HRW calls on leaders to investigate rebel crimes

Human Rights Watch (HRW) asked Sierra Leone’s two rebel leaders on Tuesday to investigate human rights violations by troops under their command and begin disciplinary proceedings. The New York-based rights watchdog said that over the last two months it had documented numerous rebel violations of the peace agreement the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) signed in July with the government. HRW Africa Division Executive Director Peter Takirambudde said rebels had committed abuses such as rape, torture and attempted amputations. Other violations, he said, included shooting, abduction, the ambushing of vehicles, and extensive looting of property in the central and western parts of the country. “These atrocities are not covered by the blanket amnesty, and the perpetrators must be held accountable,” Takirambudde said. “The Sierra Leonean people have suffered enough. It is now time to break the cycle of impunity. Koroma and Sankoh must use their new government positions to end the terror.” RUF leader Foday Sankoh and ex-Sierra Leone Army (ex-SLA) leader Johnny Paul Koroma recently returned to Freetown to take up government posts under the Lome Peace Accord. Sankoh has been given a position with vice-presidential status and Koroma is to head the Commission for the Consolidation of Peace. HRW wrote to both rebel leaders complaining about the atrocities, which violate international human rights law and the provisions of the Lome Accord. HRW said rebel violations of the accord included those perpetrated during an attack on 15 October on Makeni, an ambush against a government bus on 4 October near Magbondo Village, and numerous raids on villages around the Masiaka and Port Loko areas. HACU reported witnesses as saying that the RUF moved a force from Kailahun to Magburaka and then, on 15 October, to Makeni, where it ousted the ex-SLA, occupied Teko Barracks and set up checkpoints. “Witnesses in Makeni said at least five women were taken from their homes to Teko Barracks on Friday, October 15, where they were later raped by RUF soldiers,” HRW said. “Two minors, aged fourteen and sixteen, described being raped and beaten by several RUF soldiers in the early morning hours of October 16,” Takirambudde said. In fresh reports of the violation of the peace accords, local and international media reported on Wednesday that some 100 ex-SLA were believed killed during clashes at the weekend with RUF rebels near Makeni. HRW said it had called on US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who visited Sierra Leone on 17 October, to denounce the rebel actions publicly and put pressure on Sankoh and Koroma to halt rebel atrocities.