Sierra Leone Minister Denies War Crimes
By CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY
Associated Press Writer

March 18, 2003, 6:48 PM EST

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone -- A top cabinet minister undergoing trial in a
secret location pleaded innocent to war crimes charges, the main
prosecutor for Sierra Leone's international tribunal said Tuesday. 

Internal Affairs Minister Samuel Hinga Norman -- the former leader of a
ragtag pro-government militia -- denied responsibility for unlawful
killings, terrorizing the civilian population and using child soldiers,
prosecutor David Crane told reporters. 

Hinga Norman is being tried by the West African nation's war-crimes
court. Crane said the secrecy surrounding the trial was in response to
fears that Hinga Norman's supporters in the Kamajor hunter militia
"might seek to put pressure on the court and disrupt the trial." 

Sierra Leone's tribunal was designed to help bolster the shaky peace
taking hold in the country following a harrowing 10-year cycle of coups,
revolutions and terror. 

Hinga Norman, who is also a former deputy defense minister, allegedly
organized attacks by the Kamajors during the country's 1991-2000 civil
war. 

The militia's alleged human rights abuses included torturing and
summarily executing opponents and recruiting child fighters. 

Hinga Norman is among seven men who have been indicted by the court so
far. 

Foday Sankoh, the rebel leader whose followers launched Sierra Leone's
decade of terror, appeared during the court's opening session on
Saturday but wasn't compelled to plead to his charges until he has
undergone psychiatric testing. 

Sankoh will next appear in court March 21. 

Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front followers are widely blamed for
hacking off civilians' arms and legs with machetes in a bid to instill
fear in opponents during their vicious insurgency to control the
government and diamond fields. 

The war crimes tribunal was launched by an agreement between the United
Nations and Sierra Leone to try serious violations of international and
Sierra Leonean humanitarian law since Nov. 30, 1996, when Sankoh's
rebels signed a peace accord with the government that was supposed to
end five years of war. 
Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press

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