The diamond mining industry in Sierra Leone was based both on primary and secondary diamonds (Lujala, Gleditsch & Gilmore 2005) and the Sierra Leone civil war was not rooted in ethnic rivalry either (Bangura 2004). Post-colonial mismanagement, particularly in the government of Siaka Stevens (1967-1984), even made the already weak state system completely collapse. Notably, the domestic opinion in Sierra Leone was not much in favour of Momoh’s initiative either since the ECOMOG intervention was partly considered as ‘an attempt to frustrate a popular uprising against a soldier-turned-politician’ (Gberie 2005, pp. Author photographs © Peter Tenzer (Acemoglu) and María Angélica Bautista (Robinson). _gaq.push(['_setAllowLinker', true]); – The problem for the civilians was that the RUF rebels were extremely violent, with killings and abductions starting from the first day of their attacks. It is undeniable, that Sankoh had a sort of distant connection to the student movement. Did the RUF rebels identify with the SLPP? Why do civil wars occur? Hence, even in the economic literature, it is still an unsubstantiated argument that the huge diamond reserve in Sierra Leone was the initial driver of the decade-long conflict. [vii] Also, given that the border region between Sierra Leone and Liberia was abundant in resources, including diamonds, a deeply destabilised Sierra Leone could have been Taylor’s interest in economic terms (Richards 1996). Collier, P & Hoeffler, A 2004, ‘Greed and grievance in civil war’, Oxford Economic Papers, vol. If you do that for the youth they will not be any problem in this country. – A harrowing but moving testimony of his days as a child soldier in the army was written by Ishmael Beah (http://www.alongwaygone.com ; on the controversy surrounding this book, follow this link ). This paper, thus, questioned the conventional belief that diamonds were the main driver of the war, and then explored the broader political and societal context of Sierra Leone and the RUF’s history before the war. All three sources demonstrate a third spike in 1997 – 1998 that rivals the spike in 1995. In 1997 the RUF enjoyed a brief spell as part of the national government after a faction of the military, led by Major Johnny Paul Koroma overthrew the government. As Fanthorpe (2001, p. 363) interestingly argues, ‘scholarship focusing on lumpen or secular sectarian agency only serves to emphasize the conflict’s apparent detachment from pre-war patterns of politics and identity’. Reno, W 1995, Corruption and state politics in Sierra Leone, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Lahneman, William J. For those who left school and were still unemployed, there were no many options available except semi-subsistence agriculture, finding jobs in the urban informal sector or ‘trying one’s luck in the alluvial mining areas’ (Peters 2011, p. 53). The UN Assistance Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMISIL) established on October 22, 1999[xvii] that is credited with a positive role in helping to stabilize the nation. For the young fighter, it is injustice.’ (William Reno 2003, p. 46). Denov, M 2010, Child solders: Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front, Cambridge University Press, New York. They called themselves the RUF, the Revolutionary United Front, and they announced that they were there to overthrow the corrupt and tyrannical government of the APC. [iii] ‘The Crown Colony was not more than 200 square miles. [xiv] It began with a violent coup on May 25, 1997, by the newly created Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC, included some elements of the SLA), headed by Maj. Johnny Paul Koroma. the Krios. Although diamonds played a significant role in financing the war, this factor solely cannot explain the initial intention of actors involved in the conflict. Originally, the PANAFU congress discussed the issue of sending recruits to Libya on behalf of the organisation, but the majority was against the enterprise. Between Democracy and Terror: The Sierra Leone Civil War. There are discrepancies between various data sources about precisely when killing reached its highest spike. According to a 2006 analysis of multiple datasets on the conflict,[iv] the RUF was responsible for the majority of the killings and the largest share of other abuses against civilians. Did the Jews that claimed exemption from compulsory conscription during the wars, cause dissatisfaction that would fuel anti-semitism? As Reno (2003b, p. 60) asserts, this external support ‘reduced the RUF rebel’s incentives to rely upon popular support in Sierra Leone to survive’, and it allowed, at least in part, the RUF’s atrocious behaviour against its own civilians during the war. They trained in Libya and Liberia, and when they were ready for their initial attacks Qaddafi and Taylor supplemented their forces with a large group of soldiers from Liberia, Burkina Faso, and other places. [v] When Reader discovered Sankoh in Bo, Sankoh was working as an itinerant photographer. It was in August 1987 that Sankoh left to Libya for insurgency training, where he met his future RUF co-founders, Kanu and Mansaray: as the PANAFU members, Kanu was also ‘a founding member of Future Shock club and a graduate of Njala University College’, and Rashid was ‘an activist from Freetown east end, who had left the country in 1986 to join the MPLA in the fight against UNITA in Angola’. 3, pp. The early insurgent force of the RUF was composed of three major groups: those who had military training in Libya, Sierra Leone residents in Liberia and NPFL fighters on loan to the RUF. “War-Related Sexual Violence in Sierra Leone: A Population-Based Assessment.” Boston, MA: Physicians for Human Rights. Rebellious groups are usually fragmented, which diminish the likelihood of reaching the goal of greater justice. 185-205. Bates, RH 2008, When things fell apart: state failure in late-century Africa, Cambridge University Press, New York. These figures do not properly show the actual agony and resentment of those victims, though. The report covers the time period 1991 – 2000, and produces evidence that 10,000 – 30,000 noncombatants died in the conflict. The “mission” of the RUF plunged the country into a rampage that left 80,000 people dead and many more maimed and traumatized. ;D. I'm gonna guess it had something to do with the government being corrupt, or the fact of all the diamonds there. Its awesome climax was the destruction of much of Freetown in January 1999.[v]. I'm doing a small report on Sierra Leone, but I can't understand why the RUF attacked them, I'm reading it off Wikipedia and other sites, but it's hard to understand. Bates (2008, pp. This is also the period when a policy of amputations was inflicted on the civilian population. 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; Available at: http://web.undp.org/evaluation/documents/thematic/conflict/ConflictEvaluation2006.pdf. They started off as a Democratic group for African. In addition, according to a former PANAFU member in the army, ‘the area under Kanu’s control was generally peaceful and well organised’ because ‘he reached out to explain what the RUF was about to the peasants, and was not engaged in unnecessary violence against civilians’. Fanthorpe, R 2001, ‘Neither Citizen nor Subject? Muammar Qaddafi is ultimately to blame because he intentionally planned the war, and because he provided Foday Sankoh and the RUF with arms and funds throughout the conflict. New York: Human Rights Watch, July. Why did Foday Sankoh have this extreme desire for power? In March 2001, the force was increased to 13,000 military personnel. Sankoh must have been surprised when there was resistance from Mende civilians in their traditional territory. In 1999, in a report on the attack on Freetown, Human Rights Watch wrote, “This latest rebel offensive brought to the capital the same class of atrocities witnessed in Sierra Leone’s rural provinces over the last eight years and is the latest cycle of violence in an armed conflict that has claimed an estimated 50,000 lives and caused the displacement of more than one million Sierra Leoneans.”[xxiii] A Physicians for Human Rights report states that at least 5,000 civilians were killed during this battle for Freetown. However, the conflict has not completely finished yet; some features of brutality and viciousness in the conflict are still lingering in the minds and bodies of Sierra Leoneans. By their nature extractive institutions breed conflict, which often turns into civil war and, as in Sierra Leone, leads not only to carnage but also to the collapse of the state. The Formation of the RUF and Its Invasion in Sierra Leone. Between democracy and terror: the Sierra Leone Civil War, UNISA Press, Pretoria. In the mid 16th century occurred events of profound importance in the modern history of Sierra Leone: these were the Mane invasions.The Mane (also called Mani), southern members of the Mande language group, were a warrior people, well-armed and well-organized, who lived east and possibly somewhat north of present-day Sierra Leone, occupying a belt north of the coastal peoples. As Sankoh consolidated his power in the group with the beginning of the war, he also started to eliminate his potential rivals – mostly educated radicals – within the group; the number executed was allegedly reported to have reached almost at 300 (Keen 2005). Rather, as Reno (2003b) asserts, it is more likely that universal assumptions on the relationship between natural resources and motivations in conflict do not thoroughly explain diverse evolutions of conflicts. Farnham, England: Ashgate. Did the Siaka Stevens government cause the war? There were several periods of heightened lethal violence during the war: in 1991; 1994-1995 during a major RUF offensive; and 1998 – 9 when the capital Freetown was invaded. Sierra Leone: Inside the War _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); This was a war measured not so much in battles and confrontations between combatants as in attacks upon civilian populations. Abdullah (1998, p. 207) underlines the lumpen culture in Sierra Leone which was created by ‘the largely unemployed and unemployable youths, mostly male, who live by their wits or who have one foot in what is generally referred to as the informal or underground economy’. In light of the early influence of Gaddafi’s Green Book on Sierra Leone students’ movement and, more practically, the military training offered to the three co-founders of the RUF in Benghazi, it is obvious that the Libya connection laid the foundation for the emergence of the RUF. The Special Court for Sierra Leone, created in 2002 as a joint venture of the Sierra Leonean government and the United Nations, indicted leaders of the AFRC, the RUF, and the CDF, as well as former President of Liberia Charles Taylor. The pre-electoral period was marked by extensive human rights abuses, by the both pro-government forces and RUF, as there were actors within each who stood to benefit from continuing armed conflict. The biggest victims of the patrimonial system collapse were, in fact, young people who were not able to be educated and employed in this deteriorating situation. At the same time, though, the availability of external support limited the domestic support necessary to win the war in the long term.
Uyirile Kalanthathu Review, America A Prophecy Summary, Joseph Julian Soria Instagram, Alabama Map With Counties, Defund The Policehamilton, Lady Sings The Blues Full Movie 123movies, Cvs Health Careers, Secrets And Lies Season 1 Extra Scene, Best Good Omens Fanfiction, Sanjuro Imdb,