ipl-logo

Sierra Leone Civil War

984 Words4 Pages

The Sierra Leone civil war occurred in two phases, between 1991-1996 and 1997-2001, with a large scale wanton of violence. Based on media reports, Mitton (2016) highlights the description of Sierra Leone as a ‘war torn’ country. Due to the cruelty of violence highlighted during the civil war – involvement of children in atrocities and infliction of amputations upon citizen – intensified the systematic complexity (routine) of the civil war. The Sierra Leone civil war has been described in different dimensions from political polarization, armed conflict to resource-based conflict. According to Mitton (2016) “…the case of Sierra Leone…was devoid of ethnic or religious cleavages, [as armed groups fought] with little concern for ideological and …show more content…

Can the scenario of the Sierra Leone civil war be characterised as genocide or war crime? In relation to genocide and war crime cases discussed by Cobban, there is no direct definition of genocide provided by Cobban; she does not state whether the case of Mozambique or South Africa is an example of genocide; instead, she emphasizes the concept of atrocity to connect the case studies of her comparative analysis. In the same manner, the vicious nature of the Sierra Leone civil war executed by the genocidaires can be identified as atrocities. Also, this cruel violence highlighted in the Sierra Leone civil war illustrates the concept of ‘life force atrocity’ provided by Elis von Joeden-Forgey . The humiliation, dehumanization, and enforcement of sexual violence on women in front of their families do illuminate the concept of life force atrocity. The Human Rights Watch (2002) report explicates expatiates this atom of life force atrocity, it …show more content…

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) (2016) highlights the practical definition of war crime as violations and conducts which endangers lives (death, injury, destruction or looting of property) and crevice of significant value (humiliation, violation of human rights, recruitment of underage children in armed forces) (The International Committee of the Red Cross, 2016). The Sierra Leone civil war was most especially noted for use of child soldiers in the perpetration of malicious crimes. Meanwhile, the atrocities identified in the Sierra Leone case study aligns with the systematic pattern of the stages of genocide provided by Gregory Stanton, President Genocide Watch. Stanton (2013) highlights the ten stages of genocide as classification, symbolization, discrimination, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, persecution, extermination and

Show More
Related

The Responsibility Of Ishmael Beah's Attacks In Sierra Leone

338 Words | 2 Pages

An autobiography, of which Ishmael Beah unwillingly becomes a child solider due to a civil war that has arisen in Sierra Leone. Before the attacks had happen, Ishmael and his elder brother Junior had gone from home to perform Rap in Mattru Jong with their friends. Not long after their arrival, news of the rebels had come to their attention having raided their home town and no sign of their families being unscarred from the warfare. Ishmael, and his group of friends sought out to travel to each village seeking out their family. However trouble comes across due to the majority of RUF rebel attacks were caused by children around their age, many villagers had no trust for these kids.

Read More

Analysis Of A Long Way Gone By Ishmael Beah

1148 Words | 5 Pages

The other single story regarding the civil war in Sierra Leone is the cause of the war. The RUF, or the Revolutionary United Front, fought for “justice”. They killed millions of innocent civilians, and then the government army began to do the same. However, the soldiers did need money for the ammunition and firearms. The funding was coming from diamonds, blood diamonds.

Read More

Examples Of Alienation In Night By Elie Wiesel

1624 Words | 7 Pages

In 1944, a Polish-Jewish lawyer came up with the word, “genocide.” However, even seventy-five years later, many people still debate what factors go into making a genocide. Of course, there is mass murder, mistreatment of large groups of people, and difficult life conditions. Take the Cambodian Genocide, for example. People were tortured and killed so much during this genocide that at one of the death camps, “as few as 12 managed to survive” (Pierpaoli).

Read More

Commentary On Night By Elie Wiesel

1140 Words | 5 Pages

The unacceptable decision to neglect, and the failure to intervene and terminate, the Rwandan Genocide, falling into a trap of indifference, only led to continued genocidal violence. The world must overcome this indifference, because “to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman… in denying their humanity, we betray our own” (Wiesel 2). Therefore, the international community has an obligation to take action and help the Congolese, to prevent ignorance towards future annihilations; this responsibility falls upon the world not only because the growing

Read More

Examples Of Loss Of Innocence In A Long Way Gone

1258 Words | 6 Pages

On Saturday, March 23 the Sierra Leone army came under attack from rebel forces from within the country called the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), a ruthless group of soldiers led by a former army Sierra Leone corporal, Foday Sankoh. They would do anything to gain control of the country including the enlistment of child soldiers, and they had the upper hand until the army followed their strategy and drafted children themselves (Fyfe and Davidson). Many of the child soldiers suffered a lot of physical and psychological trauma from the war including a young boy named Ishmael Beah. In A Long Way Gone, Beah’s recounting of his experiences in the war, portrays the loss of innocence and hope in child soldiers due to the effects of war.

Read More

Genocide Dbq Essay

1372 Words | 6 Pages

After many years of pushing aside the unlawful subject of genocide, in 1948 the UN General assembly held an international convention on the prevention, and punishment against the crime of genocide; it was finally put to work in 1951. (Doc. B) Even though we knew genocide was happening in the past with the holocaust, it took us around four decades to go through creating an international criminal tribunal until 1994. (Doc. B) The main question leaves us in document B saying, “Why did it take so long, despite atrocities and mass killings in Cambodia, East Timor, and elsewhere?”

Read More

Analysis: Should Child Soldiers Be Prosecuted For Their Crimes

1603 Words | 7 Pages

When you picture war, what do you see? Is it people with tanks and Ak-47s fighting each other? Maybe adults in camo fighting in the desert? Or perhaps even an image from your Call of Duty video game pops into your head. But what most people don’t imagine is children, ages 9-15, fighting each other and dying at the hands of guns and other weapons.

Read More

Thomas King You Ll Never Believe What Happened Essay

942 Words | 4 Pages

Land mines. Suicide bombing. Sectarian violence. Sexual abuse. Children stacked up like cordwood in refugee camps around the globe” (King,8).

Read More

The Four Types Of Genocidal Rape

802 Words | 4 Pages

The overall goal of genocidal rape is to inflict punishment on the male enemy by creating psychological and physical harm for women and girls (Sharlach 2000 as cited in Matusitz, 2017, p. 836). Consequently, war rape as genocidal rape redefines the sexually assaulted woman’s body as a “site of ethnic clashes” (Kirk & Taylor, 2006, p. 139) and reframes the targeted population as sub-human. In turn, the ethnic cleansing strategy represents “an enactment of ethnic superiority” (Mullins, 2009, p. 732). The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of genocidal rape.

Read More

Examples Of Genocide In The Book Night

627 Words | 3 Pages

“The convection on the Prevention and Punishment of Crime of Genocide” a treaty by the united nations explains how genocide is a broken crime, will be stopped, and discipline

Read More

Genocide Vs War

1178 Words | 5 Pages

On the other hand, Shaw argues that warfare is degenerate in nature. Therefore one can argue that propaganda and the demonization of entire nations during war matched with indiscriminate violence makes acts of war ultimately acts of genocide. This argument is particularly compelling when corresponded with the casualty rates of modern

Read More

Exploitation Of Resources In Africa Dbq Essay

786 Words | 4 Pages

The exploitation of resources can lead to violence in many countries, an example being Sierra Leone. Many of the causes for the recent civil war in Sierra Leone trace back to the economic hunt for blood diamonds, a valuable and important resource. In Document 5, it is shown that the

Read More

Ishmael Beah's Betrayal

1175 Words | 5 Pages

Stabbing someone in the back is a relatively simple task, especially when they are too immature to know what hit them. The civil war in Sierra Leone, lasting from 1991 to 2002, was one of the most gruesome civil wars to date. Unfortunately, it is also overwhelmingly unknown to many American adolescents. This horrifying ordeal in Sierra Leone featured hundreds of children becoming mass murderers, whilst still in their pre-teen years.

Read More

Genocide Convention Research Paper

1481 Words | 6 Pages

In this paper, I will argue that the genocide convention can be an adequate tool to prevent

Read More

Morton Deutsch's Theory Of Conflict Resolution

1011 Words | 5 Pages

He contends that when an individual or group is denied its major requirement for identity, security, acknowledgment or equivalent investment inside of the general public, extended conflict is inescapable. To determine such conflict, it is essential that needs that are debilitated be distinguished and along these lines rebuilding of connections or the social framework happen in a way that needs of all people and groups are suited (Burton John, 1991,p82). For instance, this model can be helpful in the cases of African conflicts, for example, that of Darfur, Burundi, Dr Congo and Rwanda conflicts, where there are limitations on opportunity and support of its nationals in political and monetary

Read More

More about Sierra Leone Civil War

Related Topics

Open Document