By Mustapha Sesay
The United Nations (UN) entity for gender equality and empowerment of women says it will help establish a forensic lab in the country.
UN WOMEN makes the statement days after the corpse of an 18-year-old lady was found naked on Aberdeen Beach in Freetown. The find of the remains of the deceased, Hannah Bockarie, was followed by a large vigil organized last Friday by Power Women 232, which the UN Resident Coordinator and the Country Representative of the global gender entity were part of.
The UN Country Team “is committed to ensuring that a forensic lab is established,” Dr Mary Okumu, the UN WOMEN Country Representative, told Politico on Monday, by phone.
Dr Okumu first asserted their commitment of assisting in building the lab at the vigil which was staged against the “gangrape” on Bockarie, which women’s groups say led to her death.
“The United Nations Country Team is encouraged to note the various actions taken by the women’s movement in the country and pledge the UN’s support to continue to stand by the women of Sierra Leone in the promotion of their social, political and economic rights,” said the UN Country Team, in a statement.
At the candle-lit vigil Lois Kawa, vice chairperson of the female legal empowerment body LAWYERS, stated that the capacity to investigate and prosecute rape cases in the country was limited because there was no lab to do DNA tests.
She said they had approached the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs (MSWGCA) for assistance, but it was not forthcoming.
Moijueh Kaikai, the Minister of Social Welfare, Gender, and Children’s Affairs, told the mourning women that President Ernest Bai Koroma had expressed concern over the ‘murder’ of the lady and urged speedy investigation into the case.
Kaikai assured they would do everything in their power to bring the perpetrators of the alleged act to justice. He pledged Le5, 000,000 (about $1000) as reward for anyone that would give relevant information which would help arrest the perpetrators.
Meanwhile, a former government deputy minister of education, Mahmoud Tarwallie, is being tried for allegedly raping a female university student.
The Inspector-General of Police Francis Munu said the police were doing their best to apprehend the ‘murderers’. But he cautioned that investigations would take some time.
The police boss claimed they had developed a strategy to deal with not only rape but other cases relating to gender-based violence, and he said the plan was working.
The grandfather of late Hannah Bockarie, a retired army officer, at the vigil, called for a 50-year jail term for any man found guilty of raping a woman or girl.
Sexual assaults on women in Sierra Leone are not uncommon, and it appears gangrape on women is having prominence in the country. In September, 2013 another young lady was allegedly gangraped to death in the southern district of Pujehun and the case is still being investigated in the Bo High Court.
(C) Politico 25/08/15
