Widespread and systematic sexual violence during a decade of war in Sierra Leone was committed on a far larger scale than the highly visible amputations for which the country became notorious, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch.
”Sexual violence has remained Sierra Leone’s silent war crime,” HRW says.
The report highlights the legacy of ongoing sexual and domestic violence in the country and the need for urgent attention from the international community.
Unknown numbers of the thousands of women and girls abducted by the rebels still remain with their ”husbands” in conditions of sexual slavery, although the war was declared over a year ago, HRW reports.
There has been no accountability for the thousands of crimes of sexual violence, and a climate of impunity persists, the report says, allowing the perpetrators of sexual violence (as well as other crimes) to escape justice.
Survivors of rape and other sexual crimes — some boys as well as the thousands of women and girls — need ”drastically increased funding for trauma counselling, health, education and skills training”, according to HRW.
HRW research indicates that the great majority of crimes of sexual violence were committed by the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), and the Liberian mercenaries who were part of the initial force that invaded in 1991 from Liberia, by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), and by their splinter group, the West Side Boys.
Prosecution of any but a handful of leaders is highly unlikely, partly because of the blanket amnesty that was part of the 1999 Lome peace deal.
In addition, the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) established with UN assistance and including both national and international lawyers, will try only a handful of people because of lack of money.
The SCSL is notably less ambitious in scope than the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
HRW, however, urges the immediate prosecution of UN military personnel repatriated from Sierra Leone in line with the UN mission’s zero tolerance policy on sexual exploitation: HRW has documented sexual crimes committed by peacekeepers with the UN mission in Sierra Leone (Unamsil), including the rape of a 12 year old girl by a Guinean soldier, and the rape of a woman by two Ukrainian soldiers.
”There appears to be reluctance on the part of Unamsil to investigate and take disciplinary measures against the perpetrators,” the report notes. – Guardian Unlimited Â