Ana Perovic, an analyst of the war crimes trial in the Serbia Trial Chamber, during their visit to the Special Court for Sierra Leone commended the court’s Outreach section.
The analyst said the purpose of their visit was to learn “from experiences from this court and to see what are the main obstacles in the work of the Special Court and also to learn about their Outreach campaign which is very much developed.”
She added that, “we are basically here to learn from experiences gained on how to implement certain models of the SCSL and apply them in Serbia in order to overcome existing problems. And so far we have learnt a lot about the organization and structure of the court and also about the developed outreach campaign which is a very important thing in the whole process of reconciliation.”
Concerning the obstacles faced by the Special Court, Ana Perovic explained that one major obstacle the court was faced with “is [the] provision of security to witnesses who have testified in the court.”
“Another obstacles faced is people’s perceptions that huge amount of money is spent on the court especially since the people of Sierra Leone are very poor. Although the court faces some funding problems, they have managed to carry out all these services which are very fine and I most emphasize that the outreach campaign and the witness support centres are very important,” she noted.
About the role of the Outreach section she maintained that, “the people in this section are doing their best although there are always pros and cons I think they should continue in their effort of always explaining to people why it was important to form the court.
She stressed that, “the main success of the outreach is that they have managed somehow even though they go through some technical problems to bringing the court closer to the people….I think trying those for war crimes is a clear message that needs to be sent that this court is here to end impunity.”