HRW releases report on sexual abuses during conflict

Throughout the armed conflict in Sierra Leone thousands of women and girls were subjected to widespread and systematic sexual violence perpetrated by both sides in the conflict but mostly by the rebels between 1991 and 2001, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday in a new report.

The report, "We'll kill you if you cry" - Sexual Violence in the Sierra Leone Conflict, noted that the victims, women of all ages, ethnic groups and socio-economic classes were subjected to individual and gang rape, and rape with objects such as weapons, firewood, umbrellas and pestles.

The crimes of sexual violence were generally characterised by extraordinary brutality and frequently preceded or followed by other egregious human rights abuses against the victim, her family and community, it said.

Although the rebels raped indiscriminately irrespective of age, the report said, they targeted young women and girls whom they thought were virgins. Many of the younger victims did not survive these crimes of sexual violence.

Adult women were also raped so violently that they sometimes bled to death or suffered from tearing in the genital area, causing long term incontinence and severe infections.

Many victims who were pregnant at the time of rape miscarried as a result and numerous had their babies torn out of their uterus as rebels placed bets on the sex of the unborn child, the report said.

Thousands of women and girls were abducted by the rebels and subjected to sexual slavery, forced to become the sex slaves of their rebel "husbands". The rebels sometimes made escape more difficult by deliberately carving the name of their faction onto the chests of abducted women and girls. An unknown number of women and girls still remain with their rebel "husbands" although the war was declared over on 18 January, it added.

The main perpetrators of sexual violence, including sexual slavery, were the rebel forces of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and the West Side Boys, a splinter group of the AFRC.

The organisation documented only a limited number of cases of sexual violence by pro-government forces, the Sierra Leone Army (SLA) and the militia known as the Civil Defence Forces (CDF) - a group that consisted of traditional hunters and young men who were called upon by the government to defend their native areas.

In the report, HRW recommends among other things that the government take all necessary measures to ensure that former rebels release all women and girls abducted during the armed conflict who continue to be held and also provide them with the necessary social and economic options to enable them to leave the often abusive relationships.

It also called on the government to prioritise the nationwide establishment of reproductive health clinics for women and girls that could provide testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases along with other services.

The organisation also directed several other recommendations to the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, members of the African Union and the Economic Community for West African States, the international community, and the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone.

The full report