War+Crimes

 __​ War Crimes in Sierra Leone __  Rachael, Emily, Kevin and Meghan **History**
 * War crimes **
 * Violations of the laws or customs of war; including murder, the ill-treatment or deportation of civilian residents of an occupied territory to slave labor camps.
 * The murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war, the killing of hostages, the wanton destruction of cities, towns and villages, and any devastation not justified by military, or civilian necessity.
 * The Hague Conventions were international treaties negotiated at the First and Second Peace Conferences at The Hague, Netherlands in 1899 and 1907, respectively, and were, along with the First and Second Geneva Conventions (1864 and 1909), among the first formal statements of the laws of war and war crimes in the nascent body of secular international law.
 * The Geneva Conventions are four related treaties adopted between 1864 and 1949 that represent a legal basis for International Law with regard to conduct of warfare. Not all nations are signatories to the GC, and as such retain different codes and values with regard to wartime conduct. Some signatories have routinely violated the Geneva Conventions in a way which either uses the ambiguities of law or political maneuvering to sidestep the laws' formalities and principles.
 * The punishment for committing war crimes was capital punishment, but in many cases, war criminals were sent to national prisons to live out the rest of their lives. At the modern international tribunals, capital punishment is banned, and conviction results in a sentence for a term of years. The convicted person serves his or her sentence in a national prison system, whose country has agreed with the tribunal to effect execution of sentence

**Charles Taylor** 

__Background__ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">__Charges__
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Served as President of Liberia from August 1997 - August 2003
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">In December 1989, Taylor launched a Libyan-funded armed uprising from Côte d'Ivoire into Liberia to overthrow its government. His forces, known as the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), soon controlled most of the country.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">In 1999, a rebellion against Taylor began in northern Liberia, led by a group calling itself Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD). This group was frequently accused of atrocities, and is thought to have been backed by the government of neighboring Guinea.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Taylor is currently being held in the United Nations Detention Unit on the premises of the Penitentiary Institution Haaglanden in The Hague
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">He is on trial by the Special Court for Sierra Leone and assisted rebel forces in Sierra Leone with weapon sales in exchange for diamonds. Also helping in acts of atrocities against civilians that have left many thousands dead or mutilated, with unknown numbers of people abducted and tortured.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">He has been criticized for the widespread conscription of children as soldiers in the war in Sierra Leone.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">On March 7, 2003, the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) indicted Taylor, charging him with crimes against humanity, which still stands
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Crimes against humanity are Murder; extermination; torture; rape and political, racial, or religious persecution and other inhumane acts reach the threshold of crimes against humanity only if they are part of a widespread or systematic practice
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">The UN asserts that Taylor created and backed the RUF rebels in Sierra Leone, which are accused of a range of atrocities, including the use of child soldiers

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;">
 * Foday Sankoh**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Background __ > activist in the 1970s. After his activism earned him a short prison term. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">__Charges__ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">**Samuel Hinga Norman** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">A former corporal in the Sierra Leonean army, wedding photographer, and television cameraman, Sankoh became a student
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Sankoh joined a Cold War guerilla camp in Libya sponsored by Moammar Gadhafi, where Moammar Gadhafi was preaching revolutionary ideas to West African dissidents. It is here that he met Charles Taylor, future president of Liberia and Sankoh's financial benefactor and ally throughout the civil war. With his encouragement, Sankoh and two allies, Abu Kanu and Rashid Mansaray, returned from Libya to form the RUF and begin an insurrection.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">October 1937 - July 2003 was a leader of the Sierra Leone rebel faction Revolutionary United Front (RUF)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">And was involved in the 10-year-long Sierra Leonean civil war, which ended in 2002.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Between 50,000 and 200,000 people died in the civil war.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">In 1998, Sankoh was condemned to death for treason by the High Court of Justice in Freetown. He received however an amnesty on the basis of a clause in the Lomé Peace Agreement concluded in October 1998 by the government and the rebels, which provided for the pardon and amnesty of all the members of the RUF (Revolutionary United Front).
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">According to the indictment, Sankoh was the leader of the RUF and one of the principal leaders of the alliance between RUF and AFCR (Armed Forces Revolutionary Council). He thus had the authority, control and command over the members of the RUF and the RUF/ AFRC alliance.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Was awaiting trial for crimes against humanity, died July 29 in a hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone, after a stroke.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">__Background__ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">__<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Politics __ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">__ Kamajors __ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">__Charges__ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Samuel Hinga Norman (January 1, 1940 – February 22, 2007), he was a Sierra Leonean politician from the Mende tribe.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Norman was the founder and leader of the traditional Civil Defence Forces, commonly known as the Kamajors.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">The Kamajors fought under the supported the government of Ahmed Tejan Kabbah against the RUF.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Entering politics, Hinga Norman became Deputy Minister of Defence, serving from April 20, 1998 to May 21, 2002.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">He then served as Minister of the Interior from May 21, 2002 to March 10, 2004, overlapping his indictment at the Special Court.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">He also served as the national director of the CDF, and tapped the traditional groups called the Kamajors to serve as a militia.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">The Kamajors are a group of traditional hunters from the south and east of the country.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">The Kamajors integrated themselves into the ECOMOG (a Nigeria led force) counteroffensive to reinstate Kabbah in 1998 after Freetown was taken by the Charles Taylor.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Sam Hinga Norman was indicted on March 7, 2003 by the Special Court for Sierra Leone (TSSL).
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">He was arrested on March 10 and plead not guilty on the 15 of the same month.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">His indictment accused him of crimes against humanity for: inhuman murders and acts;
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">violations of Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions as well as Additional Protocol II for: acts of terrorism and collective punishment against the civilian population, reached with the physical and mental integrity and the life in particular cruel treatment, plundering;
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">other serious violations of the humane international law due to enrolment of children of less than 15 years in the armed forces.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">__bibliography__

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">News. (2009, August 7). BBC NEWS | Africa | Country profiles | Timeline: Sierra Leone. BBC NEWS | News Front Page. Retrieved January 2, 2010, from <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">

Johnson, D. (n.d.). Foday Sankoh: Sierra Leone's rebel with a cause. Infoplease: Encyclopedia, Almanac, Atlas, Biographies, Dictionary, Thesaurus. Free online reference, research & homework help. — Infoplease.com. Retrieved December 28, 2009, from <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">

Smitha, F. (n.d.). Children at war in Liberia and Sierra Leone. MacroHistory : World History. Retrieved December 29, 2009, from <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">[] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 90%;">