Standard Times (Freetown)
Theophilus S. Gbenda
21 October 2004
The chief prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, David M. Crane has been referred to as a racist.
Impeccable sources close to the office of the prosecutor reveal that Sierra Leoneans working at the Court are marginalized at the behest of their white colleagues.
Crane, according to the sources, is said to be using his one time CIA experience to militarize the prosecution.
This is to say, Sierra Leoneans attached to the prosecutor's office are given strict orders and shouted at as if they were in a military barracks.
Aside from the fact that some Sierra Leoneans working there are far more experienced than many of the white folks (most of whom are having their first ever practical experience in an actual trial), reports indicate that Sierra Leoneans are only restricted to office jobs like filing and report gathering, rather than being exposed to the trial process in court.
For the better part of the trial, Sierra Leonean folks are rarely seen prosecuting.
This situation has been responsible, according to the sources, for some Sierra Leoneans who do not wish to gamble their status for a few dollars resigning their positions in the prosecution.
Principal amongst them are Attorneys Brown-Mark and Abdul Tejan Cole.
Although cases of racism are not that loud in the other areas of the Court, reliable sources maintain that the opportunities there are nothing to write home about.
This is so because all the sensitive sections of the court, excluding the outreach section, are all headed by money-grabbing whites folks, most of whose contribution to the court's success is not in any way desirable.
Sections that could have been effectively handled by Sierra Leoneans (like the general services section) are all headed by Australians, British and Americans, and they receive payments four times more than what they used to earn in their respective countries.
The salary scales of the different sorts of people (black and white) is another issue that will be examined in subsequent editions.
Meanwhile, the presiding judge of the trial Chamber Benjamin Itoe, has threatened to ban either temporarily or permanent any newspaper and reporter, whose articles on the trial proceedings are tantamount to putting the lives of witness at risk.
This threat was made when one of the dedicated reporters of the court, Joseph Turay of the Exclusive carried an article on Friday October 15, 2004, which, according to the presiding judge, was a deliberate attempt by the reporter to thwart the orders of the chamber, which calls for the protection of witnesses.
This has to do with the disclosure of the identity of George Johnson, alias 'Junior Lion,' who was going to testify in secret.
How Junior Lions' name appeared on the paper remains a misery, but what is clear though is that his testimony was centred on crimes he himself, as commander, participated in.
Meanwhile, court sources indicate that the publication has earned the one time killer and his family a free ticket to a foreign country at the expense of the almighty Special Court, which seems to be using criminals to prosecute presumed criminals.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2004 Standard Times. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
