FN-nyhedstjenesten IRIN har fremstillet et slideshow om sporene efter den livstidsdømte Charles Taylor i Sierra Leone og Liberia – og om de naturressourcer, der frister så mange til blodig vold i de fattige vestafrikanske lande.
DAKAR, 30 May 2012 (IRIN): The recent conviction of Charles Taylor in The Hague for aiding and abetting (tilskynde til) war crimes in Sierra Leone has been a potent reminder of the role of natural resources in fuelling conflict in West Africa.
The court’s trial chamber found that Taylor received a continuous supply of “blood diamonds” from Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels, often in exchange for arms. Diamond deals with neigh-bouring Liberia provided RUF with its single largest source of income.
Throughout the 1990s the trade helped fuel brutal civil wars in both countries, from which recovery has been slow.
The scars of those conflicts remain clearly visible in the bullet-scarred villages of northern Liberia.
But it was the town of Koidu, the heart of Sierra Leone’s diamond-mining industry, which bore the brunt of the violence, changing hands four times in 1998 alone.
Se slideshow og læs videre på
http://www.IRINnews.org/Report/95548/SLIDESHOW-Charles-Taylor-s-legacy-in-Sierra-Leone-and-Liberia
Begynd fra: “Sierra Leone has made significant efforts to reform…”
