[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 39 (Tuesday, March 11, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H1713]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL INDICTMENTS IN SIERRA LEONE

  (Mr. WOLF asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, yesterday a United Nations war crimes tribunal 
headed by an American in Sierra Leone indicted seven people, including 
rebel leaders and a powerful figure in that country's decade-long civil 
conflict.
  The indictment is for crimes of murder, rape, extermination, acts of 
terror, enslavement, and attacks on humanitarian workers; and all, if 
not most of these crimes, are directly related to atrocities committed 
to gain control of and profit from conflict diamonds.
  These indictments are an important and necessary milestone in the 
long road to securing justice and restoring the human rights of the 
people in that part of Africa.
  Mr. Speaker, 75,000 people died in Sierra Leone. But not until one 
actually sees someone, this young girl that Congressman Tony Hall and I 
visited when we were in a refugee camp in Sierra Leone, when you see 
someone who had their arms and legs and hands cut off by rebels to 
scare and intimidate the local population to gain control, do these 
numbers mean something.
  My colleagues might also know, as reported in the press, that the 
rebels, these people that have been indicted, have been selling 
conflict diamonds to al Qaeda that have been funding the al Qaeda 
efforts.
  So we want to salute the men and women that are working for us in 
Sierra Leone to bring about these indictments.

         [From the Associated Press Worldstream, Mar. 10, 2003]

  International War Crimes Tribunal Indicts Sierra Leone Rebel Leader

                       (By Clarence Roy-Macaulay)

       Sierra Leone's international war crimes tribunal issued its 
     first indictments Monday against seven former warlords, 
     including imprisoned rebel leader Foday Sankoh whose 
     followers gained infamy with a campaign of chopping off 
     hands, legs, ears and lips of innocent civilians.
       Also charged was Internal Affairs Minister Samuel Hinga 
     Norman, who was arrested and cuffed Monday by police who 
     surrounded him in his office in the capital.
       Hinga Norman, the former deputy defense minister, 
     orchestrated attacks by a pro-government militia of 
     traditional hunters called the Kamajors whose alleged human 
     rights abuses during the country's 1991-2000 civil war 
     included torturing and summarily executing opponents and 
     recruiting child fighters.
       Three others were also arrested Monday while two remained 
     at large.
       Sankoh, whose Revolutionary United Front launched a vicious 
     insurgency to control the country's government and diamond 
     fields in 1991, will be among the first to go to trial, said 
     David Crane, the court's American chief prosecutor.
       The rebels' signature atrocity was cutting off the 
     appendages of civilians in a tactic to spread fear among 
     opponents.
       Sankoh has been in prison since being captured in early 
     2000 after his fighters gunned down more than a dozen 
     protesters outside his Freetown home.
       ``Today the people of Sierra Leone took back control of 
     their lives and their future,'' Crane told reporters. ``The 
     dark days of the rule of the gun are over.''
       Crane said crimes alleged within the indictments include 
     murder, rape, enslavement, looting and burning, sexual 
     slavery, conscripting children and attacking humanitarian 
     workers and U.N. peacekeepers.
       Crane did not reveal when the cases would be heard. Court 
     officials have been reluctant to give many details in advance 
     for fear of jeopardizing the safety of trial participants.
       The court was launched by an agreement between the United 
     Nations and Sierra Leone to try serious violations of 
     international and Sierra Leonean humanitarian law since Nov. 
     30, 1996, when Sankoh's rebels signed a peace accord with the 
     government that was supposed to end five years of war.
       The peace deal was followed by a military coup and several 
     more years of fighting until the end of 2000.
       Also indicted Monday was Johnny Paul Koroma, a former junta 
     leader who is wanted by Sierra Leone's government in 
     connection with a failed January coup attempt--the first 
     since peace returned to the country.
       Koroma, who allied himself with Sankoh's rebel in 
     overthrowing Sierra Leone's civilian government in 1997, is 
     currently at large.
       Since elections were held last year, in which Sankoh's 
     rebels stood for parliament without winning a single seat, a 
     shaky peace has emerged, protected by nearly 17,000 United 
     Nations troops--the world body's largest deployment anywhere.
       Sierre Leone's war crimes tribunal differs from those of 
     Rwanda and Yugoslavia as it will be held in the country and 
     have a mix of local and international prosecutors and judges.
       The court is expected to operate for three years on a 
     budget of just under US $60 million paid for by contributions 
     from about 20 countries, including the United States and 
     Britain.

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