Africa

Introduction

 

The United Nations and Sierra Leone are about to establish a hybrid international-domestic Court to prosecute those allegedly responsible for atrocities in the Sierra Leone civil war. This will be the third ad hoc international criminal court to be created by the United Nations over the last decade, following the establishment of the war crimes tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 1993 and Rwanda (ICTR) in 1994.

 

Background

 

According to news reports, Robert Mugabe, the head of state of Zimbabwe, was served with process while he was in New York City for the United Nations Millennium Summit, in a suit brought by Zimbabwean nationals seeking civil damages under the U.S. Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA). The suit alleges that Mugabe orchestrated violence by his political party against its opponents, including beating and burning the plaintiffs or, in one case, the husband of a plaintiff, in order to stay in power at the time of Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections in June.

 

On February 3, 2000, a court in Senegal indicted Hissène Habré, the head of state in Chad from 1982 to 1990, for presiding over a pattern of torture during the period of his rule in Chad.  Habré fled from Chad to Senegal after being overthrown in 1990.  He has lived in Senegal since then.

The case is similar to, but not the same as, the proceedings in the United Kingdom aimed at the extradition of former Chilean head of state Augusto Pinochet to Spain for prosecution on charges of presiding over systematic torture in Chile while he was in power there.

On June 4, 2003, the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) issued an arrest warrant against Charles Taylor, the incumbent President of Liberia. When the warrant was issued, Mr. Taylor was traveling to Ghana for talks with Liberian rebel groups to end a four-year civil war that has destabilized West Africa.