Re: Sierra Leone

Your Excellency,

On September 23, 1999, Secretary-General Kofi Annan submitted to the Security Council his eighth report on the U.N. Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL). In that report, the secretary-general recommended the deployment of 6,000 U.N. peacekeeping troops to Sierra Leone in support of the July 7 peace agreement signed in Lomé, Togo.

There has already been far too long a delay in providing concrete support for the Lomé accord. Human Rights Watch urges the Security Council to adopt as soon as possible a resolution establishing a mandate for the proposed U.N. Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) and asking member states of the U.N. to make the necessary commitment of financial resources and troops under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter.

Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) has effectively not yet begun. Rebel commander Foday Sankoh has stated that he is unhappy with the proposal for deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force, saying that the ECOMOG forces should be sufficient. Yet a U.N. role in the DDR process is urgently needed to implement it and ensure a halt to ongoing human rights and ceasefire violations. In particular, neutral troops are needed to defuse tensions between the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the former Sierra Leonean Army/Armed Forces Ruling Council (SLA/AFRC). Pending full compliance with the peace accord, the arms embargo in force against Sierra Leone, except to the government, under Security Council resolution 1171 of 1998, should remain in place.

The Security Council resolution should also endorse the reservation added to the Lomé accord by Special Representative Francis Okelo, and reject the blanket amnesty set out in the accord. In resolution 1260 of August 20, 1999, the Security Council took note of the views of the secretary-general, expressed in paragraph 54 of his report of July 30 (S/1999/836) — in which he observed that the provisions on amnesty "are difficult to reconcile with the goal of ending the culture of impunity" and refered to the reservation entered by the secretary-general's special representative on behalf of the U.N. The Security Council stressed "the urgent need to promote peace and national reconciliation and to foster accountability and respect for human rights in Sierra Leone"; and welcomed the provisions for the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the .Human Rights Commission. The Security Council should take opportunity of this next resolution explicitly to confirm that for the U.N. the amnesty cannot cover international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious violations of international human rights law. As noted by the Commission on Human Rights in its resolution this year on Sierra Leone (1999/1) "all countries are under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have comitted, or to have odered to be committed, [grave breaches of international humanitarian law] and to bring such persons, regardless of their nationality, before their own courts."

The U.N. Security Council should also deplore the delay in establishing national institutions for human rights, including the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Human Rights Commission, as provided under the Lomé accord, and urge support for these processes. The Security Council should also endorse the mandate of Bethuel Abdu Kiplagat, appointed by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson to explore the possibilities for establishing an international commission of inquiry into human rights violations in Sierra Leone.

The Security Council should make it a priority to ensure that the mining and export of diamonds is carried out under strong supervision to ensure that the money raised from Sierra Leone's natural resources is expended for the benefit of all Sierra Leoneans and not a small minority. There are worrisome reports that both rebel leaders and ECOMOG officers continue to make private profit from the diamond business.

In addition to the incidents noted in the secretary-general's eighth report, Human Rights Watch wishes to call your attention to a number of violations of the peace agreement since the signing of the July 7 accord. Please see the attached memorandum for more information on these violations.

We thank you for your attention to this matter.

Memorandum on Violations of the Ceasefire and Continuing Human Rights Violations in Sierra Leone

October 1999

Since August, groups of SLA soldiers have attacked and looted over twenty villages around the Port Loko area, forcing thousands of civilians to flee their homes. Several women from these villages were allegedly raped and others abducted to carry away the looted goods. There have been similar attacks around the Masiaka and Rogberi area as well. Rebels attempted to amputate the hand of a fifteen-year-old boy during an October 3 raid in Makoberi village near Port Loko. On October 10, a twenty-three year old farmer from the Mangarma, near Port Loko, was captured by a group of twenty-six rebels. The rebels tied him down and tortured him by melting a five gallon rubber container and then dropping pieces of plastic on his back, chest, legs, and face. He had over 150 small third degree burns all over his body. According to witnesses, one man was killed during this attack.

There have also been several ambushes of commercial vehicles, taxis and trucks carrying aid supplies along the Freetown - Port Loko road resulting in the deaths of at least two drivers and the wouding of several passengers. In Freetown RUF and SLA combatants have entered offices, shops, offices and restaurants, and proceeded to intimidated and extorted money out of owners, workers and patrons. On a few occasions they have mounted checkpoints to extort money from motorists and gone into the homes of escaped female abductees demanding that they accompany them back into the bush. Gangs of rebels have entered government buildings demanding money and threatening reprisals if not paid. Six armed men entered the UNICEF offices on September 28. While in most cases the rebels have not been armed, they have made verbal threats against civilians who are still traumatized from the events of last January. In the Matotoka region, armed rebels routinely impose a tax of oil, rice and money on the civilian population. There have also been some executions of rebels by other rebels for various causes, including theft of relief food.

RUF rebels ambushed a convoy of Guinean ECOMOG troops along the Mange-Kambia highway in early September, stealing weapons, ammunition and an artillery piece. On October 4, rebels ambushed a government bus some fifty miles from Freetown. Thirty passengers were robbed and beaten, and, according to eyewitness testimony, at least eight women were raped, including one minor. The whereabouts of the passengers are unknown. On or around September 29, rebels ambushed a bus between Lunghi and Port Loko. Male passengers were beaten and several women abducted as porters. Their whereabouts are unknown.

ECOMOG troops have also shown excessive brutality at checkpoints, and have yet to carry out a promised investigation into executions and other abuses perpetrated by ECOMOG troops during the January rebel offensive.

Rebel prisoners, including children, interviewed in Port Loko said they were beaten and mutilated with knives after being captured by members of the newly trained Sierra Leonean army.

Thousands of abductees are still thought to be in RUF custody. RUF commanders recently admitted that about 30 percent of their force were under years old, and at least 2,871 children reported as missing following the January offensive have yet to return home. Although the RUF has released more than one hundred children from Lunsar since the return of Johnny Paul Koroma and Foday Sankoh to Freetown on October 3, most of these have been those not useful for combat or other purposes, such as sick or small children. In some cases, rebels have charged families to buy back their children, or have given "passes" for abductees to come to Freetown and threatened them if they do not return by a given date. The RUF has not released girls and women who were abducted and are now being used as sexual partners for rebel combatants. There are thought to be hundreds of such women from the Freetown and Mmasiaka areas. There have also have been no releases from the eastern diamond-mining areas where the RUF is thought to be using abductees to mine diamonds. The Kamajor militia fighting for the government has demobilized more children, though an indeterminate number remain. The rebels have also admitted to having several hundred prisoners of war, yet to date have only officially released twenty-nine.