Justice for Sierra Leone

Photo by Jon Guiffre

"If I were a West African war lord, I would look out here before me and see an army," explained David Crane, a professor of Law at Syracuse University and former chief prosecutor for the international war crimes tribunal for Sierra Leone. Speaking at a special Morning Meeting in Bingham Auditorium, Crane described how war lords surrounded villages, forced young people to kill their parents, and carved them with his initials to mark them as his property. These were 7-, 8-, 9-, or 10-year-old children, who, if they lived, led a life that was indescribable. ³There are no words in the English language to describe to you what took place. The court had to hear it from the witnesses.² Crane is the first American appointed to such a role since Justice Robert H. Jackson, who served as chief prosecutor for the Nuremburg trials after World War II. Judge Crane's mandate was to prosecute those who bore the greatest responsibility for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of human rights committed during the 10-year civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s that resulted in the destruction of about 1.2 million West Africans.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone was set up jointly by the government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations. Eleven persons stand indicted by the Special Court. Specifically, the charges include murder, rape, extermination, acts of terror, enslavement, looting and burning, sexual slavery, conscription of children into an armed force, and attacks on United Nations peacekeepers and humanitarian workers, among others. For more information, visit www.sc-sl.org. Crane¹s visit was sponsored by the Rear Admiral Raymond F. DuBois Fellowship in International Affairs.