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Showing posts from June 9, 2008

The Hague

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On Thursday, thanks to WPP 's Educational Director, myself and four of my colleagues traveled to Den Haag (The Hague) to sit-in on the Trial of Charles Taylor , at one time Taylor was the President of Liberia. The trial is taking place at the International Criminal Court ( ICC ) and Taylor is accused of aiding the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) of Sierra Leone. These guys are purported to have killed and raped civilians, cutting off arms, legs, ears or noses, and burned their homes. Albert Hindowa Saidu, an RUF rebel fighter, was being questioned about a brutal attack on a town; we sat just 10' away from him. Saidu was a college student at Bunumbu in his finalyear, pursuing a teacher's certificate when he was abducted in 1991. He stay with the RUF right until the final disarmament in 2001. Child abductions are a common form of recruitment for rebel forces, something our organization hopes to have an impact on. After witnessing the ICC testimony we left to visit an orga