Sierra Leone: Sierra Leoneans Testify About War Crimes At U.N.-Backed Court

Chilling testimony has been heard over the past two weeks from victims of Sierra Leone's brutal decade-long civil war that ended in 2002, and for the first time on Tuesday, the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone heard from the rebels who killed and mutilated thousands of their countrymen. One former rebel said he was age 12 and fetching water when rebels abducted him in 1998, then trained him to shoot an AK-47 and smoke marijuana and forced him to rape a 15-year-old girl. He was reluctant, but his commander threatened to kill him unless he raped her, so he did. "My heart was so mixed up, doing this evil act that he introduced me to," the boy, now 17, told the court.