'Sierra Leone war crimes court should target top leaders only' (afrol.com)

'Sierra Leone war crimes court should target top leaders only'

afrol.com, 29 December - Amid ongoing discussions between the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone on the setting up of a tribunal to prosecute war crimes in that country, the UN Security Council has suggested that the court prosecute only the top leaders who played main roles in the commission of crimes, according to a document released yesterday in New York.

The recommendation came in a letter dated 22 December from the Security Council to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and follows the Council's review of a report from Mr. Annan on the establishment of the Special Court, according to UN sources.

In August this year, the Security Council had asked Secretary-General Kofi Annan to negotiate an agreement with the Sierra Leonean Government to create an independent special court, consistent with a UN resolution, adopted unanimously. The special court was to try Sierra Leonean war criminals and "have personal jurisdiction over persons who bore the greatest responsibility for the commission of crimes referred to in the resolution." That would include those leaders who, in committing such crimes, had threatened the establishment and the implementation of the peace process in Sierra Leone.

Yesterday, the Council members again were recommending that the Court should have personal jurisdiction only over "persons who bear the greatest responsibility" for the crimes, and said juvenile offenders would instead go before the proposed Truth and Reconciliation Commission. To this end, they encouraged the Government of Sierra Leone and the UN to develop suitable institutions, including specific provisions related to children.

According to estimates from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), some 5,000 children, mostly boys, were used as combatants during Sierra Leone's nine-year civil war, during which mutilations of civilians were a common tactic by the RUF terrorists.

The Security Council members rejected the Secretary-General's recommendation that the new Court be financed through mandatory fees levied on all UN members, as is the case for the war crimes tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. They recommended instead that the Court rely on voluntary funding.

Turning to the subject of allegations towards peacekeepers, the members of the Security Council said they believed it was the responsibility of troop-contributing countries to investigate and prosecute any crimes their soldiers may have committed in Sierra Leone. "Given the circumstances of the situation in Sierra Leone, the Special Court would have jurisdiction over those crimes only if the Security Council considers that the Member State is not discharging that responsibility," the letter stated.

The members of the Security Council also disagreed with the report's proposal of setting up two Trial Chambers, recommending a single Trial Chamber instead, "with the possibility of adding a second Chamber should the developing caseload warrant its creation."

There has earlier been widespread protests against the limitations of the UN special court. The renowned US human rights NGO Human Rights Watch has criticized the Court's jurisdiction would be only to war crimes committed since November 30, 1996. "The Court must be vested with powers to vigorously enforce international cooperation at every stage, and member States should cooperate with the Court's orders and requests," the human rights group said in November.

Also the limitation to only try "the most responsible" has been seen as a possibility of undermining the court's work. This combined with "voluntary funding" might limit the court significantly and leave most of the work to the still not established Truth and Reconciliation Commission (probably to be financed by Sierra Leone itself).

WARNING: The Children and Armed Conflict Unit is not responsible for the content of external websites. Links are for informational purposes only. A link does not imply an endorsement of the linked site or its contents.