S.Leone court jails militiamen for "heinous crimes"

By Christo Johnson

FREETOWN (Reuters) - Sierra Leone's war crimes court on Thursday sentenced three militia leaders to long jail terms for "some of the most heinous, brutal and atrocious crimes ever recorded" including killing, rape and enslaving children.

Handing down its first sentences, the U.N.-backed tribunal jailed Alex Tamba Brima and Santigie Borbor Kanu for 50 years each and Brima Bazzy Kamara for 45 years for crimes committed during the country's diamond-fuelled 1991-2002 civil war.

Passing sentence, Presiding Judge Justice Julia Sebutinde said the three had committed "some of the most heinous, brutal and atrocious crimes ever recorded in human history".

"The three accused persons have committed violations of human rights in which civilians were mutilated, (and) other civilians were killed and burned in their houses. They also were participants in abducting children for slavery and as child soldiers," she added.

The court convicted all three last month on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity including terrorizing civilians, unlawful killings, rape, abductions and forced labor, and looting.

They were also convicted of forcing children aged under 15 to become soldiers, in a verdict rights campaigners hailed as the first ruling by an international tribunal on the practice.

"The verdicts are hugely important for the victims, for the children who lost out on their childhood, and beyond Sierra Leone in sending a message that children can not be made a part of conflict," said Human Rights Watch's senior West Africa researcher Corinne Dufka.

The men pleaded innocent of all charges, and were found not guilty on two counts of sexual violence and one of physical violence.

RAPES, MUTILATIONS

The three were commanders of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) which staged a coup on May 25, 1997, ousting President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah just six months after he signed a peace deal.

The AFRC then sided with Corporal Foday Sankoh's rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in a bid to gain control of Sierra Leone and its diamond mines.

In its indictment, the prosecution said that fighters carved the initials 'AFRC' and 'RUF' as they mutilated captured men, women and children.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone was set up jointly by the country's government and the United Nations in 2002 to try those most responsible for human rights violations during the later stages of the civil war.

It initially issued 13 indictments against leaders from all three main warring factions but three suspects have since died and the whereabouts of another is unknown.

The court's most high-profile defendant, Charles Taylor, former president of neighboring Liberia, is on trial for war crimes including instigating murder, rape and terrorism during the Sierra Leone war, in which an estimated 50,000 were killed.