Keeping it short (nothing to do with race-ism):
Not that we want to open/ re-open a hornet's nest about the so called
Rebel War in Sierra Leone (1991-2002)
For now, the question is, can there be truth and reconciliation,
without Justice?
Wole Soyinka philosophies about this in his " The Burden of Memory,
the Muse of Forgiveness "
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=The+Burden+of+Memory%2C+the+Muse+of+Forgiveness
Should we forever question the effort of the International community
to bring to Justice those who bore the greatest responsibility for the
atrocities committed in Sierra Leone?
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=special+court+in+sierra+leone
Of course people like Lansana Gberie have not been alone in
criticizing the Special Court or being especially vociferously
against Chief Hinga Norman the Kamajor leader being arraigned before
it.
I know what I know and all the details of what I know are true.
In the so called civil war in Sierra Leone, both the RUF and the
Kamajors committed atrocities.
As we all know, there were several phases to the so called eleven
years long civil war in Sierra Leone and in the later stages the most
terrible of which was called the " cut-han" stage – the most brutal
stage, when the RUF took to amputating its victims' hands, arms ,
legs, ears etc which further alieneted the RUF. The man you want to
bring in, Pastor Pat Robertson is so far, far away from any of all
that. Must we always blame the Oyibo for everything, including a
Sierra Leone brother killing his own brother - for profit? Perhaps it
was the devil made him do it?
( I have a three hour documentary video with one Kelfala Marah
(Sierra Leone goalkeeper) which shows atrocities from both sides –
something much more graphic than anything Sorious Samura's camera
could capture or that CNN could ever possibly show.)
Other participants in the war were Executive Outcomes and Sandlines
International. Perhaps being much nearer at hand, you could at least
have the courage to want to summon them to Special Court proceedings
and not take an easy shot at the Rev. Pat Robertson?
In the words of the special chief Prosecutor David Crane, the purpose
of the UN Sierra Leone Government sponsored Special Court was to
bring to Justice those who bore "the greatest responsibility" for the
atrocities committed in Sierra Leone
http://www.google.com/#q=Special+Prosecutor+David+Crane
The ECOMORG forces mostly comprising Nigerian troops under the
command of Maxwell Khobe played the most significant role in defeating
the RUF, after which British intervention cleaned up and perhaps took
a greater part of the credit.
Do you disagree with any of the above?
On Jul 4, 10:10 pm, Abdul Karim Bangura <th...@earthlink.net> wrote:
> That was almost four years ago, Baba Mzuri Yaya. Let's just say that my former classmates who were the Chief of Staff and Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and a former PhD student who ran the White House HBCU initiative took care of the BOZOs that originated the nonsense.-----Original Message-----
> From: futatoro
> Sent: Jul 4, 2010 4:05 PM
> To: Abdul Karim Bangura
> Cc: leonenet@lists.umbc.edu, USA Africa Dialogue Series , FOIS
> Subject: Re: [Leonenet] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Why doesn't Naomi Campbell want to testify about her 'blood diamond'?
> Send me the email from the White House so that I can tell them to go screw themselves. I think George Bush, Chaney, Powell and your cobra face girlfriend Con should all be tried and sentence to death for genocide and war crimes.Yaya FanusieOn Sun, Jul 4, 2010 at 3:59 PM, Abdul Karim Bangura<theai@earthlink.net>wrote:Where have you been? Or have you been drinking omohlay to miss my numerous postings stating my vehement opposition to the illegal wars in the Middle East and the names I have called these war criminals the past many years, leading to an E-mail and warning from the White House?-----Original Message-----
> From: futatoro
> Sent: Jul 4, 2010 3:39 PM
> To:leonenet@lists.umbc.edu, Abdul Karim Bangura
>
> Cc: USA Africa Dialogue Series , FOIS
> Subject: Re: [Leonenet] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Why doesn't Naomi Campbell want to testify about her 'blood diamond'?
>
>
>
> State the names of the biggest criminals of the West and Middle East if you have balls.
>
> Yaya
>
> On Sun, Jul 4, 2010 at 3:24 PM, Abdul Karim Bangura<theai@earthlink.net>wrote:
>
>
>
> What Utter Racism!
> Sister Naomi Campbell should not honor the stupid subpoena until the stupid special court/CUT subpoenas the thieving and lying Evangelical Pastor Pat Robertson who was more involved and profited the most from our people's blood in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The racism of these stupid courts/CUTs continue. Why not set up similar courts/CUTs and try the biggest war criminals in the West and the Middle East? I will continue to fight against these stupid courts/CUTs everywhere and every time I get the opportunity until they are either made fair or eliminated.
> In Peace Always,
> Abdul Karim Bangura/.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hetty ter Haar
> Sent: Jul 4, 2010 11:49 AM
> To: USA Africa Dialogue Series
> Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Why doesn't Naomi Campbell want to testify about her 'blood diamond'?
> Why doesn't Naomi Campbell want to testify about her 'blood diamond'?
> The supermodel is resisting calls to give evidence at the Hague trial
> of former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor
> Elizabeth Day
> Sunday July 4 2010
> The Observerhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/jul/04/naomi-campbell-testify-blood-diamond
> Over the years we have become accustomed to seeing Naomi Campbell in
> court. In 2000 she pleaded guilty to attacking her assistant with a
> telephone in a hotel room. Six years later she admitted hitting her
> housekeeper with a jewel-encrusted mobile phone, causing an injury to
> the head that required several stitches. In 2008 she was arrested at
> London's Heathrow airport on suspicion of assaulting a police officer
> after one of her bags was lost. Then, earlier this year, a limousine
> driver filed a report with the New York City Police Department
> claiming that Campbell had slapped and punched him.
>
>
>
> Campbell's court appearances, like the blooming of the cherry blossom
> or the migration of swallows, seem to have become a regular occurrence
> in the calendar. But not even the most seasoned Campbell watcher could
> have predicted that she would one day be pursued by the courts in The
> Hague.
> And yet last week the model was ordered to give evidence [http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/may/20/naomi-campbell-blood-diamond-liberia"
> title="last week the model was ordered to give evidence] at the war
> crimes trial of Liberia's ex-president, Charles Taylor. The UN-backed
> special court for Sierra Leone issued a subpoena forcing Campbell to
> appear after allegations surfaced that she was given a so-called
> "blood diamond" by Taylor at a dinner party held by Nelson Mandela in
> South Africa in 1997.
> The former dictator is accused of selling diamonds to fund a
> bloodthirsty war that cost thousands of lives. It was one of these
> uncut diamonds that Taylor is alleged to have given the supermodel.
> The actress Mia Farrow, who was a guest at the same dinner party, has
> claimed that Campbell told her she was interrupted in the middle of
> the night by some men saying they were representatives of Taylor
> before handing over a "huge diamond".
> Carole White, Campbell's agent at the time, says that she witnessed
> the event. "I was there," she says, speaking from the London
> headquarters of Premier Model Management, the company that she founded
> and that represented Campbell for 17 years. "He did give it to her. It
> was a small, uncut diamond. I am totally surprised that Naomi hasn't
> admitted it."
> But Campbell has consistently refused to volunteer her own testimony
> to the tribunal, furiously walking out of a recent television
> interview with ABC News when the reporter had the temerity to ask
> about the allegations. It seemed a strange reaction for a woman who,
> having turned 40 earlier this year, has tried to distance herself from
> a youth-obsessed modelling industry and reinvent herself as a charity
> campaigner.
> She is a "global ambassador" for the White Ribbon Alliance, which aims
> to raise awareness of the number of women who die each year following
> complications arising from pregnancy and childbirth. She has also
> campaigned on behalf of Aids charities, and raised money to tackle
> global poverty. In February she staged a catwalk show at London
> fashion week to support victims of the Haiti earthquake. So
> assiduously has Campbell developed her charity profile that she now
> counts Sarah Brown, the wife of the former prime minister, as a close
> friend.
> And it is true that, despite her flaws, Campbell remains a role model
> for many in the fashion world for her trailblazing determination to
> put black models on an equal footing with their white counterparts.
> Campbell was the first African-Caribbean woman to make the cover of
> French Vogue and is one of the few models to speak out about racism in
> the industry. Steve Pope, editor of the Voice, the weekly newspaper
> aimed at Britain's black community, says that Campbell is a pioneer.
> "It has always been an unspoken rule that if you're a fashion magazine
> editor and you put a black model on the cover, you lose sales. Naomi
> turned that around and showed that, if you put her on the cover, if
> anything it would boost sales. Unlike some other models who have kept
> quiet about discrimination, she has actually started speaking out
> about it."
> It is hard to reconcile this Naomi Campbell ? the pioneer, role
> model, tireless charity campaigner ? with the petulant, aggressive
> woman who lashes out by throwing mobile phones at assistants and
> refuses to testify at a war crimes tribunal apparently in a fit of
> pique. But those close to Campbell say her behaviour is fairly typical
> for a woman who can flip without warning from one extreme to another.
> "It's most definitely her temperament," says White. "She's a Gemini
> and she has two sides. One side is this generous, intelligent, witty,
> funny and vulnerable individual, but the bad side negates a lot of
> those things. The bad side is very self-destructive, with no self-
> control. She doesn't care about the consequences when she's like that,
> for herself or other people."
> White adds bluntly that working with the model was "a bloody
> nightmare? She was very hard work, unpredictable and you never quite
> knew if she was going to turn up. I...
>
> read more »
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