Human Rights Watch has issued a new report that says there was widespread sexual violence during Sierra Leone’s ten-year civil war from 1991 to 2001.
The seventy-five-page report is entitled, “We’ll Kill You If You Cry.” It says rebels, government forces and even peacekeeping troops committed the sexual violence.
English to Africa reporter Richard Kotey spoke with Peter Takirambudde, Executive Director of the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch from New York. He says, “In this report, we have documented unimaginable atrocities against women in Sierra Leone. The people responsible for these crimes must be held accountable.”
He says the Human Rights watch report is based on hundreds of interviews. The report says, “Thousands of women and girls of all ages, ethnic groups and socioeconomic classes were subjected to widespread and systematic sexual violence, including gang rape.”
The report also says, “Child combatants raped women who were old enough to be their grandmothers.”
Click the above links to download or listen to Richard Kotey's interview with HRW official.