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Sierra Leone's ex-junta leader dead, UN court declares

Sierra Leone's fugitive former junta ruler Johnny Paul Koroma, who had been indicted for war crimes by a UN-backed court, has been killed in Liberia, the court's top investigator said on Sunday.

"I told the indictee's wife that her husband has been killed and we got this from credible information," Alan White told reporters by telephone in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown.

The report of Koroma's death comes barely a month after that of former Sierra Leonean rebel commander Sam Bockarie, shot dead in a gunbattle with troops loyal to Liberian President Charles Taylor, who has also been indicted by the court.

Koroma and Bockarie, whose fighters won reputations for brutality during Sierra Leone's brutal decade-long civil war, were once allies of Taylor, who stands accused of fuelling the conflict in exchange for diamonds.

Bockarie, one of the region's most feared rebel commanders, was killed on May 6.

Koroma's wife, Makuta, told journalists on Sunday she had been told her husband was killed in Lofa County in neighboring Liberia two weeks ago. She said she believed Koroma had been executed by commanders loyal to Taylor.

Sierra Leone's war unleashed levels of cruelty that shocked even in war-scarred West Africa. Fighters on both sides deliberately hacked off civilians' limbs, gang-raped women and girls and forcibly recruited child soldiers.

The UN-backed court was set up to try those bearing the greatest responsibility.

Koroma came to power at the head of a junta that overthrew President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in 1997 and then allied itself with rebels of Foday Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front.

A West African force drove out the military government to restore Kabbah in 1998. The subsequent period was one of the most brutal of the war, as the rebels and former junta soldiers strove to win back power.

Koroma's militia, known as the West Side Boys, acquired a reputation for brutality that at least equalled that of rebels led by fellow indictee Sankoh, who is in detention.

Koroma has been on the run since January this year after escaping arrest in connection with an attack on an army barracks in Freetown. A Christian, he won a seat in parliamentary elections last year, garnering strong support among soldiers.

Taylor, besieged by rebels and fighting for his political survival, is now the only one of the court's indictees at large.

Days before Bockarie was killed, the war crimes court had accused Taylor of harboring Bockarie and Koroma and threatened the warlord-turned-president with action if he did not hand them over for trial.

Unlike UN courts for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and genocide in Rwanda, the Sierra Leone court is a mixed tribunal staffed by international and local judges and prosecutors.

At least 50,000 people were killed in Sierra Leone's war, which was officially declared over in January last year.

Koroma's wife said she had contacted court officials, the government of Sierra Leone and regional leaders to request her husband's body.
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