WASHINGTON -- The hybrid war crimes tribunal set up by the government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations achieved what international observers described as a major milestone in July when it delivered sentences of 45 and 50 years to three men convicted of committing war crimes during Sierra Leone's late-1990s civil war. The ruling at the Special Court for Sierra Leone marked the first-ever conviction of an African warlord for using child soldiers, and it came just a few weeks before a second round of convictions, on Aug. 2, in which two other former militia leaders were found guilty of war crimes. While these advances have drawn praise from the international community, they've occurred in the shadow of the Special Court's lack of progress in the trial of Charles Taylor, the former president of neighboring Liberia indicted for crimes connected to exacerbating Sierra Leone's war.
Sierra Leone Tribunal Confronts Funding Woes With Taylor Still Awaiting Trial
