Sierra Leone and the opportunity it provided to ensure respect for human rights is included in any accord between the government and the RUF. Both groups agreed there was need for the current negotiations to establish mechanisms to ensure that the perpetrators of the most serious abuses are tried and punished under national and international laws. “We are concerned that the peace agreement under negotiation in Lome may, as in Abidjan in 1996, prevent those who have been overwhelmingly responsible for human rights abuses from being brought to justice,” Amnesty International said in a statement. “The victims’ right to truth, justice and reparation must be taken into account,” Amnesty added. In a 60-page report released on Thursday, HRW says Sierra Leone’s rebels systematically murdered, mutilated and raped civilians during a January offensive. The report documents how the rebels made little distinction between civilian and military targets as they took control of part of Freetown. The report says it is difficult to ascertain which level of RUF command ordered these human rights abuses but that some attacks were clearly premeditated. The report also alleges that ECOMOG and government forces carried out serious abuses, although to a lesser extent, including over the summary execution of over 180 RUF rebels and suspected collaborators. While the victims were mostly young men, witnesses confirmed the execution of some women, and children as young as eight, the report said. The report noted with concern the contrast between the rapid response by the international community to human rights abuses in Kosovo and the lack of international response to the atrocities committed in eight years of war in Sierra Leone.