Washington, DC — UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will get the money he wants for the Sierra Leone war crimes tribunal, predict sources within a congressional bipartisan coalition that has been pressing for funding of the Special Court to prosecute crimes against humanity in the Sierra Leonean conflict.
According to Annan, as of July 16, states have pledged US$15m of the US$16.8m needed for the court's first year of operation. In addition to this year's money, another US$40m will be needed over the next two years.
Annan told the UN Security Council last week that he wanted countries that have promised money to put the funds into a trust fund created for the court within thirty days.
"We're calling on governments to pull out their checkbooks," said Janet Fleischman, Washington Director for Africa of Human Rights Watch. "Failure to do so would send the worst possible message."
On a list of wealthy nations who have pledged funds, France and Japan were among nations who have still failed to commit.
Once the money is in hand, UN legal counsel Hans Correll will reportedly negotiate the details of establishing the Special Court with the government of Sierra Leone.
The United States is committed to US$5m this year and in a State Department Authorization Bill soon to be considered by Congress, US$5million for FY2002 and another US$5m for FY2003 is being requested.
Three million of the five million dollars available this year is being drawn from a "dormant" Somalia Trust Fund. The other two million "will come from somewhere," allAfrica.com was told by a Senate source.
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White House and State Department backing for releasing the money as well as strong bipartisan support in Congress makes passage of the State Department Authorization bill - including the Sierra Leone Special Court money provision - a virtual certainty, most observers think.
The question, said one Hill aide close to the legislative process, is whether the bill will get onto President Bush's desk for signature before the fall recess. "It's crunch time," she said.
In some respects the Sierra Leone Special Court is an experiment. Unlike the courts in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda which use only international judges, this court will be a "hybrid" of local and international authority. The UN hopes to create a model of "faster, cheaper" tribunals said Human Rights Watch's Janet Fleischman. "They're trying to deal with a limited number of cases in a limited time horizon."
Only about 25 to 30 persons will be brought before the tribunal, which will only be considering war crimes that occurred since November 1996 when a peace agreement between the government of Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and the RUF was signed in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire.
It is not clear whether some former rebel commanders like Johnny Paul Koroma who led the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) or General Issa Sesay of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and are widely held to be responsible for ordering atrocities will face trial. They have not been imprisoned.
A Truth and Reconciliation Commission with the mandate to go back to the beginning of Sierra Leone's conflict is also being established.
