Sierra Leone sets up rights commission

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FREETOWN, Sierra Leone, April 30 (UPI) -- Sierra Leone has shown a commitment to international humanitarian law by establishing a rights committee in Freetown, the ICRC said.

Sierra Leone established a national committee of international humanitarian law in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Economic Community of West African States.

The formation of a national committee demonstrates the commitment of the Sierra Leonean authorities to honor their obligations under international humanitarian law," Denise Duran, the head of the ICRC delegation in Sierra Leone, said in a statement.

Thousands were killed in the civil war in Sierra Leone that raged from 1991-2002. Last week, a U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, convicted former Liberian President Charles Taylor of aiding and abetting in the commission of 11 war crimes or crimes against humanity during overlapping wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

He was accused of using so-called blood diamonds to purchase weapons to fuel the rebellion.

November elections in Sierra Leone will be the third since a decade-long civil war ended in 2002 and the second since peacekeepers left the country in 2005.