Felix Osike And Agencies
20 July 2007
Kampala — THE presiding judge of the UN-backed special court for Sierra Leone, Justice Julia Sebutinde, has jailed three rebel militia commanders found guilty of murder, rape and enlisting child soldiers during the country's 10-year civil war.
Sebutinde on Thursday ordered that Alex Tamba Brima, 35, and Santigie Borbor Kanu, 42, be jailed for 50 years each, while Brima Bazzy Kamara, 39, was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Their sentences were the first ever handed down by the court, which is trying the main perpetrators of the war crimes committed during the west African country's 1991-2001 conflict.
Prosecutors had asked for between 50 and 60-year sentences for the men, who were found guilty of 11 of the 14 charges against them.
"The three men were found guilty of the most heinous, brutal and atrocious crimes in human history," said Sebutinde.
"Brothers were allowed to rape sisters, men were disembowelled and their parts displayed at check points. Cutting of limbs of unarmed civilians were common."
"Children were forcibly taken away from families, fed with drugs and turned into child soldiers," Sebutinde added.
The three men, who will serve their sentences in Sweden and Austria, belonged to the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), a rebel faction led by Johnny Paul Koroma.
The group toppled an elected government in 1997 and joined forces with the notorious main rebel Revolutionary United Front.
After deposing President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in May 1997, the AFRC set up one of the most vicious juntas Africa has ever known.
While in office, the junta unleashed a nine-month terror campaign that included burning children to death, mutilating, looting and cold-blooded killings across Sierra Leone.
By the time the country's decade-long civil war ended in 2001, some 120,000 people had died and thousands were mutilated, with their arms, legs, ears or noses chopped off.
There were sighs of relief when the verdict was pronounced and some of the victims and amputees in the public gallery gave victory signs.
But relatives of the defendants, including one woman said to be Kanu's mother, burst into tears.
"It is such a long sentence. My child is now dead," she said refusing to give her name to reporters.
Salia Joseph, who had both hands hacked off described the verdict as "a remarkable victory for justice".
The three, who all pleaded not guilty, were backed by the former Liberian president, Charles Taylor.
Taylor is currently standing trial for similar crimes committed during the Sierra Leone civil war, but his trial venue was switched to The Hague amid concerns of unrest if it was held in Freetown.
He is the first African head of state to face such charges in an international court.
In a related development, Taylor got a new defence lawyer on Tuesday after he terminated the services of his former counsel Karim Khan.
His new counsel, Courtenay Griffiths, a Jamaican, is a leading barrister in the English criminal justice system.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2007 New Vision. 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.
