Humans rights is the basic freedom you have in a certain society as a human being. These rights include the rights of freedom, justice and equality, as the enlighten philosopher John Locke would have agreed. When these rights are not permitted in a society or is taken away is considered as human rights violation. Rights violation is something humanity has been fighting for hundreds of years yet it has not been solved. It happens in the largest cities and in the most remote places in the world.
A situation that clearly demonstrates various human rights violation is through out the course of the civil war in Sierra Leone. Through out Sierra Leone imperialism by Great Britain, they were a hundred percent dependent on the mother country. After Great Britain decided to decolonized Sierra Leone in 1961,the nation was left without any idea on how to control a country and coming up with a government on its own. Their first independent government, a centralized monarchy was very corrupted. This resulted in the rebel groups to rise up and work towards a democratic government. The rebel group became known as RUF which stands for Revolutionary United Front. However, their main goal of forming a democratic government was not necessarily it, they wanted to control the diamond sites.
The RUF committed many terrible crimes against humanity. Thousands of refugees were taken by the R.U. F. on their brutal rampages. Once they were taken some were killed others were taken to the stake, were they would chose who would work in the diamond mining camps; the others were put in one of the R.U.F. commander’s favorite games, the “long-sleeve, short- sleeve” game. In this game they would ask the refugee if they wanted long-sleeve or short-sleeve and depending on what was said by the distressed victim they would chop their whole arm or their hands. Approximately 10,000 people lost body parts during the civil war. This is a serious human rights violation because no one has the right to amputate part of your body. The RUF only justification for this indignant crime is that they didn’t want the people to vote for another corrupt government. However they were already corrupting the society, by terrorizing the people.
Another human rights violation was the forced labor camps or diamond fields. Poor Sierra Leonean people worked as slaves for long hours, burning their backs with the sun while mining for alluvial diamonds. They worked in poor conditions with no food or water. The RUF wanted diamonds as raw materials to support the war and buy weapons. If the workers did not meet the quota, the RUF would torture them. This is an example of a human rights violation because the workers were forced to work and the RUF treated them with injustice. The poor people didn’t have a choice but to work in the diamond fields. The unfair wage that they receive was enough to help them prosper.
The R.U.F. recruited child soldiers from nearby villages and tribes. The children were stolen from their families and led to a world of cruelty and murdering. They would maintain the kids on a constant supply of drugs and alcohol to make it easier to transition to the world the were being imposed to. They would train the children on how to use weapons and send them on killing rampages, were they would murder thousands of people. Over two million people were killed during the nine year ordeal. These actions from the RUF was a serious human rights violation, because they abused on the children innocence and make them became killers at such a young age.
Sometimes the human kind is control by their ego side and tend solve problems without a diplomatic action. The R.U.F did what is called “Operation Pay Yourself”. This was the action of the rebels to illegally take the people’s belonging and make them into profit. The rebels needed to fund the war and by taking people’s belonging and money they were able to. This is a human rights violation because it goes against the human rights to have your own property without anyone taking it away from you. The rebels didn’t have a justification to why they were taking things that didn’t belong to them. After all the injustice and cruelty the R.U.F imposed to the citizens they were given amnesty. Yet the survivors of the civil war can’t forget all the brutality and torment the rebels caused them.
He asked for long sleeves
By: Florangel De Leon & Kairy Garcia
A situation that clearly demonstrates various human rights violation is through out the course of the civil war in Sierra Leone. Through out Sierra Leone imperialism by Great Britain, they were a hundred percent dependent on the mother country. After Great Britain decided to decolonized Sierra Leone in 1961,the nation was left without any idea on how to control a country and coming up with a government on its own. Their first independent government, a centralized monarchy was very corrupted. This resulted in the rebel groups to rise up and work towards a democratic government. The rebel group became known as RUF which stands for Revolutionary United Front. However, their main goal of forming a democratic government was not necessarily it, they wanted to control the diamond sites.
The RUF committed many terrible crimes against humanity. Thousands of refugees were taken by the R.U. F. on their brutal rampages. Once they were taken some were killed others were taken to the stake, were they would chose who would work in the diamond mining camps; the others were put in one of the R.U.F. commander’s favorite games, the “long-sleeve, short- sleeve” game. In this game they would ask the refugee if they wanted long-sleeve or short-sleeve and depending on what was said by the distressed victim they would chop their whole arm or their hands. Approximately 10,000 people lost body parts during the civil war. This is a serious human rights violation because no one has the right to amputate part of your body. The RUF only justification for this indignant crime is that they didn’t want the people to vote for another corrupt government. However they were already corrupting the society, by terrorizing the people.
Another human rights violation was the forced labor camps or diamond fields. Poor Sierra Leonean people worked as slaves for long hours, burning their backs with the sun while mining for alluvial diamonds. They worked in poor conditions with no food or water. The RUF wanted diamonds as raw materials to support the war and buy weapons. If the workers did not meet the quota, the RUF would torture them. This is an example of a human rights violation because the workers were forced to work and the RUF treated them with injustice. The poor people didn’t have a choice but to work in the diamond fields. The unfair wage that they receive was enough to help them prosper.The R.U.F. recruited child soldiers from nearby villages and tribes. The children were stolen from their families and led to a world of cruelty and murdering. They would maintain the kids on a constant supply of drugs and alcohol to make it easier to transition to the world the were being imposed to. They would train the children on how to use weapons and send them on killing rampages, were they would murder thousands of people. Over two million people were killed during the nine year ordeal. These actions from the RUF was a serious human rights violation, because they abused on the children innocence and make them became killers at such a young age.
Sometimes the human kind is control by their ego side and tend solve problems without a diplomatic action. The R.U.F did what is called “Operation Pay Yourself”. This was the action of the rebels to illegally take the people’s belonging and make them into profit. The rebels needed to fund the war and by taking people’s belonging and money they were able to. This is a human rights violation because it goes against the human rights to have your own property without anyone taking it away from you. The rebels didn’t have a justification to why they were taking things that didn’t belong to them. After all the injustice and cruelty the R.U.F imposed to the citizens they were given amnesty. Yet the survivors of the civil war can’t forget all the brutality and torment the rebels caused them.
He asked for long sleevesBy: Florangel De Leon & Kairy Garcia
Do you think after the RUF was given amensty the people of Sierra Leone had civil wars with former RUF soldiers???
ReplyDeleteLaron and Joselyn
wow we really liked your blog and its grimy how the europeans played around with the african's lifes. "the “long-sleeve, short- sleeve” game. In this game they would ask the refugee if they wanted long-sleeve or short-sleeve and depending on what was said by the distressed victim they would chop their whole arm or their hands." its crazy how choosing what shirt you wanted decided if they were gonna chop your hands. =[
ReplyDeletei think that its very sad what happened to all this african. they didnt deserve this treatment becaouse they didnt do anything to do so. How did most of thes africans feel?
ReplyDelete