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Subject:	Civilians The Real Target In Sierra Leone
From:	Amadu Kabir Njie <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:	Amadu Kabir Njie <[log in to unmask]>
Date:	Fri, 5 May 2000 23:03:03 +0200
Content-Type:	text/plain
Parts/Attachments:	text/plain (36 lines)

Civilians The Real Target In Sierra Leone

Civilians The Real Target In Sierra Leone
May 5, 2000

DAKAR, Senegal (PANA)- Human Rights Watch Friday condemned the recent killing and hostage-taking of UN peacekeepers in Sierra Leone, while noting that civilians had been enduring similar abuses by the rebels for several years.

A peace agreement signed in July was supposed to end the nine-year civil war in Sierra Leone, but it included an amnesty for the vast numbers of war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed during the conflict. Rebels of the Revolutionary United Front committed most of those crimes. Human Rights Watch opposed the amnesty because "we feared that impunity for such atrocities would only breed more atrocities. Events of this week have only confirmed our fears."

"For the people of Sierra Leone, the civil war has never really ended," Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the Africa division of Human Rights Watch, said.

"The UN peacekeepers have suffered a terrible blow. But even after the peace agreement, people in villages all over the country have been subjected to rape, execution, torture, amputation and abduction by the rebels," he added.

Takirambudde noted that the UN peacekeepers were apparently killed while protecting their base and civilians in one of the rebel strongholds.

He praised them for attempting to fulfil a dangerous mission which international troops in Sierra Leone have sometimes seemed reluctant to undertake.

Takirambudde also said that front's leader, Foday Sankoh, should be held responsible for the actions of troops under his effective command.

Human Rights Watch has documented a great number of abuses against civilians, mostly committed by the rebels, both during the civil war and in the aftermath.

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