Willow's Pagan Place

The nine-year insurgency led by Corporal Foday Sankoh and his rebel 
Revolutionary United Front (RUF) has inflicted unprecedented human
 rights abuses on the citizens of Sierra Leone.

Tens of thousands have been killed and thousands maimed. The RUF 
using an army of forcibly conscripted child soldiers has terrorized 
the population since the mid- 1990's. Former child soldiers say 
they were injected with cocaine before being sent into battle and 
they have been forced to kill, abduct, rape and maim thousands, including
 members of their own families. The RUF impose their reign of terror
 by hacking off the limbs of victims, including children and infants, with
 machetes. Their campaign has been financed through the mining and sale
 of diamonds from Sierra Leone's rich interior. Diamond smuggling has 
earned the rebels $10 billion in the last decade.

In January 1999, under pressure from the international community, the Sierra
 Leone Government and the RUF rebels signed the Lome Accords. In return
 for disarming and demobilizing, the RUF was given blanket amnesty and key
 government positions. In Late 1999 the United Nations began deploying a peacekeeping
 force.

On May 1, 2000, rebels of the RUF attacked Disarmament, Demobilization and 
Reintegration camps in central and eastern Sierra Leone, killing 4 UN peacekeepers
and detaining a number of others. The RUF abducted over 500 peacekeepers before
Government troops and a UN force consolidated control over the capitol Freetown and
other areas.

In early May, Sankoh disappeared following demonstrations outside his home. He was 
apprehended on May 18.  Since then the security situation in parts of Sierra Leone
 has remained in flux: rebels continue to fight the Sierra Leone army while releasing 
abducted UN peacekeepers. There is a growing body of evidence that the RUF continued
 to murder, mutilate and rape in the more remote parts of Sierra Leone
 following the Lome agreement.

A new bill in Congress-House Concurrent Resolution 323-calls on the UN Security
 Council to restrict the sale of diamonds by RUF rebels and expresses the sense
 of Congress that those persons who committed war crimes in Sierra Leone should
 be brought to justice.

Please cosponsor and support House Concurrent Resolution 323 to help prevent
the sale of diamonds by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels and bring
war criminals in Sierra Leone to justice.

The rebels have earned more than $10 Billion smuggling diamonds in the past
ten years and use thier profits to support a military responsible for gross human
rights violations.

The RUF has imposed a reign of terror by hacking off the limbs of victims, including
children and infants and forcibly conscripting child soldiers and by committing
other atrocities.

House Concurrent Resolution 323 will help prevent further human rights abuse
and will help support the rule of law.

Please contact your representative and ask them to cosponsor and support
House Concurrent Resolution 323 to prevent the RUF from financing its atrocities
through diamond sales and to bring war criminals to trial.

FAX
Call your representative's office and ask for the fax number.

WRITE
Representatve ____________________
US House of representatives                  
Washington DC, 20515