Moses Blah, former vice-president for Charles Taylor, testified briefly about child soldiers on May 14th (see this post for his earlier testimony), but during the following week – on May 20th – Defense brought the topic up again. Here is the relevant testimony (full transcript is here at charlestaylortrial.org): Def; Lets move to another topic. [...]

Yesterday, an article in the New York Times highlighted the new report on child soldiers by the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers – in section A of the paper (page 18). A quote: The number of conflicts in which children are used as soldiers has dropped sharply in the past four years, [...]

Moses Blah, former vice-president for Charles Taylor, testified this week from Wednesday through Friday. The prosecution team, specifically Chief Prosecutor Stephen Rapp, questioned him on the use of Small Boy Units (SBUs). On Wednesday, Blah testified on his capture by SBUs while in Liberia, awaiting an arms shipment for Taylor: While waiting for civilian trucks [...]

Here are selections from the testimony of a former child soldier at the Charles Taylor Trial Monday, May 5 in the Hague. His testimony covers: 1. His kidnapping and being “marked” by the rebels (meaning carving “RUF” initials into his skin): W: …When we were taken to the house next door, we were all locked [...]

A former child soldier testified today at the Charles Taylor Trial today, providing detailed accounts of his experiences after being captured by rebels and then forced to fight in the war in Sierra Leone. First, there was deliberation on the protections the former child soldier was entitled to for testifying (see entry on CharlesTaylorTrial.org: Judge [...]

The past few days at the Trial of Charles Taylor – see charlestaylortrial.org – has seen some important testimony relating to child soldiers – or Small Boy Units, as they have been referred to in the context of the civil war in Sierra Leone. See this previous post which provides background on the trial and [...]

Invisible Children is an organization that was developed after a small group of filmmakers from southern California traveled to Africa looking for a story to tell. These guys got more than they bargained for. They traveled to Uganda and started hearing stories about the “night commuters” – children who travel miles every night from their [...]

April 21, 2008 • 6:59 pm 0 Last month, an NPR story was broadcast on the issue of Liberian youth gangs in Philadelphia. The reporter, Jennifer Ludden, mostly spoke about children of refugees developing gangs to protect themselves from abuse and violence. In the brief report, it was easy to miss the reference to child [...]

One important blog to be aware of is CharlesTaylorTrial.org. Taylor is charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international law committed in Sierra Leone, for supporting rebels in that country who committed such crimes. Significantly, the statute establishing the Special Court of Sierra Leone includes a provision prohibiting conscription of [...]