Anup Shah writes about the civil war in Sierra Leone with the government on one side and the rebels (the RUF) on the other. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was once a respectable organization but soon turned corrupt and called many governments corrupt and incapable of managing diamond resources. The same war Sierra Leone had fought against the RUF had happened in Kosovo before. But, this one had 25 more times the amount of death with worse cruelties and less media coverage. The governments and UN tried to make a peace deal, but it failed because the rebels would have been given amnesty for their human rights violations. The rebels mined for diamonds many times and sold them to companies and individuals to buy weapons. They then banned
“A small band of men who call themselves the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), under the leadership of a former corporal, Foday Sankoh, begin to attack villages in eastern Sierra Leone, on the Liberian border” (Beah 222). This ties back to the anecdotal evidence because it gives a date (March 1991) and a name (the RUF and Foday Sankoh) to who is actually attacking them. When the author gives you this information, it connects certain dots together and solidifies the
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.
A Long Way Gone Memoirs of a boy soldier is a memoir written by Ishmael Beah. This novel is about Ishmael's first hand experience of the Civil war in sierra leone between Mar 23, 1991 to Jan 18, 2002 .I feel the book gave a genuine glimpse of war and how Ishmael stayed alive as a refugee and showed what he had to do in order to survive in this war. The memoir also showed the corruption of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) who with the support of the Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia, attempted to overthrow the government. However, a messenger from the RUF said that they were on their side and would like to be welcomed.
James Lowen's chapter 8 focuses on the U.S. involvement in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the first democratically elected Prime Minister of the Congo (now known as Zaire) in 1961. Lowen argues that the U.S. played a crucial role in Lumumba's assassination. The U.S. was concerned about Lumumba's close ties to the Soviet Union and feared that Lumumba's socialist-leaning policies would lead the Congo to fall under Soviet influence. The U.S. believed that Lumumba was a threat to American interests in the Congo, which included securing access to the country's valuable natural resources such as uranium, copper, and cobalt. To undermine Lumumba's government, the U.S. supported a secessionist movement in the mineral-rich province of Katanga, which was led by Belgian-backed separatist Moise Tshombe.
Survivor of the Holocaust and author of the well-respected memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel invites humane action with this statement: “Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe” (1). One of the various “center[s] of the universe” presently is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a struggling nation in which thousands of innocent civilians die each month from war-related causes and governmental forces. In the last decade alone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo suffered through two severe wars, one in 1996 and the other in 1998. The first resulted from ethnic tensions and, in particular, perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide, who,
On the macro-level, Kingsolver portrays this through the West-Congo conflict -- namely, the conflict between the U.S.' strategic interests and the Congo's. Rachel explains, "... this Devil One person was going to get one million dollars from the United States to pay soldiers to do that, go against the very person they all elected..." because "...in their locked room, these men [Western politicians] put their heads together and proclaimed Patrice Lumumba a danger to the safety of the world." (Kingsolver 294, 319) The West didn't want an independent leader, they wanted a puppet government -- hence the CIA-sponsored coup that replaced the democratic leader with a despotic puppet dictator.
Uganda is a country with a rich history filled with turmoil, failure, and success. The country and its people suffered for many years to gain independence from the country that controlled it, Great Britain. Finally, in 1962, Uganda gained independence and became a free country. All was looking up for Uganda and its people until they were thrown into a world of dictators and civil wars. Through their colonization, fight for independence, and the aftermath, they persevered to become the country they are today.
There is still violence and there are many people taking advantage of the weak and ineffective police system (Document M). But, the democracy they established is still intact and the people have more freedoms and rights, which was the goal of the revolution, to take out Gaddafi, the former dictator of Libya, and establish a democracy with a constitution. Libya’s constitution protects the rights of the people and keeps the government from attacking them. The people of Libya have everything they wanted, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to protest, and most importantly elected leaders by the
Political instability is caused by corrupt politicians who only care about lining their own pockets rather than taking care of those who live in their country. When the citizens are not taken care of they tend to come together and try to over throe the government for the change they want. If the change doesn’t come the civilians can use violence to over throw the government which can lead to a civil war between the “rebels” and the
A Long Way Gone is an autobiographical novel that informs people about the civil war in Sierra Leone. This war caused massive destruction to the country physically and mentally. The citizens of Sierra Leone were forced to kill, starve, die, and leave their country for peace somewhere else. This novel describes the horrifying experiences a young boy, Ishmael Beah, had been through during the Sierra Leone civil war. The author used great motifs to describe the importance of war and familial love in the novel.
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.
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
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
Angola’s corrupt government could lead to disastrous consequences such as a rebellion, and cause yet another war. If there was another war Angola’s allies would be drawn into helping them, and that war would affect the whole world. This is a story of a nation like many others. Understanding the story of Angola’s history can help us when looking at many postcolonial nations which are still transitioning
Title: Child Labor in the Dominican Republic of Congo I.INTRODUCTION A.LEAD (Don’t need to write an actual lead, but I want you to see that every A needs a B.) B.Human rights violations are evident in the Dominican Republic of Congo, which stems from a history of poverty; our only hope is that organizations such as Pact continue to ensure that the materials mined in Congo are able to be traced and follow international laws. II.Human Rights Violations: Child Labor in the Dominican Republic of Congo A.Companies fail to check where their materials are coming from. 1.Electronic companies have failed to make sure that the cobalt used in their products has not been mined using child labor.