Rebels face Sierra Leone tribunal...BBC

[mom cat]

Rebels face Sierra Leone tribunal


The tribunal's legitimacy is being questioned by the rebels
A UN-backed war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone has begun hearing the first cases against members of the rebel Revolutionary United Front.
The RUF is blamed for killings, rapes and abductions during a decade of civil war that ended in 2002.

But the first three defendants - who include the RUF's final military leader Issa Sesay - are refusing to acknowledge the court's legitimacy.

About 50,000 people were killed, and many more maimed and raped in the war.

The RUF's internal security chief, Augustine Gbao, and a key battlefield commander, Morris Kallon, are on trial alongside Mr Sesay.

The RUF's campaign of violence included hacking off the limbs of civilians as a trademark act of terror.

Paymaster

The BBC's Lansana Fofana in Freetown says that Mr Sesay occasionally lowered his head as the 18 war crimes charges, including sexual slavery, murder, looting and terrorising civilians, were read out.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3865941.stm