CASES OF UGLY SEXUAL ASSAULTS EMERGE DURING TESTIMONIES
By Aana Correspondent, Freetown

June 9, 2003 - (African Church Information Service) A Kenyan lawyer, Binaifer Nowrojee of the Coalition on Women's Human Rights in Conflict Situations (CWHRCS) told the Sierra Leone's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that sexual violence has remained Sierra Leone's invisible war crime.

Nowrojee, who was recently testifying before the Commission during a special two-day thematic hearings on sexual violence said, "thousands of women were raped during the decade-long war".

The decade-long conflict in Sierra Leone from 1991, resulted in thousands of women and girls being subjected to individual and gang rapes,
as well as to sexual assault with objects such as firewood, umbrellas, and pestles.

The victims of rape were of all ages and cadres of people. The commission also heard that sexual violence was perpetrated by both rebel and government forces, but mostly by rebel groups.

According to Human Rights Watch, child combatants raped women who were old enough to be their grandmothers. The rebels raped pregnant and breast-feeding mothers. Fathers were forced to watch their daughters being sexually assaulted.

Some women were forcefully made "wives" of the combatants. Young women and girls whom the rebels thought were virgins were particularly targeted for rape and forced "marriage".

The Canadian based International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development (CHRD) says "many women were raped so violently that they sometimes bled to death".

These hearings will allow the TRC to fully examine and record crimes of sexual violence that were inflicted against Sierra Leonean women during the conflict.

Sexual violence has remained Sierra Leone's invisible war crime. Until recently, says CHRD, little attention has been paid either nationally or internationally to this human rights abuse, although sexual violence was committed on a much larger scale than the widely reported amputations for which Sierra Leone became notorious.

CWHRCS urged the TRC to ensure an enabling environment that will provide rape victims with the comfort and privacy they need to come forward to testify.

It also called on the TRC to ensure that the experiences of women during the war are fully reflected in their findings and recommendations to the government and the international community.

Since 1996, CWHRCS comprised of lawyers, legal scholars, women's rights activists and non-governmental organisations concerned with international justice, has struggled to expose crimes against women and push for such cases to be adequately examined and those
responsible prosecuted.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200306090568.html