Civilians the real target in Sierra Leone

(May 4, 2000, New York) - Human Rights Watch today condemned the recent killings and hostage-taking of United Nations peacekeepers in Sierra Leone, while noting that civilians had been enduring similar abuses by the rebels for several years.
A peace agreement signed in July 1999 was supposed to end the nine year civil war in Sierra Leone, but it included an amnesty for the vast numbers of war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed during the conflict. Most of those crimes were committed by the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Human Rights Watch opposed the amnesty because we feared that impunity for such atrocities would only breed more atrocities. Events of this week have only confirmed our fears.

"For the people of Sierra Leone, the civil war has never really ended," said Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the Africa division of Human Rights Watch. "The U.N. peacekeepers have suffered a terrible blow. But even after the peace agreement, people in villages all over the country have been subjected to rape, execution, torture, amputation and abduction by the rebels."

Takirambudde noted that the UN peacekeepers were apparently killed while protecting their base and civilians in one of the rebel strongholds. He praised them for attempting to fulfill a dangerous mission which international troops in Sierra Leone have sometimes seemed reluctant to undertake.

Takirambudde also said that RUF leader Foday Sankoh should be held responsible for the actions of troops under his effective command. He noted that Colonel Bao, the commanding officer in the Makeni region where the U.N. killings took place, was one of Sankoh's leading deputies.

Human Rights Watch has documented a great number of abuses against civilians, mostly committed by the RUF, both during the civil war and in the aftermath. This information can be found at <http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/sleone/index.htm>.