Video Discription |
(5 Jul 2004) SHOTLIST
1. Exterior court
2. Police searching people before entering
3. Press officer
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Allison Cooper, Press and public affairs officer for the special court:
"Today in court, in the Special Court we have three defendants, three alleged people or the people who are alleged to of belong to a Revolutionary United Front (RUF) "
5. Cutaway UN soldiers on guard
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Allison Cooper, Press and public affairs officer for the special court:
"Now within that...it is for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other violations of the international law."
7. Defence lawyers arriving at courthouse
8. Three UN soldiers on guard
9. Judges entering and sitting down in courtroom
10. Chief prosecutor David Crane with team
11. Defence lawyer
12. Benjamin Itoe, main judge, opening proceedings
13. Accused behind lawyers
14. Close up Augustine Gbao, accused
15. David Crane reading out charges
16. Wide of court in session
STORYLINE:
Calling it a "tale of horror," the prosecutor for a U.N.-sponsored war crimes court on Monday in Freetown opened the first trials for rebel military commanders accused in a vicious 10-year campaign for control of diamond-rich Sierra Leone.
Onlookers in the tightly guarded courtroom muttered as the court detailed the alleged crimes in an 18-count joint indictment - systematic killings, rapes, enslavement of child soldiers, and mutilation.
Prosecutors alleged a network of foreign backing for the rebels, including training and forces from Liberia's then-President Charles Taylor and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
"What took place in Sierra Leone marks the limits of our language to communicate, and falls outside the realm of expression," David Crane, the American chief prosecutor for the U.N.-backed court, said in opening statements.
"This is a tale of horror, beyond the gothic into the realm of Dante's Inferno," Crane said.
The three former military commanders of the Revolutionary United Front are accused as alleged primary culprits in their movement's 1991-2002 battle to take control of Sierra Leone and its diamond fields.
Rebels adopted a trademark atrocity that made them notorious: chopping off the hands, legs, lips, ears, and breasts of their civilian victims with machetes. Countless maimed survivors struggle to make new livings today, or inhabit vocational training camps set up for the mutilated.
The three ex-rebels are former rebel battlefield commanders Issa Sesay, Morris Kallon and Augustine Gbao. Sesay was the rebel's last leader before the fighting stopped.
The rebels' founder and longtime leader - Foday Sankoh, known as 'Pa' to his drugged, drunk child fighters - died of natural causes in U.N. Custody last year.
Crane made frequent reference Monday to another top indicted figure outside of court custody - Taylor, a former Liberian president now living in exile in Nigeria.
Sierra Leone's war began with a Feb. 27, 1991 planning session in Gbarnga, Liberia, Taylor's base, Crane alleged.
About 250 Revolutionary United Front fighters launched the invasion from Liberia, supported by Taylor's forces and Libyan special forces, Crane said.
Libya is widely accused of training and supporting both Taylor and Sankoh as Cold War-era guerrillas against U.S. interests in West Africa.
Gadhafi is mentioned in the special court's indictments but not indicted.
All parties were after influence, as well as Sierra Leone's mineral wealth, the prosecutor said.
Rebels directed most of their attacks on civilians, aiming to terrorise the population, Crane said.
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