Annan adovcates trial for S Leone child soldiers

Rebels from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) recruited an estimated 5,400 children. Many of them were abducted or drugged into submission. They joined fighters in raping, killing and chopping off limbs of thousands of men, women and children.

The council, which created the court, said in December the court should have jurisdiction over those "who bear the greatest responsibility" for committing the crimes.

Annan, in a letter to the council, proposed casting a widernet, saying the tribunal should try those "most responsible" for crimes, language that would include leaders as well as others who had committed atrocities on a massive scale.

“Any such determination will have to be reconciled with an eventual prosecution of juveniles and members of a peacekeeping operation, even if such prosecutions are unlikely,” he wrote.

Children’s advocates including the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, had opposed any provision for soldiers under 18 to face prosecution, saying they needed rehabilitation instead. But other UN officials including Olara Otunnu, in charge of children in war zones, said some of the estimated 5,400 child soldiers should face trial but not necessarily jail terms.

Peacekeepers accused of committing crimes in Sierra Leone would also be tried by the tribunal, should their respective countries refuse or be unable to prosecute them, Annan said in the letter. But he suggested the court should first ask the 15-member council to persuade nations to surrender suspects.

Annan noted that council members said that the tribunal, a mixed Sierra Leone and international court, should not be established until the United Nations had enough voluntary contribution to finance the first 12 months of operations.

Annan, who had wanted mandatory financing, warned again about the risks of establishing an operation of this kind with insufficient funds. He proposed that the court should not be established until monies were available for anticipated expenses for 24 months.

Foday Sankoh, the RUF leader now in jail, is expected to be one of the first to be tried before the court. The rebels, while Sankoh was in charge, took 500 UN peacekeepers hostage last May in violation of a 1999 peace accord.