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Struggles of sierra leone
Struggles of sierra leone
Civil war in sierra leone
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"In the 1970s and 1980s Sierra Leone had a thriving tourism industry,” says Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister of the UK, after his trip to Sierra Leone. Later, however, the economy began staggering to a halt, and a new group rose to power with what many believed were strong and good willed beliefs.
"No More Slaves, No More Masters. Power and Wealth to the People." According to Konye Obaji Ori, a Nigerian publishing author and editorial writer, this was said in 1991 by a rebel group who believed in a new future for the small country of Sierra Leone; the RUF (Revolutionary United Front). Many Sierra Leoneans were advocates of the RUF, and believed that the government should not remain in its current state, but later became repulsed when they realized the measures the RUF took to achieve their goals. 10,000 involuntarily armed children.
Government Failure
In 1991, a detrimental civil war began in the small country of Sierra Leone, with the RUF taking charge, trying to overthrow Joseph Momoh, the current (2nd) president, and the republic in which he operated. His people viewed him as manipulatable and weak, being controlled by his notoriously corrupt advisors. The RUF continued on strike, warring against the police and other governmental forces. In 1992 they managed to overthrow him. For six years, the war continued, as the RUF wanted their democracy to be put into motion. In 1997, a new president was designated, and the war declared over. This did not satisfy the RUF, and an uproar began, dragging the war on for another four years.
War-ravaged Sierra Leone had trouble maintaining order, many still unclear what type of government they were living by. For years, the government of Sierra Leone had “made repeated commitments to...
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...er while fighting a war against their own people (members of the RUF).
Whilst the Civil War in Sierra Leone now seems archaic, the RUF still competes in a battle for control over the diamond-producing regions of Sierra Leone.
Works Cited
Ori, Konye. “Sierra Leone: UN-backed Court Closed after administering Civil War justice.” AFRIK-NEWS, n.d. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
“Child Soldiers Global Report 2001- Sierra Leone.” refworld. Child Soldiers International, 2001. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
“Sierra Leone Rebels Forcefully Recruit Child Soldiers.” HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH. 1 June 2000. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
Barnett, Errol. “African Voices.” CNN. CNN, 9 Oct. 2012. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
“Revolutionary United Front.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia, 15 Aug. 2013. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
Images
Franco Pagetti/VII. June 2000. Nieman Reports. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
The Telegraph. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
Think about how your life was when you were ten. For most people, the only worries were whether you finished your homework and if you’ve been recently updated for new games. Unfortunately, in Sierra Leone, kids at the age of ten were worried about if that day was the only day they’d be able to breathe. The cause of one of this devastating outcome is Sierra Leone’s Civil War. This war was a long bloody fight that took many lives and hopes of children and families.
In 1996 the war in Sierra Leone was becoming a horrific catastrophe. Children were recruited to be soldiers, families were murdered, death came easily, and staying alive was a privilege. Torture became the favorite pastime of the Revolutionary United Front rebel movement, which was against the citizens who supported Sierra Leone’s president, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. I was in the grips of genocide and there was nothing I could do. Operation No Living Thing was put into full effect (Savage 33).
Nothing good ever comes out of violence.Two wrongs never make it right, but cause harm. Contemporary society has not responded enough legacies of historical globalization. This essay will cover the following arguments such as residential schools, slavery and the Sierra Leone civil war.
Rice, Susan. "Prospects for Peace in Sierra Leone." Prospects for Peace in Sierra Leone. 23 Mar 1999: n.p. SIRS Government Reporter. Web. 14 Nov 2013.
Since the end of the Cold War, the recruitment of child soldiers has been recognized as an increasingly global phenomenon. Although the majority of the relatively recent child soldier recruitment cases have developed from armed conflicts in Africa, by the beginning of the new millennium the trend increased globally, appearing on nearly every continent, including Asia, Europe and the Americas. The prevalence of this practice has turned it into a much talked about international issue. The aim of this paper is to look at how this issue is influenced and even aggravated by globalization. More specifically, it will be argued that globalization, expressed through the existence of international organizations, such as the United Nations, have been ineffective in putting a stop to child soldiery and that globalization, defined by the interconnectedness of world economies has lead to underdevelopment and therefore exasperated conflict and as a result child soldiery.
For decades, Uganda’s economy has suffered through disappointing economic policies and instabilities. These setbacks have been put forth by a chronically unreliable government, leaving it as one of the world’s poorest countries. Uganda’s weak infrastructure and corrupt government are two of the primary constraints against a continuation of economic growth. Uganda has ongoing military involvement in the War on Congo, wrongly taking money from the already deprived country and into the war. Many villages in Uganda also have to waste their precious money and time in pursuit of hiding places. They are faced with a group known as, The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). LRA is infamous for their twenty years of massacre and slaughter in Uganda, causing an estimated 1.5 million internally displayed persons. Several people are questioning why the LRA is still terrorizing the country and criticizing the government’s commitment to putting an end this horrific group. The Inspector General of Government (IGG) ...
Rebels would continue to do this from one village to another in order “to take control of the mines in the area” (Hoyt). It is estimated that in Sierra Leone over 20,000 people suffered mutilation. The acts that the rebels performed against these innocent victims was clearly a violation of their human rights. The RUF collects 125 million a year to fund their war on the government and the people of Sierra Leone. Some of the highest producing diamond mines are in Africa.
Child soldier is a worldwide issue, but it became most critical in the Africa. Child soldiers are any children under the age of 18 who are recruited by some rebel groups and used as fighters, cooks, messengers, human shields and suicide bombers, some of them even under the aged 10 when they are forced to serve. Physically vulnerable and easily intimidated, children typically make obedient soldiers. Most of them are abducted or recruited by force, and often compelled to follow orders under threat of death. As society breaks down during conflict, leaving children no access to school, driving them from their homes, or separating them from family members, many children feel that rebel groups become their best chance for survival. Others seek escape from poverty or join military forces to avenge family members who have been killed by the war. Sometimes they even forced to commit atrocities against their own family (britjob p 4 ). The horrible and tragic fate of many unfortunate children is set on path of war murders and suffering, more nations should help to prevent these tragedies and to help stop the suffering of these poor, unfortunate an innocent children.
During the author’s life in New York and Oberlin College, he understood that people who have not experienced being in a war do not understand what the chaos of a war does to a human being. And once the western media started sensationalizing the violence in Sierra Leone without any human context, people started relating Sierra Leone to civil war, madness and amputations only as that was all that was spoken about. So he wrote this book out o...
Though the use of child soldiers is a global concern, the highest numbers have been reported mainly in Africa and Asi...
Capturing children and turning them into child soldiers is an increasing epidemic in Sierra Leone. Ishmael Beah, author of the memoir A Long Way Gone, speaks of his time as a child soldier. Beah was born in Sierra Leone and at only thirteen years old he was captured by the national army and turned into a “vicious soldier.” (Beah, Bio Ref Bank) During the time of Beah’s childhood, a civil war had erupted between a rebel group known as the Revolutionary United Front and the corrupt Sierra Leone government. It was during this time when the recruitment of child soldiers began in the war. Ishmael Beah recalls that when he was only twelve years old his parents and two brothers were killed by the rebel group and he fled his village. While he and his friends were on a journey for a period of months, Beah was captured by the Sierra Leonean Army. The army brainwashed him, as well as other children, with “various drugs that included amphetamines, marijuana, and brown brown.” (Beah, Bio Ref Bank) The child soldiers were taught to fight viciously and the effects of the drugs forced them to carry out kill orders. Beah was released from the army after three years of fighting and dozens of murders. Ishmael Beah’s memoir of his time as a child soldier expresses the deep struggle between his survival and any gleam of hope for the future.
25. IRIN, "Sierra Leone: Child Soldier Rehabilitation Programme Runs out of Cash," IRIN Humanitarian News and Analysis, last modified July 22, 2003, accessed May 20, 2014, http://www.irinnews.org/report/45097/sierra-leone-child-soldier-rehabilitation-programme-runs-out-of-cash.
We are now a decade on from the August 2003 Accra Peace agreement which drew a line under 14 years of civil war and the oppressive dictatorship of Charles Taylor. The peace agreement bought a renewed chance of peace and stability after the atrocities that had been committed across the country. A post-war transitional government was established consisting of 76 members: 12 each from the three warring parties; Government of the Republic of Liberia, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL). Other members from the remaining 18 political parties; seven from civil society and s...
The war was worsened by the wealthy minerals in the ground and the influence of the mineral was strengthened by the fear and displacement the war caused. The intertwining of these two destructive forces is seen in the story Salima is told by a man who bought her. In this he tells of a man who stuffed”...the coltan into his mouth to keep the soldiers from stealing his hard work, and they split his belly open with a machete”(31). Not only does this story show the harsh conditions the men are exposed to in war, but also it further demonstrates the hold coltan has on the minds of those who live in the Congo. The want for coltan leads to the destruction of the community and individual identities of those involved as it perpetuates a cycle of war that damages men, induces violence against women, and ultimately creates a cycle of lost identity.
Over a period from 1960-1965, the first Republic of the Congo experienced a period of serious crisis. There was a terrible war for power that displayed senseless violence and the desperation to rule. There were many internal conflicts among the people. The country eventually gained independence from Belgium. For many countries this would be a time for celebration. Unfortunately for the people of the Congo this became a time to forget. Almost immediately after independence and the general elections, the country went into civil war. Major developed cities like Katanga and Kasai wanted to be independent from the Lumumba government. Different factions started to fight the government and Katanga and Kasai tried to secede from the rest of the country out of fear of the mutinous army that was out of control looting and killing.