Victims are getting to tell their stories as the Sierra Leone war crimes tribunal puts suspects on trial, the chief prosecutor tells Judith Crosbie
One of the points David Crane stressed when visiting town hall meetings of local residents in remote parts of Sierra Leone was that "the law will triumph over the gun". It can't have been an easy message for the chief prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone to get across in a country that has seen some of the worst horrors committed against human beings.
Indeed, Mr Crane, in Ireland at the moment to speak at a conference organised by the Irish Centre for Human Rights in Galway and to publicise the efforts of the Irish government in backing the war crimes tribunal, believes the crimes are worse than those committed in Rwanda and Yugoslavia.
The horrors emerged during the town hall meetings he organised two years ago to gather testimony from witnesses after the UN and Sierra Leone government set up the tribunal.
Last month the evidence was used as the trials opened against the leaders of rebel and government militia who fought a civil war for control of the country's rich diamond regions. "The depravity, the manner by which these crime were done were not carried out for - even though it doesn't excuse it - religious or ethic or social reasons. It was done for the criminal gain of warlords and heads of state who in joint criminal enterprise got together to control a commodity to further their own personal, criminal gain. That is in itself horrific but what they did to other human beings was not for any other reason, but because they could," Mr Crane says.
The former US Defence Department lawyer and his staff, based in the capital Freetown, have had to listen to stories of mutilations, rapes, murders and have spoken to children with the letters of rebel groups RUF (Revolutionary United Front) and AFRC (African Forces Revolutionary Council) carved into their chests. An estimated 50,000 people were murdered and 500,000 affected by the violence in the decade-long war. Mr Crane tells of one man and his children being forced to watch while his wife was raped eight times. "Then having his hand cut off and the gentleman trying to retrieve his own hand, they then bayoneted him in the back".
An important aspect of the prosecution case is the fact that it was women and girls who often bore the brunt of the war. The new crime of "forced marriage" has been created to prosecute those who drove women and girls - some as young as 10 years old - from villages into the bush, repeatedly raping and enslaving them for years. One woman who will give evidence had been raped so many times she has difficulty walking. Another woman must take breaks every 10 minutes because of incontinence caused by years in sexual slavery.
Another ground-breaking aspect of the tribunal is that it the first time the recruitment of child soldiers, who were forced from their homes and ordered to kill others, is being treated as a war crime.
The tribunal has a restricted remit which allows it only to prosecute those who bear the "greatest responsibility" for crimes committed in the period after November 1996, despite the fact that the war started in 1991. Mr Crane says he has enough evidence during this time period to prosecute those leaders (less than 20 in total) who masterminded the deaths and destruction.
He also says it is important that the court should not drag on for several years, for financial reasons but also for the sake of the Sierra Leone population. "You can't have an international war crimes tribunal in a place that has suffered as much as west Africa for more than five years. . . they have to get the tragedy behind them. It is incredibly important that they move on."
There is one glaring omission in the list of detainees accused of carrying out the war and that is the former leader of Liberia, Charles Taylor, who, it is alleged, armed the rebels that began the war and who was charged by the court last year on 17 counts.
Following his resignation last August during a rebellion in Liberia, neighbouring Nigeria has given him sanctuary but Mr Crane is confident the authorities there will hand him over and he will face justice in Sierra Leone. "If we do not prosecute Charles Taylor we are saying 'if you're an African leader you have an exception in that you can kill people', and that sets back international criminal justice terribly.
"Until Charles Taylor is turned over to the Special Court a true peace will not settle into west Africa . . . people are looking over their shoulders."
Mr Crane stresses the importance of the support, both financially and politically, given to the court by countries such as Ireland (which contributed nearly €1 million between 2001 and 2003). "If the Special Court in some way can let the world know that these crimes need to be faced down then mankind is better for it.
"These things can be expensive, they can be time-consuming, but if mankind does not take the time and the expense and is not concerned, it will happen again and again."