Prometheus 6   

We are trying to redress the injustice of the war years - Minister of Justice
June 6, 2003
By Nduka Uzuapundu

After a devastating civil war, Sierra Leoneans are presently going through a healing process, in the expectation that some of the grievous offences committed during the war, like chopping off the limbs of opponents, would be forgiven.

The healing process involves rehabilitation and provision of false limbs and medical care for the amputees by both the Tejan Kabbah administration and the United Nations. The country's Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Eke Ahmed Halloway, who was at the recent Abuja conference of the Coalition of African Jurists, told correspondent NDUKA UZUAKPUNDU, in an interview, that while efforts were also being made to fight corruption, the stage was set, at the International or Special Court, to try individuals who bore the greatest responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The arrangements so far made to that effect may not be entirely tidy, but truth is that Sierra Leoneans want peace and are desirous of putting the past well behind them. Halloway said that there was a snag though: those who have been pardoned by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) - an exercise that is not recognised by the Special Court - may still be tried. And amputees of diverse shades, whose lot is quite a woeful spectacle, were demanding justice, he said, for the obvious injustice they'd forever have to live with.