A UN-backed court sentenced two leaders of a pro-government militia group in Sierra Leone's 11-year civil war Tuesday to six- and eight-year prison terms for their roles in the brutal conflict, DPA reported. Moinina Fofana and Allieu Kondewa were convicted in August of crimes related to unlawful killings, looting and burning and terrorizing the civilian population while the latter was also found guilty of conscripting child soldiers. Fofana was sentenced to six years in prison and Kondewa eight, but their terms begin since they were first in custody in 2003. The men, who were both charged with eight counts, were acquitted of murder and inhumane acts. Fofana, alleged to have been national director of war for the Civil Defence Forces (CDF), which fought anti-government rebel groups in the 1991-2002 war, and Kondewa, the group's high priest, both pleaded not guilty to the charges. A third accused CDF leader, Sam Hinga Norman, died in custody earlier this year. The CDF were backed by the government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who stepped down in August after ten years at the helm. The United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone sentenced three former rebel leaders in July to 45 and 50 years in the first ever conviction by an international court over the use of child soldiers, who were plied with drugs and forced to kill and lop off the limbs of civilians during the war. Some 50,000 people were killed in the war. The court was created in 2002 and has indicted 13 people, among them former Liberian president Charles Taylor, who allegedly backed rebel forces to gain control of Sierra Leone's diamond mines. Taylor is being tried at the International Criminal Court in The Hague to prevent unrest in the region.
