Calling it a "tale of horror," the prosecutor for a UN-sponsored war-crimes court opened the first trials of rebel military commanders accused in a vicious 10-year campaign for control of diamond-rich Sierra Leone.
Onlookers in the tightly guarded courtroom on Monday muttered as the court detailed the alleged crimes in an 18-count joint indictment -- systematic killings, rapes, enslavement of child soldiers and mutilation by machete.
Prosecutors alleged a network of foreign backing for the rebels, including training and forces from then-Liberian president Charles Taylor and Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi.
PHOTO: AP
"What took place in Sierra Leone marks the limits of our language to communicate, and falls outside the realm of expression," said David Crane, the American chief prosecutor for the UN-backed court, in opening statements.
"This is a tale of horror, beyond the gothic into the realm of Dante's Inferno," Crane said.
The three former military commanders of the Revolutionary United Front are accused as primary culprits in their movement's battle between 1991 and 2002 to take control of Sierra Leone and its diamond fields.
Rebels adopted a trademark atrocity that made them notorious: chopping off the hands, legs, lips, ears and breasts of their civilian victims with machetes. Countless maimed survivors struggle to make new livings today, or inhabit vocational training camps set up for the mutilated.
The three ex-rebels are former battlefield commanders Issa Sesay, Morris Kallon and Augustine Gbao. Sesay was the rebels' last leader before the fighting stopped.
The rebels' founder and longtime leader -- Foday Sankoh, known as "Pa" to his drugged, drunk child fighters -- died of natural causes in UN custody last year.
Crane made frequent reference on Monday to another top indicted figure outside of the court's custody -- Taylor, a former Liberian president now living in exile in Nigeria.
Sierra Leone's war began with a Feb. 27, 1991, planning session in Gbarnga, Liberia, which was Taylor's base, Crane alleged.
About 250 Revolutionary United Front fighters launched the invasion from Liberia, supported by Taylor's forces and Libyan special forces, Crane said.
Libya is widely accused of training and supporting Taylor and Sankoh as Cold War-era guerrillas against US interests in West Africa.
Qaddafi is mentioned in the special court's indictments but not indicted.
All parties were after influence and Sierra Leone's mineral wealth, the prosecutor said.
"Among their goals, the diamond fields of eastern Sierra Leone; and their motive -- power, riches and control in furtherance of a joint criminal enterprise that extended from West Africa north into the Mediterranean region and the Middle East," Crane said.
"Blood diamonds are the common thread that bound them together," the prosecutor said. "The rule of the gun was supreme."
Rebels directed most attacks on civilians, aiming to terrorize the population, Crane said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in