U.S. proposes special court to try Sierra Leone war criminals

UNITED NATIONS, July 27 (Reuters) -- The United States circulated a U.N. Security Council resolution on Thursday to set up a special mixed Sierra Leone-international court to try rebels accused of the worst atrocities in the war-ravaged west African nation.

U.S. ambassador Richard Holbrooke said the draft was "endorsed in its general framework by all the other" council members during closed-door consultations. He hoped it would be voted on next week.

"It is very important that Foday Sankoh and his henchmen who have committed these war crimes be brought to justice," Holbrooke told reporters, referring to the leader of the rebel Revolutionary United Front who was arrested by the Sierra Leone government in May.

The civil war in Sierra Leone, which flared anew this year despite a peace accord signed in Lome, Togo, in July 1999, has been marked by unusual brutality, with rebels killing or mutilating thousands of civilians, often hacking off limbs.

The court would have jurisdiction over "senior Sierra Leonean nationals who bear the greatest responsibility for the most systematic and egregious criminal violations of Sierra Leone law and international humanitarian law, in particular those whose actions have posed, since July 7, 1999, serious threats to peace and security in the region."

The proposed mixed court would be different from existing purely U.N. tribunals set up to try alleged war criminals from the former Yugoslavia and those accused of responsibility for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

A similar mixed court, with international involvement, is under consideration for Cambodia to try those alleged to have been responsible for killing an estimated 1.7 million people when the Khmer Rouge ruled that county from 1975 to 1979.

The U.S. resolution would authorize U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to enter into an agreement with the government of Sierra Leone, as well as a possible alternative host state, to create the court. It would be funded through voluntary contributions.

Holbrooke said the location of the court would depend on the situation in Freetown, the Sierra Leone capital.

"Let's see how secure Freetown is, let's see whether a trial in Freetown is a stabilizing or destabilizing factor," he said. He assumed any alternative site would be in the region.

Sierra Leone could not establish a court on its own, he added, because last year's Lome accord included an amnesty for crimes under that country's domestic law, while the United Nations did not accept the amnesty under international law. An international element was therefore needed.

Holbrooke said that because of the "fragile political situation in Freetown," the Sierra Leone government itself indicated it would like international backing to give the court greater stature.

The resolution would ask the U.N. secretary-general to send a team of experts immediately to consult with the Sierra Leone government and an alternative host state -- not yet identified -- to discuss the establishment of the court.

Annan would be asked to make recommendations for establishing the tribunal within 30 days of the adoption of the resolution.

The draft provides that any appeals against the verdicts of the mixed court would be referred to an appeals court at The Hague which serves both the U.N. Yugoslavia and Rwanda tribunals.

Holbrooke called the resolution "long overdue," but said it was delayed until hundred of U.N. peacekeeping troops taken hostage by rebels in May, and others besieged until earlier this month, were out of harm's way.

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