Human Rights Watch respectfully requests you to place the situation of human rights in Sierra Leone on the agenda for the next session of the African Commission, to be held in Kigali in November, and also to consider sending the three special rapporteurs of the commission to Sierra Leone to investigate human rights abuses committed there during the recent conflict.

Human Rights Watch has reported extensively on human rights violations in Sierra Leone over the last two years. In July 1998, Human Rights Watch published a report on human rights abuses and violations of the laws of war in Sierra Leone, "Sowing Terror: Atrocities Against Civilians in Sierra Leone." Our most recent report, published in May this year, "Sierra Leone: Getting Away with Murder, Mutilation and Rape," details abuses during the January 1999 rebel occupation of the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown. While commissioners and the secretariat should be receiving copies of all our reports by our regular mailing list, additional copies of these reports, and others we have published detailing our concerns about Sierra Leonean refugees in neighboring countries, are enclosed with this letter. All these reports are available on our website: www.hrw.org.

The atrocities we have documented — similar to abuses committed since the civil war began in 1991 — include gross and systematic abuses by the rebel forces of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), entailing the widespread and indiscriminate murder of civilians; rape; mutilation; abduction of civilians, especially women and children, for purposes of sexual slavery, labor, and training as child combatants; the use of civilians as human shields; and violations of medical neutrality. We have also documented abuses by government forces and by the peacekeeping troops of the Nigerian-led Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) which has supported the government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. Though of lesser extent, these abuses are still serious, and include summary executions of suspected rebels or collaborators, use of child soldiers, and indiscriminate bombings. The fundamental guarantees of humanitarian law have been grossly and systematically violated in Sierra Leone. The unthinkable atrocities described in our reports constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

On July 7, 1999, a peace agreement was signed in Lomé, Togo, between the Sierra Leonean government and the rebel forces of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Human Rights Watch hopes that this agreement will indeed bring an end to the suffering inflicted on the Sierra Leonean people by the eight years of civil war in that country. We are, however, deeply concerned that the peace agreement requires the government of Sierra Leone to "grant absolute and free pardon and reprieve to all combatants and collaborators in respect of anything done by them in pursuit of their objectives." The Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary-General Francis Okelo attached a disclaimer to the agreement saying: "The United Nations interprets that the amnesty and pardon in article nine of this agreement shall not apply to international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law." Human Rights Watch has submitted a memorandum to the United Nations Security Council, of which we attach a copy, outlining international law in support of this position. International law does not accept amnesties for these crimes and additionally provides that a state has a duty to prosecute the perpetrators of serious violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law.

The U.N. Security Council is due to adopt a resolution providing for peacekeeping troops to oversee the peace process in Sierra Leone, and in particular the disarmament of rebel forces. Although a decision has already been made to deploy an increased number of unarmed military observers, the crucial commitment of U.N. soldiers has been inexcusably delayed, and risks undermining any chances of enforcing the Lomé accord.

Human Rights Watch supports the request of Interights for the African Commission to place the situation of human rights in Sierra Leone on the agenda at its next session, which we understand is to be held in Kigali, Rwanda, in November. We urge the commission to consider the amnesty provisions of the Lomé accord and advise member states of the OAU that they are not in accordance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. In light of the serious and massive violations of human rights that have been committed in Sierra Leone, we also call on the commission to send its special rapporteurs on women, on conditions of detention and on extrajudicial executions to Sierra Leone to investigate the situation there and make recommendations.

Human Rights Watch has repeatedly noted in correspondence with the United Nations and the governments of the United Kingdom and the United States the dismaying contrast between the level of international response to atrocities committed in the Balkans or East Timor and those committed in Africa, including Sierra Leone. The African Commission, as an African institution, can play a leading role in ensuring that the appalling crimes committed in Sierra Leone receive the attention they are due from the international community.

Sincerely,