By Kemo Cham
Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front Party (RUFP) has condemned ongoing investigation of its former member in Finalnd, describing it as a betrayal.
A spokesman for the party of the former rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) said the move by the Finnish government was a disregard to an assurance they made to the group guarantying Gibril Massaquoi’s immunity from prosecution.
Massaquoi, a former top commander of the RUF and later its spokesman, was a suspect in the trial of top former RUF commanders by the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone. There were suspicions that he was spared indictment by the UN under an agreement for him to serve as witness in the trials. According to sources, through the agreement the UN arranged for him to live in Finland.
“We feel very negative about it. We signed a peace treaty which says they (UN) would not prosecute any of our leaders. They have breached the Agreement,” said Abdulahi Dougakoro Saccoh, National Public Relations Officer and spokesman for the RUFP.
“They gave him asylum. Finland government assured us that he would not be prosecuted,” Saccoh told Politico on Thursday.
Massaquoi was reportedly detained by Finland authorities on Tuesday and the detention was made public on Wednesday.
Politico understands that the former RUF spokesman was detained as a result of findings from initial investigations by a Swiss based rights campaign group, Civitas Maxima, which pinned him to alleged crimes committed in Neighboring Liberia.
According to sources, Massaquoi is in remand, pending investigation for possible charges including murder, aggravated crimes, crimes against humanity, and recruitment of child soldiers.
Civitas Maxima documents war crimes and crimes against humanity, with focus on the West Africa region, mainly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire. But its work focuses more on Liberia, where two wars ravaged the country between 1989 and 2003. Hundreds of thousands of people died and many more were displaced.
Lisa Rudi, Legal Counsel at Civitas Maxima, told Politico that Liberians had largely never got justice, in spite of the atrocities committed in those conflicts. She said that during regular documentation in Liberia, they found information about Gibril Massaquoi.
“We represent forgotten victims of international crimes, like Liberia, which never had international criminal court like Sierra Leone,” she said on a telephone interview from Geneva.
“Liberia never saw any accountability for what happened during the two wars. There have been big push to establish courts for these crimes. Establishing a trial in Finland is what we are doing in an imperfect system, ideally it should be in Liberia,” she added.
Massaquoi is the first African outside Liberia to have been subjected to investigation for possible charges for crimes related to the Liberian civil war. He is expected to remain in detention until the court takes a decision on his matter as to whether to conduct further investigation.
In Sierra Leone, Civitas’ work focuses on blood diamond, which according to Rudi wasn’t covered by the UN court.
Together with its Sierra Leonean partner, the Center for Accountability and Rule of Law (CARL), Civitas in 2016 championed the arrest of a Belgian-American for similar charges in the Sierra Leonean war. The suspect, Michel Desaedeleer, reportedly committed suicide in prison before his trial could begin.
Rudi said while she didn’t know anything about the agreement between the UN and Massaquoi, it could never have promised the former RUF commander immunity for crimes in Liberia. She noted further that legally nothing prevented Finnish authorities from prosecuting him.
“Impunity doesn’t have to be the norm, and these trials are possible even 20 years after. So it brings hope. And this is what our local partners have been calling for,” she added.
Civitas has worked in Liberian for six years seeking to get justice for its people in connection to the wars. Rudi said during this period they had spoken to hundreds of people, and that their campaign had resulted into a big push from locals, including civil society activists and lawmakers.
Last year, Liberian President George Weah made an appeal for support from the UN General Assembly towards the establishment of a justice system to address the scars of the Liberian wars. That followed in 2018 the first national justice conference in the country.
Rudi said global action was highly needed because many former war lords currently wielded a lot of power in Liberia, making it difficult to get them.
The Monrovia-based Global Justice Research Project (GJRP) is Civitas’ main local partner in Liberia. The group welcomed the development, with an official saying it indicated the beginning of the end to impunity.
“I feel good the fact that the issue of impunity is gradually being addressed,” said Faya Williams, Deputy Director of GJRP.
Mr Williams noted that during the Liberian conflicts many atrocities occurred and the people never had justice.
“Many Liberians are very enthusiastic about this. Many Liberians are crying and yearning for some form of accountability,” he said, adding that the case is an opportunity for Gibril to clear his name and for the victims to get justice.
“It sends a strong message of justice, that if you are from foreign soil and comes to commit crime in another country, you will have to answer one day,” he said.
A former official of the defunct Special Court for Sierra Leone said the action by the Finnish government had nothing to do with the court’s arrangement with its witnesses.
The press officer for the residual war crimes court for Sierra Leone (RSCSL) says he cannot discuss the issue of witnesses of fact because they are “covered by Orders of Protection”. He said the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone was not involved in the latest case involving Massaquoi because the alleged crimes were said to have been committed in Liberia.
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