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Sierra Leone war crimes court convicts three in the first of its verdicts

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published June 21, 2007

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone - Three former Sierra Leonean military leaders were found guilty of war crimes Wednesday by a U.N.-backed court - the first verdicts from the country's civil war and the first convictions in an international court for using child soldiers.

The court found the three defendants guilty of 11 of 14 charges, including terrorism, using child soldiers, enslavement, rape and murder. Sentencing is set for mid July.

The three were acquitted of charges of sexual slavery, "other inhumane acts" related to physical violence, and acts related to sexual violence, said Peter Andersen, spokesman for the Sierra Leone Special Court.

The Sierra Leone tribunal was set up after the fighting ended in 2002 to prosecute the worst offenders in a war that ravaged the small West African nation and also consumed neighboring Liberia. The court has indicted 12 people, including former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who is charged with backing Sierra Leonean rebels.

It is estimated that half a million people were victims of killings, systematic mutilation and other atrocities in Sierra Leone's conflict, in which illicit diamond sales fueled years of devastation.

Although children have been used in wars throughout history, experts say the recruitment and conscription of children reached a new level in Sierra Leone and neighboring Liberia.

The three defendants convicted Wednesday in Freetown had pleaded not guilty.

Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu were indicted in 2003 as the alleged leaders of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council. The group of former military officers toppled the government in 1997 and teamed with rebels to control the country until 1998, the indictment said.

[Last modified June 21, 2007, 00:46:19]