Global Policy Forum

By Mark Doyle

A team of legal experts from the United Nations is beginning meetings with the government of Sierra Leone about the controversial establishment of a war crimes tribunal. The team, led by the UN Assistant Secretary General for Legal Affairs, Ralph Zacklin, is due to meet the Sierra Leone Government Attorney General, Solomon Berewa, on Monday afternoon.

The special tribunal is expected to prosecute some of those responsible for the widespread atrocities committed against civilians during Sierra Leone's decade-long conflict. Thousands of people had their limbs deliberately hacked off or their bodies otherwise mutilated.

Rebels

But while crimes were certainly committed, what is not yet clear is who will be prosecuted for them. The rebels have committed many brutal atrocities

The team, which includes prosecutors who have worked on the trials for genocide in Rwanda, are looking into practical matters such as choosing a building in the Sierra Leonean capital where the court will hold its sessions.

But these early meetings will soon come up against the highly controversial matter of who to prosecute for the widespread crimes committed against civilians during the war.

It is known that the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front for several years adopted a strategy of cutting off the limbs of government supporters. And so it seems likely that the imprisoned rebel leader, Foday Sankoh, will be put on trial.

Others

But at key points during the war mutinous members of the government army were also deeply involved in these crimes. British troops are still in Freetown helping keep the peace Although the UN appears committed to the war crimes tribunal, some senior UN figures are privately wary of the extreme tensions that could be provoked when the court begins hearings.

The political choice of who to prosecute is also complicated by the strategy adopted by the Sierra Leone Government, and backed by the United Nations, of at various times co-opting the rebels into government - and more recently freeing some of those who had been held in jail.

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