JURIST Contributing Editor David Crane of Syracuse University College of Law, former Chief Prosecutor for the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone, says that the first guilty verdicts handed down by the court for the leaders of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council whose fighters destroyed Freetown in January 1999 can bring hope, some reconciliation for the victims, and the possibility of a sustainable peace…

They looked like ordinary Sierra Leoneans that day, sitting side by side in the dock before trial chamber number two at the international war crimes tribunal in West Africa, called the Special Court for Sierra Leone—but they were not.

In March of 2005, I recall looking across the courtroom at them as they filed into the chamber. The case of Prosecutor versus Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara, and Santige Borbor Kanu was about to start. For over two years we had been perfecting a solid case against them, the leadership of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council. I recall signing the indictment against each of them in 2003, my investigators arresting one as he staggered drunk down a road in Pujehun.

On that day, the judges of the trial chamber entered the court room and after a few preliminary matters the presiding judge at the time said, “Mr. Prosecutor, your opening statement, please”. I stood up, walking to the podium and began my accounting of the crimes for the trial chamber of what these seemingly ordinary men had done to Sierra Leone in a brief and horrific year, crimes that are not describable in any language. I carefully laid out the general allegations and the individual criminal responsibility of each. This was the third of three joint trials against the leadership of all the combatants in the bloody ten year conflict that destroyed not only Sierra Leone, but, with President Charles Taylor of Liberia, added and abetted by Muammar Khadafy of Libya and Blaise Campore of Burkina Faso, Liberia and portions of the Ivory Coast as well. With this trial the last of a 25 year joint criminal enterprise came to an end.

A little over two years later, on June 20, 2007, that very trial chamber rendered their verdicts on the 14 counts of the joint indictment. Each was found guilty for 11 of those counts: Count 1 (acts of terrorism); Count 2 (collective punishment); Count 3 (extermination); Count 4 (murder, a crime against humanity); Count 5 (murder, a war crime); Count 6 (rape); Count 9 (outrages against personal dignity); Count 10 (physical violence, a war crime); Count 12 (conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 years into armed forces or groups, or using them to participate actively in hostilities); Count 13 (enslavement); and Count 14 (pillage).

Behind each of these counts is a pain and suffering that can not be imagined. In Freetown they came out of the hills to the north and east sweeping the civilian populace before them in a two week orgy of rape, pillaging, murder, and mutilation. January 1999 will forever be etched in the memories of all West Africans as the month when the devil, in the guise of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council and their allies, the Revolutionary United Front, destroyed Freetown. Child soldiers roamed the streets dragging bloody burlap bags filled with severed hands, arms, and other body parts back to their commanders as directed. The “chop hand” units were busy during those monstrous three weeks.

As I worked my way through the opening statement on that warm March day in 2005, I glanced over at these men, and I looked into their eyes. What I saw will haunt me for the rest of my life. Actually it’s what I didn’t see that will haunt me as I saw nothing, no soul, no humanity, nothing. When I turned over the remaining part of the opening statement to Boi Tai Stevens, a Sierra Leonean trial counsel in my office, I felt a chill, a chill that gripped my very soul. These weren’t ordinary men, but something else.

And so they have been tried, convicted, and await sentencing later this summer. It is anticipated that they will never see the light of a free day again. They represent all that is bad in mankind and for that they have been brought to justice. Justice for the rape victims, the amputees, the murdered, and the destroyed lives of thousands upon thousands of children, in some ways the greatest atrocity of all.

They came out of the hills above Freetown, lawless, without mercy, bent on destruction. They will leave Freetown humbled before the law. Justice is never perfect, efficient, nor at times swift; but it surely can bring hope, some reconciliation for the victims, and the possibility of a sustainable peace. It is my fervent prayer that their trial will help bring that peace to the people of Sierra Leone.

David M. Crane is a professor at Syracuse University College of Law, and former founding Chief Prosecutor for the UN Special Court for Sierra Leone (2002-2005).

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