Kunti Kamara, a.k.a. Kunti Kumara,"Switzerland Finds Liberian Rebel Leader Guilty of Wartime Atrocities", June 18, 2021, New York Times, retrieved October 15, 2022 Kunti K.,Willsher, Kim: "Former Liberian rebel charged with war crimes awaits Paris trial: Kunti Kamara charged with torture, cannibalism and complicity in crimes against humanity during civil war between 1989 and 1996," October 10, 2022, The Guardian, retrieved October 13, 2022"War Crimes Trial begins in France for former Liberian rebel", October 10, 2022, Liberia Public Radio, retrieved October 13, 2022"Suspect of Crimes Against Humanity Arrested in France" , press release, September 7, 2018, Civitas Maxima, retrieved October 13, 2022 Colonel Kamara, CO Kamara ("Commanding Officer Kamara")Vidalie, Anne: "Liberian rebel leader Kunti Kamara opens in Paris," October 10, 2022, Le Monde, retrieved October 15, 2022 or Co Kamara, whose real name may be Awaliho Soumaworo,van der Kraaij, Fred: "Kunti Kamara / Awaliho Soumaworo", Liberia: Past and Present, retrieved October 13, 2022 is a former Liberian rebel militia commander who participated in the First Liberian Civil War as a leader in the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO).Corbet, Sylvie; and Jonathan Paye-Layleh: "Paris trial opens over crimes against humanity in Liberia", October 10, 2022, Associated Press in Washington Post, retrieved October 13, 2022 (also at "Paris Trial Opens Over Crimes Against Humanity in Liberia," in Voice of America)Baboolal, Samara (University of Nottingham): "War crimes trial against Liberian rebel commander Kunti Kamara commences in France", October 10, 2022, JURIST, University of Pittsburgh, retrieved October 13, 2022
In 2018, he was arrested in France—under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction for crimes against humanity—and charged in a French court for acts of barbarity including torture, cannibalism, forced labour and complicity in crimes against humanity during that Liberian war, and put on trial starting October 10, 2022, in a Paris court."First Liberia civil war trial for crimes against humanity opens in France", October 10, 2022, France 24, retrieved October 13, 2022"Liberia: Trial Of Liberian Rebel For War Crimes Begins In France," October 11, 2022, Front Page Africa, retrieved October 13, 2022 The trial was the first of its kind in France against an alleged Liberian war criminal.
In November 2022, Kunti Kamara was found guilty of complicity in crimes against humanity, and acts of barbarity, during 1993 and 1994, and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Paris court in France."Kunti Kamara condamne a la reclusion a perpetuite au termed un proces historique," November 3, 2022, Le MondeAgence France-Presse: "French court sentences Liberian ex-rebel commander to life in prison," November 2, 2022, France24, retrieved November 3, 2022Willsher, Kim: "French court convicts former Liberian rebel commander over atrocities: Kunti Kamara given life sentence for complicity in crimes against humanity", November 2, 2022, The Guardian, retrieved November 4, 2022Radio France Internationale: "Liberia: French Court Hands Liberian Rebel Kunti Kamara Life Sentence for War Crimes," November 3, 2022, All Africa, retrieved November 4, 2022 The trial began on March 6, 2024.Le Monde: "LIBERIA Crimes contre l’humanité au Liberia : un ancien commandant rebelle jugé en appel à Paris" March 5, 2024, retrieved March 7, 2024
Biography
Origin and nationality Kamara was born in December 1974 in Liberia. He is a Liberian with Dutch nationality through citizenship acquired in the early 2000s. He is reportedly of the Mandingo ethnic group.Bjurström, Lena: "Liberian case in France: 'Too complicated to be tried by whites'," October 24, 2022, JusticeInfo retrieved November 25, 2022
First Liberian Civil War Background The First Liberian Civil War (1989–1996) was, in combination with the immediately following Second Liberian Civil War, one of the bloodiest conflicts in modern African history, with an estimated 250,000 people—mostly civilians—killed, many in massacres. Many more were maimed, raped, tortured or exploited as forced labor. Many children were forced into combat. Allegedly, the wide range of atrocities were committed by all sides in the conflict."Liberia: A Culture of Impunity Reigns, Former TRC Commissioner Tells Paris War Crimes Court", October 13, 2022, All Africa. Retrieved October 15, 2022
Kamara's involvement During the War, Kamara was (by his own admission) a local commander of the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) – one of the three rebel militias fighting against the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) of Charles Taylor. Kamara has admitted to being a battlefield commander, of about 80 soldiers, during that war – saying that he did so to defend himself against the NPFL.
In 1993–1994, while not yet 20 years old, Kamara allegedly commanded a ULIMO unit in the northwestern Liberian region of Lofa County where he was allegedly complicit "in massive and systematic torture [along with] inhumane acts" – including allowing and abetting, with his authority, rapes and sexual torture, and also compelling people into forced labor in inhumane conditions (including keeping women as sex slaves).
In one specific incident – later cited as evidence of his involvement in cannibalism – he allegedly was involved in cutting open a victim's chest with an axe, so the victim's heart could be extracted and eaten.
Kamara has denied all the charges.
In 1994, ULIMO split into two factions: the ethnic-Krahn ULIMO-J, and the ethnic-Mandingo ULIMO-K (headed by Alhaji G.V. Kromah). Kamara was a commander in ULIMO-K.
Wars' end and aftermath The war was followed shortly by the Second Liberian Civil War (1999–2003), ended by the 2003 flight of Liberian President Charles Taylor to Nigeria, and the 2003 Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) enforced by the United Nations Mission in Liberia and United States Marines."Liberia profile – Timeline", BBC, retrieved October 15, 2022
A national Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), and Liberian courts, failed to bring any of the guilty responsible to trial, so the international community began to consider trying alleged Liberian war criminals in foreign countries, under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction, which asserts that crimes against humanity, wherever they are perpetrated, can be prosecuted and punished in any other country in the world, regardless of the accused's nationality or their country of residence. Charles Taylor was convicted in a court in Sierra Leone—the first head of state convicted of war crimes since the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials after World War II."CRC welcomes Charles Taylor conviction as deterrent to use of children in armed conflict", October 3, 2013, United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, retrieved October 15, 2022 Others were tried and convicted in the United States, France and Switzerland.
Postwar life In 1997, Kamara traveled to the Netherlands, living there for 12 years. He worked as an electrician and acquired Dutch citizenship. He then moved to Belgium, and then France in 2016. At that time, Dutch investigators were looking into suspects in Liberia's civil war.
Arrest, indictment and trial Arrest and indictment
France's Code of Criminal Procedure, Sec. 689-11, says that any citizen, or non-citizen, can be tried [in French courts] for international crimes against humanity,Beeghly, Sean: (Pittsburgh School of Law): "French court sentences former Liberian rebel commander to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity", November 3, 2022, JURIST, University of Pittsburgh, retrieved October 13, 2022 if those crimes were illegal in the country where they happened and the accused is a resident of France.
Civitas Maxima, a swiss NGO which documents international crimes and provides the victims with juridic support in their quest for justice, alerted French authorities about Kamara's case in 2018. The Liberian government – although it has declined to prosecute any Liberian war criminals since the end of the country's civil wars – cooperated with the investigation.
Kamara was arrested in the suburbs of Paris, France, September 4, 2018.Cruvellier, Thierry (editor-in-chief): "Liberian warlord arrested" in "Week in Review: Myanmar regime and Liberian warlords under pressure," September 10, 2018, JusticeInfo, retrieved November 25, 2022 He was released due to a procedural error, but put under investigation, and rearrested in 2020 while reportedly attempting to leave the country."Q&A: Justice for Civil Wars-Era Crimes in Liberia," April 1, 2019, Human Rights Watch, retrieved October 13, 2022
He was indicted in a French court, November 2020, for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Liberian war. The indictment specifically accused Kamara of complicity in... "...massive and systematic practice of torture or inhumane acts, inspired by political, philosophical, racial or religious motives and organized as part of a concerted plan against a civilian population group".
These acts are reportedly qualified as "crimes against humanity."
Rapes which had happened in 1993 – before French law, in 1994, explicitly recognized them as "crimes against humanity" – were among the charges, but were labeled in the indictment as acts of torture, rather than as rapes, to get around the date limitations of the law. Karmara's defense lawyer denounced the scheme as "legal acrobatics," though the prosecutor insisted it was reality.
Trial Kamara's trial – in the crimes against humanity division of the Paris court (variously reported as the Paris Assize CourtBjurström, Lena: "Liberian Kunti Kamara convicted in France for crimes against humanity'," November 3, 2022, JusticeInfo retrieved November 25, 2022 or the Paris Appeals Court) – was set to begin November 8, 2022, but began October 10, 2022. It was expected to last until November 4, 2022. A 10-member jury was empaneled to judge the case.
Kamara denied all the charges – particularly the charge of cannibalism.
The four-week trial was to include testimony of more than 36 witnesses and experts, some brought from Liberia by the French prosecutors. Among the witnesses at the trial were three men and a woman reportedly in Lofa County when the crimes allegedly took place. Kamara has denied knowing the witnesses.
Also testifying was former ULIMO senior officer Alieu Kosiah, who had been convicted in June 2021 of similar Liberian war crimes in a Swiss court, largely due to testimony by Kamara. Kosiah, whose appeal in the Swiss courts is still pending, spent most of his time testifying to his own innocence – mentioning little about Kamara, but noting that Kamara had been involved in the capture of the Lofa County town of Foya, in the summer of 1993 (which Kamara deines) and that Kamara had probably been based there for months afterward.
While testifying, Kosiah protested the French court's relevance, questioning a European court's capacity to judge the events in Liberia, complaining that the prosecution does not understand those events, adding "I think this case is too complicated to be judged by white people."
Kamara's legal defense team questioned the credibility of the evidence against him, none of which was physical evidence, and which almost solely consisted of various witnesses' testimony, some of which was contradictory.
On October 31, the state prosecutor asked the court to sentence Kamara to life in prison.
On November 2, Kamara was allowed to make his final remarks, and only said "I have nothing to say except that I am innocent today, I will be innocent tomorrow. I was a simple soldier."
Conviction and sentence