By Umaru Fofana
Four former Sierra Leonean rebels serving lengthy jail terms in a Rwandan prison have written to the President of the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone, John Kamanda expressing fear for their safety in Kigali.
Issa Sesay and Morris Kallon of the former RUF and Santigie Borbor Khanu and Ibrahim Bazzy Kamara of the former AFRC make several allegations bordering on threats they say were made against them by prison officials who they say accused them of parleying with genocide deniers in that country’s own civil war.
In a letter titled “Complaint of threat to kill us”, which Politico has seen, they claim that the director of the Mpanga/Nyanza prison where they are serving their jail terms invited them to his office to discuss some disagreement between two of them, Ibrahim Bazzy and Santigie Khanu.
They claim that Michael Kamugisha entreated them to live “peacefully and harmoniously”, promising to set up a panel to look into the issues of disagreement with a view to forestalling “future misunderstanding”.
They, however, continue that Director Kamugisha then accused some of them of “collaborating with the enemies who are living in the same building with us,” an accusation they said “sent a chill down our spine”.
They say he accused some of them of working with some Rwandan prisoners and threatened “to open a casefile against any Special Court prisoner who is suspected of being a genocide denier”.
The Sierra Leonean prisoners say they are concerned because they have been told the prison director wields “tremendous powers over prisoners and can harm or even kill a prisoner or anyone [else] suspected of being [an] enemy of the State without a bullet”.
The men who have been in jail in Kigali since 2009, say: “We do not feel safe here anymore”, adding: “our concern now is, since they have housed us together with their enemies they have also catalogued us as their enemies and can treat us in the same manner as their enemies especially where Director Kamugisha has categorically emphasized that the heavy guns and barrels of Rwanda are now directed on our heads”.
Both the Sierra Leonean and Rwandan genocide prisoners live in the same facility and they watch television together, make phone calls from the same booths among other things.
“Our concern now is since they have housed us together with their enemies they have also catalogued us as their enemies and can treat us in the same manner as their enemies” they write.
The spokesman of the Residual Court, Peter Andersen has confirmed receipt of the letter by the President of the Court. He said the complaints were being looked into. He however said that previous complaints by the prisoners had been unfounded.
Sierra Leone’s Deputy Minister of Justice, Umaru Napoleon Koroma told Politico that his government was not aware of the complaint and so could not comment about it.
The letter was signed by four of the five prisoners. Sources say the fifth prisoner, Augustine Gbao has been found eligible to apply for the granting of a conditional early release by the Residual Court but the Covid-19 pandemic has delayed his return home. The others will remain in jail as follows: Issa Sesay (November 2037), Morris Kallon (November 2029), Ibrahim Bazzy Kamara (March 2033) and Santigie Borbor Khanu (January 2037).
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