The Sierra Leonean case also reveals the dynamic of tactical interaction or the reciprocation of child soldier use by the opposition in order to counter the power of the tactic.7 Further, the war in Sierra Leone exposes a deeper dynamic, that of social disrupture, or the intentional attempt to tear apart pre-existing social structures. [...] The armed conflict “formally ended on 11 January 2002, with the symbolic ceremonial closure of the last disarmament centre in Kailahun district, where the war had begun in March 1991.”40 Roots of Child Soldier Use in the Sierra Leone Civil War Children were included in the ranks of the RUF from the very start of the conflict in Sierra Leone, and the idea to use them in battle germinated during eve. [...] The West Side boys were a “splinter group” of the AFRC that emerged in 1999 and lasted until 2000.72 The interactions between the government and the RUF, the government and the AFRC and the government and the Kamajor all involved child soldier use on both sides. [...] This claim (which is unlikely to be definitively decided by the SCSL because the origin of the RUF is not covered in the indictment period of the trial proceedings) has been at the heart of the difficulty in reaching consensus about the character of the RUF and, even more important, about the nature and purpose of the so-called rebel war in Sierra Leone. [...] This article will revisit the beginning of the debate, both in order to see how consistent the points of contention have been for the past 15 years or so, as well as to evaluate the new evidence that has been brought up to illuminate the issues, principally by the report of the Sierra Leone’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 2004 and the data produced by SCSL over the years.
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- Pages
- 83
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- Sierra Leone
