War+Crimes

War Crimes What are War Crimes? For a little over 200 years, political figures and law officials have been trying to distinguish the ways in which nations should fight wars. Limitations have been put in place by these figures as to what actions nations are able to carry out during their war efforts. Violations of these limitations are known as war crimes.

Examples of war crimes are as follows: · Torture · Cruel or Inhuman Treatment · Performing Biological Experiments · Murder · Mutilation · Intentionally Causing Serious Bodily Injury · Sexual Assault or Abuse ·  Taking Hostages

However, one of the biggest conflicts when dealing with the prosecutions of war crime offenders is how they should be tried. Recently, the United Nations has taken up many of the cases involving war crimes, but in some cases, such as Charles Taylor’s, the U.N. allows the nation in which the crimes were committed or who the crimes affected most to try the offender separately.

Charles Taylor From 1989 to 1997, Charles Taylor was the leader of a rebel group in Liberia. This group was known as the National Patriotic Front of Liberia. Their goal was to overthrow the then current government leader Samuel K. Doe. Taylor then became the president of Liberia in 1997 through 2003, until he fled the country due to the threat of rebel forces. In 2006, Charles Taylor was taken into custody by the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Charles Taylor was arrested because during his time in power, he is believed to have committed an overwhelming amount of war crimes. He has been officially charged with 11 different war crimes. These war crimes include: · Terrorizing Civilians · Murder · Outrages on Personal Dignity · Cruel Treatment · Looting · Murder · Rape · Sexual Slavery <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 20pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· Mutilating and Beating <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 20pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· Enslavement <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 20pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">·  Recruiting and Using Child Soldiers

One of Charles Taylor’s former commanders testified that Taylor ordered human sacrifices as a celebration of his new power once he was elected. He also mentioned that Taylor once buried a pregnant woman alive. Taylor is also being accused of forcing his soldiers to commit cannibalistic acts as a tactic to frighten his enemies. If found guilty of these crimes, he will most likely spend the rest of his life in prison. As far as the death penalty goes, there has been no mention of whether or not he would receive that sentence. His sentence would be held in the United Kingdom and all of the property he attained from his time in power would be returned to its rightful owner or the State of Sierra Leone.

Charles Taylor still maintains his innocence.

Foday Sankoh Sankoh was the leader of the Revolutionary United Front, which began the Sierra Leonean civil war in 1991. During the civil war, around 200,000 deaths occurred. Sankoh’s army was known mostly for rapes of women and children and mutilation of children during their violent tears through villages. One woman recalled being raped 10 times by a group of RUF soldiers who stormed through her village. Because of this terrible act, her husband now views her as barren and forces her to leave her home. Many of these women have testified against both Taylor and Sankoh. Sankoh was also allies with Charles Taylor which allowed him to have a strong hand in the Sierra Leone Civil War. Sankoh was finally arrested in 2000 after some of his soldiers were ordered to gun down protestors outside of his home. After his arrest, he was handed over to British custody and was soon charged by the U.N. for 17 different counts of war crimes. The different counts of war crimes included rape, sexual slavery, extermination, and mutilation. While awaiting trial, Sankoh suffered a stoke and soon thereafter died from the stroke’s complications. Following his death, David Crane, a UN war crimes chief prosecutor, said Sankoh’s death granted him “a peaceful end that he denied to so many others.”

<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Sources

// The Trial of Charles Taylor //. Retrieved December 18, 2009, from []

// Foday Sankoh: The Cruel Rebel. // Retrieved December 18, 2009 from []

// War Crimes. // Retrieved December 18, 2009 from Cornell University's Law School Website []