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afrol News, 16 January - Thousands of women and girls were subjected to individual and gang rape, during the 10-year civil war in Sierra Leone. All sides in the conflict had committed "widespread and systematic" sexual violence, according to a new report. This included the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), other rebel troops and government and international peacekeeping forces. The 75-page report entitled "We'll Kill You If You Cry: Sexual Violence in the Sierra Leone Conflict," was presented today by the New York-based organisation Human Rights Watch. The report shows new evidence of horrific abuses against women and girls in every region of the country by all parts to the conflict. - In this report, we have documented unimaginable atrocities against women in Sierra Leone, said Human Rights Watch's Peter Takirambudde. "The people responsible for these crimes must be held accountable." Mr Takirambudde also said the victims of sexual violence urgently need help to regain their health and reintegrate into their communities. The report - which is based on hundreds of interviews with victims, witnesses and officials - details crimes of sexual violence committed primarily by soldiers of various rebel forces; the RUF, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), and the West Side Boys. The report also examines sexual violence by government forces and militias, as well as international peacekeepers. Throughout the armed conflict in Sierra Leone from 1991 to 2001, thousands of women and girls of all ages, ethnic groups, and socio-economic classes were subjected to widespread and systematic sexual violence, including individual and gang rape, and rape with objects such as weapons, firewood, umbrellas and pestles, the human rights watchdogs conclude. These crimes of sexual violence were "generally characterised by extraordinary brutality and frequently preceded or followed by other egregious human rights abuses against the victim, her family and her community," the group says. The rebels abducted many women and girls, who were subjected to sexual violence as well as being forced to perform housework, farm work and serve as military porters. The rebels had "sought to dominate women and their communities by deliberately undermining cultural values and community relationships, destroying the ties that hold society together." Child combatants had "raped women who were old enough to be their grandmothers, rebels raped pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, and fathers were forced to watch their daughters being raped." The document also examines crimes by government forces, and gives details of alleged rapes by foreign UNAMSIL peacekeepers - including soldiers from Guinea, Nigeria, Ukraine, and Bangladesh. This in particular included the rape of a twelve-year-old girl by a Guinean soldier in March 2001 and the gang rape of a woman by two Ukrainian peacekeepers in April 2002. "There appears to be reluctance on the part of UNAMSIL to investigate and take disciplinary measures against the perpetrators," the report says. "Reports of rape by ECOMOG peacekeepers, the majority of whom were Nigerian, were rare." To date there has been no accountability for the thousands of crimes of sexual violence or other appalling human rights abuses committed during the war in Sierra Leone. - The war in Sierra Leone became infamous for the amputation of hands and arms, said Mr Takirambudde. "Rape may not be visible in the same way, but it is every bit as devastating." The UN has established a Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to investigate human rights violations committed by all parties during the war. Human Rights Watch has urged both the SCSL and TRC to make sexual violence and sexual slavery a top priority, and investigate and prosecute gender-related crimes as crimes against humanity or war crimes. The group has also urged that the domestic legal system be revised to ensure that crimes of sexual violence are prosecuted in a sensitive manner. - The lack of attention to conflict-related sexual violence means that few assistance programs have been established for women and girls who were subjected to sexual violence, including sexual slavery, the group says. "Survivors not only live with the severe physical and mental health consequences of the abuses suffered, but also fear ongoing non-conflict-related sexual violence, largely perpetrated with impunity." International donors and nongovernmental organisations should work together with the government of Sierra Leone to establish programmes - health care, education, adult literacy, skills training, trauma counselling and income-generating schemes - that would help to rehabilitate the survivors of sexual violence, the group recommends.
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