“I will be defending myself because as far as I am concerned, I don’t have any case to answer before this court,” said Sam Hinga Norman, on Monday.
The former Deputy Defence Minister of Sierra Leone and coordinator of the tribal militias known as the “Kamajors” made the announcement before cheering supporters in a special court set up to try war crimes in the West African country.
Although the court officially opened its doors in March, Norman is the first suspect to go on trial at its specially-built premises in Sierra Leone’s capital — Freetown.
During the 1990s, Sierra Leone acquired global notoriety due largely to the activities of the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which fought first against President Joseph Saidu Momoh ‒- and later against President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. The RUF, financed by the profits of illegally-mined diamonds, amputated the limbs, noses, ears and lips of hundreds of civilians.
After the war was declared over in Jan. 2002, the United Nations-backed court was given a mandate to try individuals accused of bearing the greatest responsibility for war crimes such as the RUF amputations.
The court has also thrown its net over the Kamajors, however, even though these militias fought alongside government.
An eight-count indictment for war crimes, violations of international humanitarian law and the recruitment of children as combatants has been filed against Norman and two other Kamajor commanders. It’s a move that has left the militia coordinator defiant.
“I took up arms to defend the dignity of Sierra Leone and to ensure that democracy was reinstated,” he said this week. The militia leader has sacked his entire defence team, preferring instead to represent himself in court.
Norman’s trial has become a political hot potato for Kabbah’s ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP). Until his arrest and subsequent indictment a year ago, the Kamajor leader served in government ‒ and was also an influential member of the SLPP.
Last August, Kabbah testified before a truth and reconciliation commission in Sierra Leone that he had not had any control over the actions of the Kamajors during the civil war.
In addition, Norman’s supporters are furious at the fact that he has been put on trial. Local newspapers reported this week that disbanded militia members are regrouping to stage demonstrations against the court proceedings.
The three accused are also viewed as heroes by many civilians, who see them as having restored a measure of sanity to the war-ravaged country.
“This is nonsense. How can they put Norman and the other Kamajor leaders on trial? They saved our lives from the brutal rebel forces,” says Tom Kpaka, a civil servant whose two children were killed during the war and his property destroyed.
Aminata Sesay, a trader living in the southern city of Bo, adds “This is justice turned upside down. There is no way I can support the trial of Mr Norman and the Kamajor leadership. I and my entire family were saved by the Kamajors when the rebels lined us up for execution in 1998.”
Nonetheless, two prosecution witnesses who are testifying against the militia leaders have related horrific tales of murder, torture and mutilation of civilians by the Kamajors. One of them, a man whose identity wasn’t disclosed, said the militias had even engaged in acts of cannibalism.
“I have marks on my body to prove my point. I was tied with a rope and burning plastic dropped on me repeatedly,” said the distraught witness, displaying his body to the court. He claims that his brother was hacked to death in front of him because of allegations that both men had supported the rebels during the war.
Apart from the three militia leaders, six other war time commanders — three each from the RUF and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) — are in the dock.
The AFRC under the leadership of Johnny Paul Koroma overthrew Kabbah’s government in 1997 with the assistance of the RUF, but was later expelled by forces deployed by the Economic Community of West African States. In 1999, the AFRC again joined forces with the RUF in a failed bid to take control of Freetown.
However, two key accused have yet to be taken into custody — notably former Liberian President Charles Taylor, now living in exile in Nigeria. The court has accused Taylor of bearing the greatest responsibility for war crimes in Sierra Leone, for his role in backing the RUF in return for so-called “blood diamonds”.
Koroma is on the run, while the man whom many Sierra Leoneans would probably most have wanted to see in court, RUF leader Foday Sankoh, died last year.
The Chief Prosecutor of the court, David Crane, is determined to punish the masterminds of the conflict.
“This is a complex case and it goes beyond the borders of Sierra Leone,” he said. “I will follow the evidence wherever it leads. Therefore Charles Taylor must be turned over by the Nigerians to answer to charges against him.”
Crane says more indictments may be served. But while some in Sierra Leone might relish the thought of seeing their former tormentors on trial, others view the process as something of a luxury in this poverty-stricken country.
According to Michael Sandi, a mechanic, “The huge money being spent on the running of the court could better be spent on the rehabilitation of victims of the war and battered infrastructure in the country. I think the court is irrelevant.”
Unlike the UN tribunals set up to try war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and suspects from the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Sierra Leone’s court is operating within a strict time frame that requires all trials to be completed before the end of next year.
The trial of the RUF commanders is scheduled to begin in the first week of next month. — IPS