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Headline: Sierra Leone must care for war-crimes victims
Byline: Angela Lederach and Claire Putzeys
Date: 06/25/2007
Freetown, Sierra Leone - When the Special Court of Sierra Leone handed down historic
war-crimes judgments last week, Tamba Finnoh was one of the first to
hear the news.

He is one of the victims of the vicious cruelty used by all sides in
his country’s 11-year civil war: amputation. Mr. Finnoh lost his
right hand and barely escaped with his left in 1997 when rebel forces
caught him in the bush. Today, he is one of the few amputees in the
country fortunate enough to have a job; he serves tea to witnesses
who testify before the court. It is ironic that when defendants are
called to testify during trial, they are treated as witnesses – and
Tamba Finnoh finds himself serving tea to the very men who
masterminded the violence that cost him his hand.

Last week’s convictions of five top commanders from the Civil Defense
Forces and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, two of the war’s
three fighting forces on trial, include the world’s first-ever
convictions for solicitation of child soldiers. The judgments have
been rightly hailed as groundbreaking by the international community.
But the fact remains that the rulings will have little bearing on
those most in need of justice – the victims of the war, particularly
those who were brutally amputated. As Finnoh says, “Whether or not
these people are caught or are unpunished, it cannot bring back the
hands.”

Unlike Finnoh, thousands of amputees face the ongoing challenge of
trying to find work to provide food for their families and pay school
fees for their children. Tamba Ngaujah was the first amputee of the
war; both of his hands were cut off by rebel soldiers from the
Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in 1991. Today he lives in a
four-room zinc shack on the side of a steep hill outside Freetown,
with his wife, six children, and two other relatives. He is the sole
provider for his household – no small feat for a man who has no
hands. The RUF trials are still ongoing and judgments are expected in
2008. But even then, Mr. Ngaujah will still be searching for justice.
“Those who have caused these problems, to jail them or do whatever to
them, why can’t [the government] think about the people who suffered
from the war and come to their aid?” he said last week.

In fact, the final report of Sierra Leone’s Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC) issued in 2004 recommended that the government make
reparations to amputee victims, including free medical treatment and
free schooling for their children. Unfortunately, the government has
yet to follow through with the commission’s recommendations – a
source of growing disillusionment here. Sadly, people like Finnoh and
Ngaujah struggle not only with the injustice of the lack of
government benefits, but they also face a daily struggle against
social stigmas: Increasingly, the word “amputee” has become
synonymous with “beggar.”

The government is not bound by the TRC recommendations, and it argues
that it doesn’t have the resources to enact them. Sierra Leone ranks
high on the failed-states index and is notoriously corrupt. But the
government must quell the growing discontent among the war’s victims.
For victims to find peace and a sense of justice, the democratically
elected government must find a way to care for those whose lives were
shattered by the war.

But despite the lack of attention given to war victims, many Sierra
Leoneans we have met believe the current ruling party will emerge
victorious in this August’s elections as the lesser of two evils.

International nongovernmental organizations line the streets of
Freetown, but responsibility ultimately lies with the government. The
international community is not likely to pressure Sierra Leone
through sanctions or other measures. But the issue of reparations is
nonetheless a crucial question that the international community must
consider as it seeks to support stable conditions here and in so many
other troubled areas throughout the African continent.

While the world applauds last week’s historic convictions, Ngaujah
faces a day just like every other day. He will get up, his wife will
dress him in a neatly pressed shirt, and he will climb the steep,
stony slope up to the road. He will make his way into the busy
streets of Freetown. There he will stand patiently, with dignity, for
hours. “Good morning, sir,” or, “Good afternoon, ma’am,” he will say,
hoping a kind heart will drop a few leones in his pocket.

• Angela Lederach and Claire Putzeys are research fellows with the
Voice to Vision project of Catalyst Peacebuilding (
www.catalystpeacebuilding.org ), which is dedicated to gathering and
telling the stories of forgiveness and reconciliation in postconflict
Africa. Voice to Vision field program director Sara Terry contributed
to this piece.

(c) Copyright 2007 The Christian Science Monitor. All rights reserved.