Looking
for Peace in
Sierra Leone
African civil wars are often brutal and long. But
Sierra Leone's descent into chaos was horrifying even
by African standards. The former British colony's
decade-long civil war killed an estimated 50,000 people,
and left some 10,000 without hands or arms. More than
a million Sierra Leoneans were left homeless. Human
Rights Watch, no stranger to horrible tragedies, called
the atrocities "the worst we have seen anywhere in
the world."
Most
of the atrocities were committed by the Revolutionary
United Front (RUF). Abject rural poverty provided
a fertile recruiting ground for the RUF and other
rebel groups, who trained children as young as eight
into brutish foot-soldiers, fueled by alcohol and
drugs.
The
RUF's calling card was to hack off the hands or arms
from its victims, even children. Murder, rape and
abduction were alternatives.
In
2001, the RUF and the government finally started making
moves toward peace — ending fighting, turning over
child soldiers to the UN for repatriation, allowing
refugees to return. But restoring life in Sierra Leone
after the terrors of the 1990s will be a long struggle.
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Recently-released child soldiers wait for
processing by the United Nations in eastern
Sierra Leone. |
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