November 17, 2009 • 2:52 pm
Child Soldier Relief is creating a three part series on the Charles Taylor Trial; the second report in the series explores Charles Taylor’s use of child soldiers.
The Council of Foreign Relations reports that in the late eighties and early nineties Charles Taylor recruited child soldiers into his National Patriotic Front of Liberia movement and created the Small Boys Unit, a group of child soldiers within his rebel movement.
As President of Liberia from 1997 to 2003, Charles Taylor allegedly also sought child soldiers in the most recent conflict between Liberia and Sierra Leone. One of the reasons child soldiers were sought by Taylor and rebel groups is that children don’t fully understand the danger that faces them in battle. In fact, according to IRIN, child soldiers are “highly prized for being fearless in combat.” A militia commander in Liberia told IRIN why he thinks child soldiers can be the “best and bravest” on the front line, “They can fight more than we the big people….It’s hard for them to just retreat.”
Because of their “fearlessness” child soldiers were often used as officers. “These children were given high positions. They were called colonel and general, and this made them feel like they had power,” said UNICEF Child Protection Officer Michael Charley about child soldiers in Sierra Leone.
As Gloria and Mary, two former child soldiers in Liberia, explain in a video by the Guardian, girls taken as child soldiers had extra burdens to bear: being raped at the will of soldiers. “…For a girl, sometimes we used to be raped by [the soldiers] not just by one person, sometimes by two or three and afterwards we still had to carry [weapons] to the frontline. So the girls were maltreated more than the boys,” said Gloria.
“When I think about the war, I think of doing bad things to myself. Sometimes I just want to kill myself…but if I think about the future I will be happy,” said Gloria.
For more on the Charles Taylor Trial…
Filed under: C. Taylor Trial, Liberia, Sierra Leone , charles taylor, child soldier, Liberia, Sierra Leone, War
Child Soldier Relief is creating a three part series on the Charles Taylor Trial; the first explores the summary of charges against Charles Taylor concerning child soldiers.
Charles Taylor is charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law. According to Count 9 of the Indictment, Taylor is charged with conscripting and enlisting children under the age of 15 in Sierra Leone from November 30, 1996 through January 18, 2002.
Specifically, the prosecution accuses Taylor of assisting, encouraging and directing the RUF, AFRC, AFRC/RUF Junta and/or Liberian fighters to conscript and enlist children under the age of 15 “to participate in active hostilities.”
These actions are punishable under Article 4 (c) of the Special Court Statute for Sierra Leone.
Under this Article the Special Court has the power to prosecute those that violate international humanitarian law including, “Conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 years into armed forces or groups or using them to participate actively in hostilities.”
According to CharlesTaylor.org, which has been covering the trial from the beginning and provides daily, weekly and monthly summaries on the trial, Charles Taylor was leader of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia from 1989 to 1997 and from 1997 to 2003, he was the democratic president of Liberia.
As ChildSoldierRelief.com wrote in February 2009, the Special Court for Sierra Leone is a collaboration between international and national justice, set up to try those accused of committing war crimes in the civil war in Sierra Leone.
Filed under: C. Taylor Trial, Intl Criminal Ct, Liberia, Sierra Leone , charles taylor trial, conflict, court, law, politics
February 27, 2009 • 11:27 am
Issa Hassan Sesay and Morris Kallon, two accused war criminals from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in the civil war in Sierra Leone, were convicted of 16 counts of war crimes at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, including “acts of terrorism,” against the civilian population, mutilation, terrorism, rape, forced marriage, sexual slavery, and the recruitment and use of child soldiers.
The statute establishing the Special Court of Sierra Leone includes a provision prohibiting conscription of children under the age of 15 punishable under Article 4.c. of the Statute.
The Special Court for Sierra Leone is a collaboration between international and national justice, set up to try those accused of committing war crimes in the civil war in Sierra Leone. AP reports: “The court was set up in 2003 after the end of the 11-year war that began in 1992.”
The last case to be tried is against Charles Taylor and is currently underway in the Hague – the trial was moved there for security reasons. Serious funding issues due to the global economic crisis have sparked talk of a possible early end to the trial, allowing Taylor to “walk free”.
Filed under: C. Taylor Trial, Intl Criminal Ct, Laws, Treaties, Sierra Leone, United Nations , charles taylor, child soldiers, court, International Criminal Court, law, news, Sierra Leone, War
November 3, 2008 • 7:31 pm
…by a U.S. federal jury in Miami, Florida last week. Charles McArthur Emmanuel, aka Charles Taylor Jr., aka “Chuckie” Taylor is former Liberian President Charles Taylor’s son and was convicted on October 30 on “torture, firearms and conspiracy charges on the second day of jury deliberations.”
From this article:
Prosecutors said the 31-year-old Emmanuel was involved in killings and torture as head of an elite Antiterrorist Unit in his father’s government also known as the “Demon Forces…
A succession of African witnesses told the jury about Emmanuel’s involvement in horrific acts including at least three killings and torture using electric shocks, lit cigarettes, molten plastic, hot irons pressed to flesh, stabbings with bayonets and even biting ants shoveled onto people’s bodies…
Chuckie Taylor was found guilty under the 1994 US federal extraterritorial torture statute. Under this law, US courts are able to prosecute American citizens or anyone present in the United States for crimes of torture committed overseas.
Boston-born Chuckie Taylor is the first person to be convicted under the new law.
Human Rights Watch had been pressing the U.S. Justice Department for some time to try Chuckie Taylor under the 1994 law. Back in 2006, HRW stated, “Federal laws on torture and war crimes committed abroad have been on the books for years, but we don’t know of a single person who has been prosecuted for them. How serious can the U.S. be about justice when these laws have never been used to hold our own citizens to account? With ‘Chuckie’ Taylor in custody, this is an ideal moment to wield this authority.”
The 1994 law is similar to the the Child Soldier’s Accountability Act of 2007 where persons on U.S. soil can be tried for crimes committed overseas. Instead of addressing torture, the Child Soldier’s Accountability Act deals with child soldier recruitment.
This conviction marks a new chapter for holding war criminals accountable for their actions. We look forward to the seeing the Child Soldier’s Accountability Act used in the same way.
For more information on the Charles Taylor trial:
Filed under: C. Taylor Trial, Intl Criminal Ct, Laws, Treaties, Sierra Leone , charles taylor, child soldier, chuckie taylor, law, Liberia, news, torture, trial, War
October 30, 2008 • 6:47 pm
Former “Small Girl Unit” child soldier testified last week at the Charles Taylor trial, describing torture, rape and forced labor by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in 1994.
For the trial official transcript, click here.
Here is a summary from CharlesTaylorTrial.org:
The 66th prosecution witness said her primary school was hosting their annual athletics meet when the rebels struck rudely interrupting it. She said she was raped by the rebels who abandoned her in the bush and was later discovered by the then RUF patrol commander whom she identified as “O.C. Blood” who took her along with him…
Edna said she underwent a 2-week training in a camp around Buedu together with 50 other captives trained by training instructor Monica Pearson whom, the witness alleged, spoke Liberian English. She narrated how she used to carry a gun even though she was very young. ‘Because I was very small, the gun had a belt and at any time I wanted to use the gun I would just take the gun, put it somewhere higher than me and then I would go underneath it and put my head through the belt and then put it round me’…
After the training, Edna said she was enlisted in the Small Girls Unit (SGU) which, together with the Small Boys Unit (SBU), comprised young girls and boys aged between 10 and 13 years, captured and conscripted by the rebels. Edna pointed out that rebel commanders used the SBUs as security guards who carried guns wherever their bosses went, and the SGUs as house help to the wives of the rebels…
Filed under: C. Taylor Trial, Girl Soldiers, Intl Criminal Ct, Sierra Leone , charles taylor trial, child soldier, Human Rights, International Criminal Court, Liberia, SBU, SGU, Sierra Leone, United Nations, War
September 24, 2008 • 8:59 am
On Friday at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Liberia Thematic Hearing for Children in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County, Libera a former child soldier testified of his recruitment into Charles Taylor’s army in 2003. According to his testimony from the Inquirer:
at age 9 he was recruited along with other children by former government militia commander RolandDuo around their 72nd, Somalia Drive residence to become bodyguards. According to a TRC release, he said they were used by Duo and other commanders to execute captives and to loot stores in and around the Monrovia.
From AllAfrica.com, here is an explanation of the TRC Hearing Process:
The TRC was agreed upon in the August 2003 peace agreement and created by the TRC Act of 2005. The TRC was established to “promote national peace, security, unity and reconciliation,” and at the same time make it possible to hold perpetrators accountable for gross human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law that occurred in Liberia between January 1979 and October 2003.
A key mandate of the Commission is to hear stories from all parts of the population of Liberia, including from children. Interestingly, the hearings are public and part of the mandate of the hearings includes public discussion and debate. It does sound like there are allowances for the children to meet privately with only the commissioners, but nevertheless, it must be ensured that the children are fully protected. This has been an issue before in the Charles Taylor Trial, where former child soldiers were not given adequate protections due to the fact that they were now adults.
Filed under: C. Taylor Trial, Laws, Treaties, Sierra Leone , Africa, charles taylor trial, child soldier, law, news, War
