"Rebels tore children's parents, innocence and limbs from them. Now, they sit in government. Canada must push to bring them to trial," says filmmaker Loma Dueck.

Six diamond rings were recently delivered to my office at Crossroads Communications, where I work as a broadcaster for Canada's most-watched Christian television program. All were from women wanting to contribute to a cause close to my heart. The diamonds arrived already appraised, with instructions that proceeds from their sale be donated to Limbs of Hope, a campaign that gives prosthetics to amputation victims in Sierra Leone, West Africa.

More than $200,000 also arrived via the mail, and I'm delighted that Canadians are helping patch up what they can of the horror in Sierra Leone. Yet, we must do more. We must insist that our government grapples with what has happened to democracy in a land whose capital was founded by freed slaves from Nova Scotia.

I went to Sierra Leone in March and talked to some of its people. "First, they killed my mother, then they killed my father, then they killed my auntie," eight-year-old Damba told me as she described her amputation by rebels. "Then they put my arm on the ground and the man took the cutlass and chopped it once. He chopped it again and the second time my arm fell off. He told me to go find Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and Kabbah would give me a new arm. "

Last week, President Amhad Tejan Kabbah addressed his nation on Sierra Leone's 39th Independence Day. His speech was punctuated with congratulatory remarks over the July, 1999, Lome Peace accord he helped create. But he failed to call for the establishment of a war-crimes tribunal to prosecute members of the Revolutionary United Front — those who terrorized civilians like young Damba. Reiterating his appeal that the victims forgive the perpetrators of such atrocities, Mr. Kabbah said: "I am convinced that with successful disarmament it is only by such an act of forgiveness and reconciliation that lasting peace can return to Sierra Leone."

That's an arduous directive to a country still bloody from violations of international humanitarian law. In the past nine years, Sierra Leone's 4.5 million citizens have endured a civil war that left 75,000 dead, three million homeless and 12,000 children separated from their families (many drafted as child soldiers). These rough estimates — compiled by Canada's special envoy to the country, MP David Pratt — are stories that the world ignored, from a time when most TV journalists fled the country and instead pursued coverage of Monica Lewinsky.

But back to the diamonds that arrived on my desk. Greed over diamonds appears to be at the heart of Sierra Leone's atrocities. Several weeks ago, I was visiting with three women at the rape recovery centre in the capital city, Freetown. The centre has more than 2,250 clients. During the course of the visit, I mentioned that in North America we had a saying: "Diamonds are a girl's best friend." Hawa Sesay, a 27-year-old rape-recovery social worker, a victim of rape herself was appalled at my comment. "In my country, diamonds are a girl's worst enemy," she glowered.

I learned that prior to the war, the Sierra Leone vocabulary did not even contain a term for "rape." It was a modest culture, where molestation was rare, and discovery of it was handled with extreme discretion. Now the country's lexicon of terror contains a new word: "over-rape. " Over-rape" is when you are raped by 10 men or more," said Ms. Hawa. "And in my country we recover from that the same way you do in yours,"

Almost every woman in Sierra Leone now wears shorts under her colourful traditional lappa, according to Theresa Benjamin, a nurse, working for Cause, Canada's immunization program. "That's the secret to adapting to a high-stress situation, in case at any moment you are grabbed and dragged away," she said.

She's one of the victims trying to focus on forgiveness. Astonishingly, she has found support from a Canadian, Rev. Dale Lang of Taber, Alta, whose son, Jason, was killed in a highschool shooting last year. On a brief visit to Canada, Ms. Benjamin picked up an audio cassette of Rev. Lang's address to Ottawa's Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast. If a man could forgive the murder of his son, she mused, perhaps she could forgive the Revolutionary United Front.

While in Freetown, I also talked with Edward Contah, whose oldest son lives in Toronto. As he gestured to his missing left arm, Mr. Contah said, "The soldiers held me to the ground and with a new ax they cut it off." He now has a Canadian-donated prosthetic in its place. His other sons in Freetown told him that they knew where to find the rebel soldier who had assaulted him, and they were plotting revenge, "I told them, 'Boys, that is not the way. You look to the God above. Think first how much He has forgiven you.'"

But therein lies the dilemma facing Sierra Leone civilians: To go forward as individuals, their emotional recovery depends on their ability to apply the balm of forgiveness to the perpetrators of horrific crimes. This, however, has been undermined by the United Nations-sanctioned Lome Peace Accord. The deal that now holds Sierra Leone together in a tenuous web of calm gives the Revolutionary United Front rebels a share of government power and total amnesty. It is peace at any cost, peace without justice.

Men who did the worst of what can be done to their fellow humans now live with impunity next to the very ones they maimed and raped. One Human Rights Watch report records the testimony of a Roman Catholic priest who saw rebels decapitate a soldier who had already surrendered. Then they ate his liver and heart, raw.

During my recent visit to the country, a leading Freetown journalist, who needs to remain nameless for reasons of safety, smuggled me a video of atrocities committed in January, 1999, in his city. "Please, show the world," he begged. "There must be justice." Back in Canada, when I dubbed the tape over into VHS format, veteran studio technicians begged to have the screens turned to black. They found the footage too horrific to watch.

For all of us who value democracy, the very least we can do is to demand United Nations intervention. The Lome Peace Accord continues to be violated. One of the conditions of the Accord was the liberation of Foday Sankoh's child soldiers, the youngest of whom were called SBUs (Small Boy Units). They were drugged by rebel forces and trained to respond with robotlike obedience to gouge out eyes, rip open bellies, amputate and kill. I visited a Catholic compound where lay workers were doing their best to rehabilitate the children. Three weeks before my visit, Mr. Sankoh had swept into the compound with armed rebels, gathered the children into military formation and reminded them he was still their "Papa" This is peace?

Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy must use his influence on the Security Council to press for a trial of those who received political office as a result of Lome — most notably Mr, Sankoh.

A three-day Prayer Summit for the Reconciliation of a Nation began in Freetown on Tuesday. Church, government and international leaders are attending, Perhaps it will take the powers of Heaven to move us to care for the future of Sierra Leone. Hell has already had its turn.

Lorna Dueck is a broadcaster/producer.