At the end of April, a United nations Special Court located in the Hague, found former Liberian President Charles Taylor guilty due to the role he performed in Sierra Leone’s eleven-year civil war. The exchange bloodstream diamonds was the focus from the trial, which shown how natural resource exploitation can actually fund armed conflict and result in the abuse of human legal rights. By Floreana Miesen

Like a Liberian digital rebel commander, Taylor was fighting Liberia’s dictator Samuel Doe in early 1990s. Eventually, Sierra Leone’s one-party regime under President Frederick Saidu Momoh sent troops in Doe’s support. Taylor won in Liberia and, in March 1991, he started supporting the militia RUF (Revolutionary U . s . Front) in Sierra Leone. Eleven many years of civil war adopted. High unemployment and also the militarisation of society boosted people’s the likelihood of violence.

Thousands fled from rape and murder. Greater than 5,000 child soldiers were intentionally employed. Many received drugs and compelled to commit barbarities. First and foremost, however, the RUF grew to become noted for mass mutilation. Based on a quote through the humanitarian agency medico worldwide, the rebels hacked off braches of approximately 20,000 civilians.

Revenues from bloodstream diamonds offered to finance terrorism. Based on the United nations court, Taylor purchased the RUF to achieve control of the mines, exchanged diamonds for weapons he imported from Europe, and therefore facilitated arms smuggling.

Ultimately, world war 2 involved the charge of natural sources, argues medico worldwide. Rebels benefited, and thus did Sierra Leone’s government and also the gemstone industry. Through the war’s finish, the RUF was generating a yearly Twenty Five Dollars million to $ 125 million by doing this. In 2001, peace negotiations were conducted pressurized in the United nations, and also the war ended twelve months later.

In 2002, the Kimberley Process (KP) introduced an worldwide certification system for conflict-free diamonds. From 2003 on, some conveying countries have dedicated to stopping the exchange diamonds from conflict regions. However, the KP faces critique. Within the look at some civil society organisations, it unsuccessful this year due to neglect of condition violence and inhumane mining conditions (see D+C/E+Z 2011/09, p. 351). Another reason for critique could be that the KP lacked control by a completely independent party. Therefore, the civil society organisation Global Witness quit the KP.

Traumatised people

Today, Sierra Leone reaches peace, however the country still bears deep scars. The most recent Human Development Index (HDI) rated Sierra Leone number 180 of 187 countries. Nearly twenty percent of kids die before their fifth birthday. No more than forty percent of adults over fifteen years can read. And almost two-thirds of those survive under One Dollar.25 purchasing power each day.

Up to now, a large number of survivors lack medical or psychosocial support. The lack of compensation reinforces the traumas of war. As a result of general amnesty in the finish from the war, many perpetrators of criminal violence reside in close closeness for their victims today. The militia people take advantage of impunity and reintegration programmes, however the condition isn’t having to pay sufficient focus on their victims.

Sierra Leone has become a comparatively stable country.

Ernest Bai Koroma is its elected president, and the government is focusing on reforms within the resource sector. Nevertheless, you may still find complaints about slavery-type working conditions in mines, corruption and hard to rely on rule of law. Clients are still not trans­parent. Distrust prevails. For any lengthy time, the gemstone export tax in Sierra Leone was just 3 %. It had been only elevated to fifteen % in the finish of 2009.

In Liberia, that also depends upon resource exports, elections lately confirmed President Ellen Manley Sirleaf at work. She’s led to making the goods sector more transparent. Liberia was among the first two states from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which grew to become compliant using its innovative policy standards (see interview with former EITI Chair Peter Eigen within this edition).

Liberia passed its Natural Resource Transparency Law in ’09. What the law states necessitates the publication of contracts and transactions within the natural resource sector. However, Jonathan Gant of worldwide Witness views Liberia’s condition capacities too weak to really control the gemstone trade. Within this situation, he states, the KP is really a helpful accessory for government action, but Liberian legislation isn’t usual for the location. In Liberia, furthermore, diamonds play a small role. Iron ore is of great importance and greater economic relevance.

In cooperation with worldwide organisations such as the World Bank, the Liberian government is promoting a mapping tool to facilitate the monitoring from the a large number of small formerly granted mining concessions. “From what we should gather, capacity inside the Ministry remains low, however, and contains proven nearly impossible to find Ministry staff from Monrovia to visit out in to these little towns which mining concession areas,” states Gant.

In 2003, the United nations Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) indicted Charles Taylor. This spring, he was discovered guilty in most 11 charges – including war crimes and crimes against humanity. Lucrative faces a existence sentence in great britan. In Sierra Leone and Liberia, the reactions ranged from quiet pleasure to jubilation. Critics from the judgement, however, state that Taylor’s guilt wasn’t proven certainly in individual cases, the norm for criminal trials.