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Dear Ambassador Greenstock,
Thank you for inviting Human Rights Watch to the Sierra Leone briefing you held on September 28. We welcome the initiative of the Security Council to undertake a field mission to Sierra Leone. We believe that there is an urgent need to fully implement existing relevant Security Council resolutions, to strengthen the leadership of the UN mission in that country and to devise means to address a number of pressing human rights issues, including the still pending issue of justice and past abuses.
We have conveyed many of our concerns in previous communications to the Security Council, we will therefore only focus on a few key issues.
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Related Material
Sierra Leone: A Call for Justice
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Areas of Concern
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UNAMSIL should be required to take all necessary measures to protect civilians within its areas of deployment, and to use its best efforts to expand the zone within which it is able to protect civilians. Human Rights Watch specifically criticized UNAMSIL for their lack of protection of civilians in June when they pulled out of Kabala while it came under attack by the RUF, and for not protecting the Freetown-mile 91 highway from frequent ambushes and attacks on civilian vehicles and villagers by the Westside Boys. UNAMSIL should be given the troops and equipment to fulfill that part of their mandate. UNAMSIL should direct its attention most urgently to areas where there is clear evidence that RUF forces continue to commit serious abuses.
UNAMSIL should conduct regular patrols in areas known for activities of abusive armed groups, particularly along the Freetown - Mile 91 area and Freetown Port Loko Highway.
Monitoring of Ongoing Human Rights Violations
We reiterate our call to strengthen the role of the civilian human rights unit of UNAMSIL.
The unit should have the mandate and resources to: investigate and publicly report on human rights abuses by all sides to the conflict in Sierra Leone, including the RUF, pro-government forces, and U.N. troops; establish responsibility for abuses by identifying the direct perpetrators and those with command responsibility; inform the relevant disciplinary and judicial authorities of abuses, and press for accountability; and monitor and report on the efforts of the relevant authorities, domestic and international, to discipline or punish abuses.
It is of particular importance that the unit's work be well integrated into the larger UNAMSIL mission, and its findings and recommendations should be given due weight by UNAMSIL's military and political components.
We are extremely concerned that the unit has never reached a full deployment set at 14 professional staff. At most, the unit had nine professional staff members; that number is currently five and, despite of the ongoing crisis, the unit has been without its chief since January.
Monitoring of Troop Behavior
We welcome your assurance, expressed during last week's briefing, that peacekeeping troops' behavior will be on the delegation's agenda and that you will be taking this matter up with relevant authorities. In the past, U.N. peacekeepers have been responsible for human rights violations themselves, and after some highly embarrassing media reports, the Secretariat pledged to create institutional mechanisms to address such situations. To date, however, no meaningful measures have been implemented. In Sierra Leone, ECOMOG's peacekeeping operation had a history of serious human rights abuses, in particular by the Nigerian troops in early 1999. Shortly thereafter, ECOWAS pledged in their April 99 Annual Summit to conduct an investigation into allegations of ECOMOG atrocities during the January 1999 offensive but this investigation has yet to take place. This issue is especially important now that new Nigerian troops are about to be deployed in Sierra Leone.
It is of great importance that UNAMSIL create a mechanism for prompt investigations of alleged human rights violations committed by peacekeeping troops. Such investigations should be conducted by the civilian human rights component of the force. The unit should have an explicit mandate to conduct such investigations and their results should be acted upon as a matter of highest priority by the operation's leadership.
Independent from the monitoring mechanism, all troops to be deployed in Sierra Leone must receive basic training in humanitarian law and the laws of war prior to their deployment. Humanitarian law advisers should be deployed with the troops in order to ensure the highest possible protection for the civilian population.
UNAMSIL should be required to work with the Sierra Leonean government to put in place disciplinary and other procedures to prevent violations of international humanitarian law and other abuses by pro-government forces including the Sierra Leone Army (SLA) and the Civil Defense Forces.
Monitoring is only effective if it is tied to meaningful discipline and accountability. It is therefore essential that the U.N. press for and report on the process of holding soldiers accountable within their national civilian and military justice systems.
Special Court for Sierra Leone
The release of the Secretary-General's report has been postponed once again. We therefore would like to reiterate our previous main recommendations, made in the aftermath of the Security Council's passing Resolution 1315.
We are particularly concerned about the government of Sierra Leone's insistence and the OLA's reported agreement to include juveniles in the jurisdiction of the court. Human Rights Watch has recommended that the Special Court for Sierra Leone should have no jurisdiction over persons who were under the age of eighteen at the time they were alleged to have committed a crime which would otherwise come within the jurisdiction of the Special Court.
The court's jurisdiction, competence, fair trial guarantees, rules of procedure, and evidence should be drawn from international standards including, where appropriate, precedents of the two existing ad hoc international tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The Court must enjoy and be seen to enjoy full independence and to operate with impartiality.
It is essential for the credibility of the process that the judges, prosecutors, and staff be individuals of high moral character, impartiality, and integrity who possess experience in criminal and international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law.
As per paragraph 2 of Resolution 1315, the court should be given jurisdiction not only over crimes defined in the Sierra Leonean criminal code such as murder, battery, torture, kidnaping, and rape, but also over crimes subject to universal jurisdiction under international law, including crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. The definitions of these crimes should be drawn from the statute of the International Criminal Court and the ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
Human Rights Watch strongly believes that the court should be given jurisdiction over crimes committed at least since March 1991, when the RUF launched a rebellion to overthrow the Sierra Leonean government; and that the court's jurisdiction should be ongoing until the Security Council declares that the conflict no longer poses a threat to international security, as is the case with the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
The process established must focus on the criminal responsibility for crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law committed by all sides to the conflict in Sierra Leone, and not only on the responsibility of Foday Sankoh and other RUF leaders.
Regionalization of the Conflict
The regional nature of the conflict has become increasingly apparent and is fueling the crisis in Sierra Leone. The recent refugee crisis in Guinea and the ongoing violations of the U.N. arms embargo are two vivid examples that the U.N. must address.
UNAMSIL should act upon reports regarding repeated and blatant violations of the arms embargo against rebel forces of Sierra Leone and provide for the rigorous enforcement of the embargo, including by the deployment as soon as possible of well-equipped U.N. forces to monitor borders (especially with Liberia), roads, and airstrips bordering on rebel-controlled areas and halt any weapons shipments they detect.
The U.N. should urge all neighboring states to abide by their international obligations not to return any refugees to a country where their lives may be threatened. Despite its past generous policies of sheltering refugees, rising cross-border security tensions have led to severe crack-downs on refugees in Guinea and the intermittent closure of the Guinean border with Sierra Leone. In early September, thousands of Sierra Leonean and Liberian refugees were rounded up and detained by civilian militia and police. During their detention, numerous girls and women were raped, and men were brutalized and tortured. These actions have seriously endangered the lives of thousands of Sierra Leonean civilians. To date, Sierra Leonean refugees continue to remain at risk in the refugee camps on the Guinean border as well as in the Guinean capital Conakry.
The international community must provide greater assistance to Guinea to address its national security and border concerns, including to assist Guinea to screen and exclude Sierra Leonean war criminals from receiving international refugee protection and to separate combatants from civilians in accordance with international law.
As stated above, we warmly welcome the initiative of Security Council's visiting Sierra Leone. We fear that the mission in Sierra Leone could unravel because of the leadership problems and other difficulties plaguing that operation. We hope that your trip will provide the much needed momentum and will result in specific decisions and actions aimed at bringing lasting peace to Sierra Leone and at restoring the credibility of the U.N. and the Security Council in particular, in that country.
Human Rights Watch has maintained a field office in Sierra Leone since April 1999. Its director, Ms. Corinne Dufka is available to meet with members of your delegation and provide the delegation with a briefing.
We wish you a successful trip and look froward to hearing about its results.
Sincerely,
Peter Takirambudde
Executive Director, Africa Division
Joanna Weschler
U.N. Representative