Special Court indicts two former militia leaders

The UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone has indicted two former leaders of a disbanded pro-government militia movement for crimes against humanity committed during the country's 10-year civil war. These ranged from unlawful killings to human sacrifice, cannibalism and the use of child soldiers. The Special Court published on Thursday an indictment against Allieu Kondewa, the Chief Initiator of the Civil Defence Force (CDF), whose fighters were also known as the Kamajors, and Moinina Fofanah, the CDF's Director of War. Both men were detained on May 27. They have been charged with crimes against international humanitarian law and violations of the Geneva Conventions which govern the international rules of war for their conduct during Sierra Leone's 1991-2001 civil war. The eight counts against them include unlawful killings, terrorising civilians, causing physical and mental suffering, looting, burning and using child soldiers. The CDF was formed to help the army fight against rebels seeking to overthrow President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah's first elected government in the 1990s. The Special Court has now indicted three of its leaders for war crimes. On March 7 it charged and arrested Sam Hinga Norman, a former army captain who became CDF National Coordinator and subsequently interior minister in Kabbah's present government until his arrest. The court has so far indicted a total of 12 people for war crimes. Most are former leaders of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel movement, which became notorious for killing civilians and hacking off the arms and legs of thousands of others. However, the court has also brought charges against Johnny Paul Koroma, who led the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), a military junta which deposed Kabbah's first government in 1997 and sought a rapprochement with the RUF, and one of his lieutenants, Brima "Bazzy" Kamara. It has also indicted Liberian President Charles Taylor, who is accused of arming and supporting the RUF in exchange for contraband diamonds. The indictment against Kondewa and Fofanah said: "Civilians, including women and children, who were suspected to have supported, sympathised with, or simply failed to actively resist the combined RUF/AFRC forces were termed as collaborators and specifically targeted by the CDF...These 'collaborators' and any captured enemy combatants were unlawfully killed." The indictment went on: "Victims were often shot, hacked to death or burnt to death. Other practices included human sacrifices and cannibalism." Court officials said the two men were expected to plead not guilty before Special Court judge at a hearing next week. Nine of the 12 people so far indicted by the court are in custody, one is dead and two are still at large. Sam Bockarie, the former military commander of the RUF, was killed in Liberia by forces loyal to Taylor in Liberia in early May. Taylor, who is fighting to survive a rebel onslaught on the Liberian capital Monrovia, is still free. Koroma disappeared from his Freetown home in January and the court now believes that he has been living in Liberia under Taylor's protection. The Liberian government has denied that he is in the country. Earlier this month, the Special Court's chief investigator, Alan White, said he had received credible information that Koroma may have been killed on Taylor's orders in northwestern Liberia, where he was believed to be training a new military force for the Liberian leader. But David Crane, the court prosecutor, said on Thursday he was keeping an open mind about Koroma's fate. "We are carefully investigating the reports that Johnny Paul Koroma may have been murdered by Taylor, but at this time we have nothing that confirms that definitively," Crane said. "He is an indicted war criminal and will remain so until we have confirmation that, one, he is alive and, two, that he is turned over, or that he is actually dead." Diplomats in Freetown said they expected the Special Court, which is working with a US $60 million budget provided mainly by the United States and Britain, to indict about 15 people altogether.