AP News, August 2nd, 2007
Two former members of a pro-government militia were convicted of war crimes Thursday, the second round of rulings by a U.N.-backed court attempting to punish those most responsible for brutalities committed during Sierra Leone's decade-long civil war.
Moinina Fofana and Allieu Kondewa were tried on eight counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their leadership of a group called the Civil Defense Forces, which is accused of torturing and mutilating civilians during the 1991-2002 war.
The three-judge panel voted 2-1 to convict them men on four counts involving murder, cruel treatment, pillage and issuing collective punishment. Kondewa was convicted on an additional count of conscripting child soldiers.
"The chamber found that they bear individual criminal responsibility for the war crimes for which they were found guilty," Presiding Judge Benjamin Itoe told the packed courtroom.
Both men were acquitted of charges of inhumane acts, terrorism and an additional count of murder. Sierra Leonean Judge Justice Bankole Thompson dissented, finding both men not guilty on all eight counts.
A date for sentencing has not been set.
Thursday's convictions come two weeks after the first sentences were handed down in Sierra Leone's long-running push to hold those accountable for atrocities committed during years of vicious fighting. During the war, various groups burned villages, chopped off people's hands with machetes and went on campaigns of rape.
The first convicted were members of a ruling junta who were sentenced to 45- to 50-year prison terms. Those charged in the second case were members of a tribal-based, pro-government force.
Over the course of the trial of the Civil Defense Forces militia, which began in June 2004, 75 prosecution witnesses testified to support charges of murder, systematic looting and burning of villages, as well as the recruitment of child soldiers.
The head of the Civil Defense Forces, Sam Hinga Norman, had also been named in the indictment, but died earlier this year.
It is estimated that about half a million people were victims of killings, systematic mutilation and other atrocities during Sierra Leone's years of fighting.
Some have criticized the slow approach of the court proceedings, while others have criticized the trials for selecting too few people to punish.
