Thank you for coming to bear witness to the swearing in of the Judges of the Special Court.

This ceremony constitutes a turning point in the history of Sierra Leone as well as another step forward along the road towards peace and justice.

With a profound sense of the solemn and historical nature of this moment, I am happy and proud, on behalf of His Excellency The President, the Government and the people of Sierra Leone, to welcome you, the Judges of the Special Court, both to your new position and to our country.

I am equally happy and proud to welcome the commitment of the international community that you embody and to salute you as the vanguard of international criminal justice.

More than two years ago, Sierra Leone began the difficult journey towards accountability and justice with courage and lucidity.

We did it in many different ways, at all possible levels, in order to achieve both national reconciliation and a fair and effective justice.

We did it through our will to put an end to the war and to give this country stable and strong institutions.

We did it through our ratification, on the 15th of September 2000, of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which entered into force on the 1st of July 2002.

We did it through the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

I would like to take this opportunity to underscore the importance of its work and the commitment of this Government to its success.

We need the TRC just as we need the Special Court, for they represent the twin pillars of accountability, each contributing in their own way towards a stable and lasting peace in our country.

We did it, above all, through our support for the establishment of the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

It is a common achievement, born out of both the will of His Excellency the President of Sierra Leone and the invaluable commitment of the international community, embodied by the United Nations.

And we applaud the untiring efforts of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Anan in this regard.

Throughout all of these steps, His Excellency The President led us through difficult times, with one eye firmly on the future and on that day when peace would come and we could finally put the past behind us, ensuring effective accountability for the terrible atrocities committed in this country.

For this, among so many other things, we must give a special vote of thanks to our President.

We have freely accepted and moreover, I should say, we have caused the challenge we are now all facing together.

What is at stake, as we are all aware, is much more than prosecuting, trying and judging individuals.

It is the possibility of establishing accountability for the wrongs committed against the people of this country.

It is about strengthening the rule of law in this country, so that we may never find ourselves in this situation again.

It is about setting an example for the sub-region and the world, so that nobody has to face what we have gone through over the past decade.

Indeed, we have awakened an ardent hope among the people of our country that the Special Court will deliver justice for them, their children and help to secure their future.

We must not let them down.

The Special Court exists, now in reality and not just in our hearts and our minds.

The invaluable work of the Registrar, along with his team, the tremendous work of the Prosecutor and his team in their search for evidence and the arrival of the honourable Judges are giving the Court its substance.

One could say that our work is now over and that it is now up to the Special Court, including the Judges who have just been sworn in, to take up the challenge of delivering justice to the people of Sierra Leone and up to the international community to fulfil its responsibility to support the Court’s smooth and durable functioning.

All of this is certainly true. But it is certainly not the whole picture.

We have begun the concerted effort towards effective accountability for the wrongs committed in this country with the entry into force of the Agreement and Statute for the Special Court.  This effort will not stop today.

We, the Government and the people of Sierra Leone, are ready to give the Special Court all the support and assistance is requires, to comply with its orders, and to cooperate fully with it at all times.

We are ready to let the Court do its work and pledge to ensure no interference with its independence either from this Government or from any other source.

In short, we will support the Court by all the means at our disposal but we now leave it to the Court to take the lead.

One would say that where we stand today is an outstanding outcome, regarding where we were three years ago. I will not. Indeed, it seems to me that we have reached the exact place the hard work of so many people was leading towards.

Our strongest wish is that the Special Court becomes one of the champions of the rights of mankind. It is actually not a wish, since the power to make that happen belongs to all of us.

I would therefore conclude by calling on all Sierra Leoneans to support the work of the Special Court in whatever way you can.

Remember that this court is here for Sierra Leone: we have asked for it, the international community has answered our call and now we have a role to play in making sure its operations are successful.

Let us take our place on the international stage by showing the world that we are committed to accountability in our country and that by working together we can have sustainable and lasting peace, firmly shored up by the fundamental principles of justice and the rule of law.

I thank you.