TOMBODU, Sierra Leone (AP) — Rebels captured Samuel Komba, tied him up with more than a dozen other villagers and set them on fire. Badly burned, he broke free, only to be caught by fighters who tried to chop off his right hand. The 58-year-old farmer, one of only two survivors of that attack more than a decade ago, says he takes solace from ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor's conviction by an international court Thursday for his role in Sierra Leone's brutal war. "The whole world will know today what Charles Taylor did, and we are happy," Komba said from this rural village, where many who survived the fighting were enslaved as diamond miners.
However, Liberia and Madame President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf face numerous challenges.UNMIL’s US$ 524 million budget for 2010/2011 exceeded that of the Liberian Government for the same period. Yet, it even was worse a few years earlier. When President Sirleaf took office, in 2006, the national budget amounted to only US$ 80 million (yes indeed, eighty millions US dollars). Over the years, Sirleaf has managed to substantially raise the budget and the Liberian Legislature voted a US$ 550 million budget for FY 2011/2011. Not much for a country of 3 million people and a war-wrecked economy. Fortunately, President Sirleaf’s international reputation has resulted in Liberia being one of the world’s most popular donor darlings. International aid to Liberia was estimated at about US$ 1 billion in 2010, including UNMIL. http://blog.liberiapastandpresent.org/
.......Are they turning it up a notch Family, seems like it...
Hunting Warlords: The Fight for Justice
After a six year legal battle, former Liberian president Charles Taylor became the first head of state to be convicted of war crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court at the Hague in the Netherlands.
Mr. Dicker agrees that the court moves too slowly but he believes that "accountability through criminal trials, even 10-15 years after the crimes occurred, is essential in creating the conditions for a durable peace."
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