Kabbah, Berewa go to Special Court
By Yusuf Alghali

President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and Vice President Solomon Berewa, were on Tuesday June 25th, official guests at the Special Court's main headquarters on Jomo Kenyatta Road, Freetown, where they both inspected progress on the massive construction work going on there.

Immediately on their arrival at the site, Special Court Registrar Robin Vincent, took the President and his Deputy on a conducted tour of the various facilities making up the vast complex.

Two beautifully designed court rooms, a library stocked with an assortment of reference books on criminal legal practise, single-inmate cells with a floor length and width of approximately 18feet and 8feet respectively, as well as a mini recreational ground, were among the facilities viewed during the President's half-hour visit.

Also displayed for viewing were artists impressions of the front view of the proposed twin court house, a close-up view of the proposed entrance and the proposed site plan.

A cacophony of construction noise filled the atmosphere as everywhere men and machines laboured frantically towards the completion of an array of buildings that promises to be one of the most fantastic pieces of modern engineering and architecture in post war Sierra Leone.

On-site contractors intimated the press that each 10feet high, ventilated cell would be fitted with a bed, a table and a stool for writing and other purposes, pointing out that the structures would all be ready by December. However, a temporary courthouse is also been constructed within the complex, so as to allow for the commencement of trials ahead of the completion of the two main courtrooms in the next six months.

President Kabbah, who was undoubtedly impressed with the on-going construction activity, remarked that the mere sight of the soon-to-be-completed edifice should make "would-be trouble makers think twice".

He added that even as work started at the site some months ago, the office of the Special Court had started addressing the whole question of impunity in Sierra Leone.

Speaking during a recent BBC interview in the northern provincial town of Makeni, President Kabbah had told journalists that he was himself willing to face the Special Court if he was indicted. He said he was neither a "demi-god" nor an untouchable "sacred cow", adding that being indicted did not necessarily mean that one would be convicted. Rather, he stressed, the court would provide an opportunity for an indictee to clear his or her name.

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