Who was responsible for the Sierra Leone Genocide?

The eight and one-half year armed conflict between the government of Sierra Leone and rebel groups (in effect a civil war), which officially ended on July 7, 1999, with the signing of the Lomè Peace Agreement, is unrivalled in its particularly mindless violence, directed mainly against the civilian population. The signature of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group was the amputation of the hands, arms, and other body parts of civilians, including those of children and babies—a grimly ironic reference to the election slogan of the President of Sierra Leone, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah: "The future is in your hands." Other favored practices of the rebels included burning civilians alive; gouging out eyes; attacking civilians with machetes and/or shooting them; the forced recruitment of child soldiers; and the kidnapping of girls (who would be coerced into ual slavery)