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NEWS STORY
By Michele Ernsting March 7, 2008 The special court for Sierra Leone recognizes the crime of forced marriage giving so-called 'bush wives' the opportunity to put their abductors on trial. Throughout the wars in Africa, women have often been captured in raids by soldiers and rebels and forced to become bush wives. Fatu Kamara's story Fatu Kamara is one of them. She was captured when rebels launched a surprise raid on her village in Sierra Leone. In her case, four men used her as their wife. She was raped by them daily. In addition she was made to cook and clean for them. After a month of this life, she escaped from their camp by making the excuse of being too ill to go and fight. She stayed behind and snuck away. She later gave birth to a stillborn child and as a result of the birth she developed a fistula, a rupture which caused her to constantly leak urine. Her illness and the stigma of being a bush wife meant it was hard for her to rejoin her community. She says: "They knew I had this illness and that I had been with the rebels. So they were not talking to me anymore. They pointed their fingers at me and said that I'm a rebel wife. They tell me I'm not a woman anymore because the rebels have had me." Returning from the life of a Bush Wife The position of so-called bush wives in very complex, says Janneke van Gog, who conducted research on the issue in Sierra Leone. "The situation of returning bush wives differed depending on where they were from. Some women did not go back home because they were scared of how their families would react. Some women said ‘I cannot go back empty-handed' meaning that they did not want to be a burden on their families. The few women who did gain something to bring back home, were also rejected, because the fact that you had something proved to others that you must have chosen to go with the rebels." While programmes have been set up to bring male fighters back into their communities, very little has been done to support bush wives who want to return to their homes. Changes in the law The recent decision by the appeals chamber of the special court for Sierra Leone finally defines the crime committed against these women and offers them the chance to take their abductors to court. Stephen Rapp, the Chief prosecutor at the special court for Sierra Leone says: "the main thing we hope we accomplish is to tell their story and have this established as a matter of law that these crimes were committed and that individuals were responsible. We hope to establish a precedent and indeed a deterrent to others, against committing the same kind of crimes." When asked whether she would want to take her abductors to court, Fatu replies that she's afraid. She knows some of them are now in the Sierra Leone capital Freetown, but she's too frightened to identify them. Law versus reality Her response is not surprising given that there is little security for victims of this type of crime. There are other difficulties as well says Stephen Rapp. Taking perpetrators to court. "involves going through a process which may in itself be humiliating and difficult and the question in abusive relationships is always ‘what's the alternative?'. You may be rid of this oppressor, this forced marriage rebel, but how are you going to support yourself? How are you going to support the child you love even it's the child of this kind of relationship?".
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