Agence France-Presse,
A UN-backed war crimes court in Sierra Leone handed down its first verdicts on Wednesday, convicting three rebel leaders of crimes against humanity during a decade-long civil war.
The court found Alex Tamba Brima, 35, Brima Bazzy Kamara, 39, and Santigie Borbor Kanu, 42, guilty on 11 of the 14 charges against them.
The landmark judgement is the first by an international court to convict individuals of conscripting children into combat and forcing wartime marriages, the court and human rights observers said.
“This trial marks the first time that an international tribunal has ruled on the charge of recruitment of child soldiers into an armed force, and on the crime of forced marriage in an armed conflict,” the court said.
Human Rights Watch said the convictions were a “groundbreaking step” toward ending impunity for commanders who exploit children as soldiers in conflicts worldwide.
“Now that child recruiters are being brought to justice, their impunity is no longer so certain,” said Jo Becker, children's rights activist at HRW.
Judge Julia Sebutinde set a sentencing hearing for July 16.
The three commanders, who were found guilty of murder, rape and enlisting child soldiers, were allegedly backed by former Liberian president Charles Taylor in exchange for Sierra Leone diamonds.
Rights groups say thousands of children were forcibly recruited and actively used to commit atrocities by all three warring factions in the conflict which started in 1991.
The three men were acquitted of one charge of sexual slavery and two of inhuman acts.
By the time the war ended in 2001 in Sierra Leone, some 120,000 people had died and thousands of others had been mutilated — their arms, legs, ears or noses chopped off.
The trio belonged to the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), a rebel faction led by Johnny Paul Koroma, which toppled an elected regime in 1997 and joined forces with the notorious main rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF).
After ousting president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in May 1997, the AFRC set up a junta which included RUF members. They briefly led the government before embarking on terror campaigns that included burning children to death.
“Today, the victims of mutilation, rape and pillage have seen justice done,” said Dufka.
“This is the end of the trial phase…. There is, however, still some time to go before the final end,” the court's spokesman Peter Andersen told AFP.
He said all three, who had pleaded not guilty, had the right to appeal.
Top security chiefs and amputee victims of the civil war were among those packed into the heavily guarded court complex in the capital Freetown.
AFRC leader Koroma was among the 13 people originally indicted by the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL). He was never arrested and is now widely presumed dead.
Amnesty International believes many others should be prosecuted for war crimes in the country and has urged the authorities to speed up compensation payouts for victims.
“Thousands of others can and must be held criminally responsible,” said Amnesty's legal adviser Hugo Relva.
Created in January 2002, the court is a hybrid of international and local law under a deal between the west African country's government and the United Nations.
Liberia's Taylor is the most high-profile defendant to appear before the court, although his trial venue was switched to The Hague amid official concerns of unrest if it was held in Freetown.
Although Sierra Leone's civil war broke out in 1991, the court is only mandated to handle cases beginning in November 1996, the date Kabbah signed a peace deal with the RUF which did not hold.
While it was set up with the backing of the UN, the court operates independently and is financed by contributions from several countries.
