Special Court for Sierra Leone, RUF Trial, Update 3

RUF Trial

Special Court for Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone

English

Beginning Monday, 12 July, the Special Court's prosecution team began calling its first witnesses in its case against three of the alleged leaders of the RUF (Revolutionary United Front). Between 12 July and 23 July, nine witnesses were called in total, each of them recounting multiple atrocities allegedly inflicted upon them and their families by rebel forces between 1998 and 1999. Although their testimonies were quite varied in scope, they ranged from accounts of sexual violence, amputations, and murder, to descriptions of forced labor, pillage, and the use of child soldiers by RUF forces.

Rampant sexual violence and amputations stood out as two principal themes throughout these nine witnesses' testimony. One woman from Bombali District told of being captured by a group of rebels, then being raped by one of her captors, watching her husband killed in front of her, and suffering the amputation of both of her hands. Another woman described being beaten and raped by rebels in front of her children, then suffering the amputation both of her own hand and the hand of her six-year old child. Many witnesses described seeing teenage girls and women taken as "wives" by rebels.