VIRB

Luckily, recent news has brought us the story of justice being served.
This is from an AP writer CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY:

"Three former Sierra Leonean military leaders were found guilty of war crimes Wednesday (June 20th) by a U.N.-backed court -- the first verdicts from the country's civil war and the first convictions in an international court for using child soldiers.
The court found the three defendants guilty of 11 of 14 charges, including terrorism, using child soldiers, enslavement, rape and murder."

The story continues on...

"The ruling marks the first time an international court has issued a conviction on the conscription of child soldiers -- a practice made notorious by images of drugged elementary-school-age boys wielding automatic weapons in the regional conflict.

The Sierra Leone tribunal was set up following the end of fighting in 2002 to prosecute the worst offenders in a war that ravaged the small West African nation and also consumed neighboring Liberia. The court has indicted 12 people, including former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who is charged with backing Sierra Leonean rebels.

'In Sierra Leone, the proportion of child soldiers to the general population was particularly staggering, with about 30,000 children fighting in a country with a population of about 6 million', said Enrique Restoy, who oversees the region for the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, an advocacy group."

Sierra Leone was the first place in the world where the use children soldiers became known and was seen everywhere.

It is estimated that about a half-million people were victims of killings, systematic mutilation and other atrocities in Sierra Leone's conflict, in which illicit diamond sales fueled years of devastation.

This conflict lasted about 11 years, beginning in 1991 and ending in 2002. It is really in the past four years or so that judicial measures have been taken against the culprits of these horrendous acts.

This is major break through and a triumph for human rights as well as those for children. However, we are far from the end. This is only the beginning of putting the pieces back together for those in Sierra Leone, as well as some living in neighboring countries.
Coinciding with the end to the violence and human rights abuses in Sierra Leone was the establishment of the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address the impunity for those who endured killings, mutilations, rape and other forms of sexual violence, sexual slavery and conscription of children during a decade of internal armed conflict. Addressing impunity requires that the truth is told, that justice is done and that full reparations are provided for victims. (Amnesty International)

In this conflict, people such as Charles Taylor (President of Liberia), Thomas Lubanga Dyilo (of the Democratic Repulic of Congo, and founder of Union des Patriotes Congolais), and Hissene Habré, former president of Chad have been taken to court and are being convicted for crimes they commited during this 11 year conflict. So now,a message is being sent to this region that this type of behavior, violence, and injustice will not be tolerated.

Amnesty International believes that Sierra Leone's victims should not be forgotten simply because they have not been heard.

So what can we do?
Women here need rights and protection.
Write to members of U.N. asking that this issue be addressed.

Also visit:
http://www.child-soldiers.org/document_get.php?id=702
http://www.child-soldiers.org/
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070620/ap_on_re_af/sierra_leone_war_crimes
http://web.amnesty.org/library/eng-sle/index