Operation Fine Girl Footage

Operation Fine Girl: Rape Used as a Weapon of War in Sierra Leonewas produced in 2001 by and for the Oxygen network's Worth The Risk series, in partnership with WITNESS, who paired Binta Mansaray, their local partner in Sierra Leone, and Academy Award nominated director Lilibet Foster to make the documentary.Operation Fine Girl: Rape Used As a Weapon of War in Sierra Leoneaired on Oxygen TV on Sunday, 9 December 2001 at 7:00 p.m. and was excerpted at www.witness.org.

The documentary examines the widespread and strategic use of rape and sexual violence against women—many of them young girls and teenagers—during the civil war in Sierra Leone that took place from 1991-2002 between the Sierra Leonean Army (SLA) and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Throughout Sierra Leone’s civil war, many women were abducted by rebels, sexually enslaved, and forced to become “rebel wives,” in addition to performing domestic chores and being trained as fighters. Rape and sexual violence were tactics used by the rebels to terrorize the civilian population.“Operation Fine Girl,” refers to a specific and targeted operation carried out by the rebels to find and abduct young girls.

Through interviews with survivors of sexual violence, former child soldiers, doctors who treat survivors of sexual violence, NGO representatives and representatives of the Sierra Leonean government,Operation Fine Girlshows how rebel soldiers targeted women during the civil war not for reasons of ethnic or religious differences but solely because they were women. The documentary focuses on the personal stories of four Sierra Leoneans—a 14 year old mother, a female teacher, and a teenage prostitute (all survivors of sexual violence); and a boy child soldier—each of whom were abducted and held against their will by rebel soldiers. The youngest of the interviewees recounts the story of how she was abducted from her home, gang raped and sexually enslaved at the age of eight. The young man reveals how he was abducted, forced to become a soldier and fed drugs that made him “feel like doing bad things,” such as killing.

Operation Fine Girlalso includes the first interview with RUF spokesman Colonel Gibril Massakhoi, who addresses questions about the treatment of women by his troops, beginning with a denial of their actions, and then a contradictory defense of their treatment of women. Colonel Massakhoi’s attitude towards rape exposes one of the reasons for the continued use of rape in war—rape is viewed as an expected byproduct of war rather than a crime against humanity. The documentary reveals that some local groups and international experts believe that the most effective way to change this attitude globally is to recognize and prosecute rape in a post-war special court.

Witness co-producedOperation Fine Girlin order to support the efforts in Sierra Leone to increase the funding to provide pyscho-social support and health care to the estimated 500,00 survivors of rape in the country.