Amnesty International on Thursday criticised a reciprocal impunity agreement between the war-ravaged west African country of Sierra Leone and the United States, saying it would allow perpetrators of war crimes to go unpunished.
”This is a completely unacceptable decision especially at a time when [Sierra Leone] is starting the process of dealing with mass human rights abuses that have taken place in the recent past,” the London-based rights watchdog said in a statement.
On May 6, the Sierra Leone parliament became the first in the world to ratify the agreement with the United States, which provides that Sierra Leone will not surrender US citizens accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes to the new International Criminal Court (ICC).
In return, the United States will not surrender to the court Sierra Leoneans accused of serious war and other crimes.
The European Union strongly backs The Hague-based ICC but the United States fears the new court could become a forum for politically motivated prosecutions of US citizens.
Amnesty said: ”This agreement is unlawful and violates Sierra Leone’s obligations as a state which has ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”
Amnesty said it had written to Sierra Leonean President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah ”urging him to refuse to give presidential consent to the agreement”.
It added: ”This impunity agreement should not be enforced and any request by the International Criminal Court for a surrender of a suspect must be met by the Sierra Leone authorities.”
A United Nations war crimes tribunal, staffed by a mixed international and Sierra Leone personnel of judges, prosecutors and investigators, was set up in January last year to judge crimes during a brutal 10-year civil war which was formally declared over the same month.
About 200 000 people were killed and thousands more deliberately mutilated in the war. – Sapa-AFP