Big decision!
Now i'm waiting to hear a job result of Canadian Banks in legal department. The reason i would love to work there is about salary(good) and new experience. I have to wait about two more weeks, which seems to be so long to me.
If i will be accepted, i'll work there for a big while before i jump to another step. I might try to get scholarship for US,UK or wherever. or I would like to intern in any other international tribunal like ECCC. Then i hope i can hunt a job for UN :)
But if i will not, i have to decide whether i will go to Sierra Leone for internship.
But if i will not, i have to decide whether i will go to Sierra Leone for internship.
Positive: 1. I have a friend, Erin who have worked at ECCC together, and after she finished the internship, she got a job for UN in Sierra Leone so it'd be wonderful if i decide to go. 2. Human Rights is damp bad so i would like to see in real. 3. it'd be really useful and valuable experiences for me to go university at anywhere.
Negative: Security is quiet bad though in the UN building is safe. 2. Family doesn't agree with me about that. 3. i have to finde a sponsor for my living their and air ticket. 4....i don't know!!!
History: Current Situation
The deadline for disarmament was set for the 15th of December 1999. It passed with less than a quarter of the estimated 45 000 combatants turning up and surrendering their weapons at the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Rehabilitation (DDR) assembly points run by the United Nation's Peace Keepers.
• Towards the end of January 2000 the West African states sponsoring the regional intervention force, ECOMOG, decided to maintain a substantial part of the force in the country until the United Nations Observer Mission to Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL) is in position and suitably mandated to maintain the peace. The UN soldiers arrived in Freetown at the beginning of December 1999, but funding and transportation difficulties have delayed their complete deployment. Despite the cease-fire and amnesty, human rights organisations in Sierra Leone are still reporting atrocities and harassment in areas where rebel forces not participating in the DDR are still armed.
• With the slow progress of the DDR programme, the rebel factions have not released the large numbers of abducted children thought to be held in their rural strongholds. An estimated 10 to 15 000 children between the ages of six and eighteen were kidnapped during the 8-year long war. Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) working with the issue have managed to negotiate the release of small groups of these children - 400 being the latest group released by AFRC (Armed Forced Ruling Council) rebels in the Port Loko area at the end of January 2000.
• Tense with political jockeying, the situation in Sierra Leone remains centred around its diamonds. On the 24th January, rebel leader Foday Sankoh (Revolutionary United Front), now Minister for Energy and Mineral affairs revoked all mining and trading licences and declared that anyone caught dealing in diamonds would be prosecuted. With a weak police force and almost non-existent judiciary, the threat is unlikely to be effective in curtailing the trade than any previous measures.
HISTORY
• Sierra Leone was a British colony to which freed slaves returned in the late 1700's. They formed a social class which hardly integrated with the indigenous people.
• After Independence in 1961 successive governments were dominated by a small political elite who exclusively profited from the lucrative trade in diamonds. Little of this national income trickled down to benefit the rest of the population.
RECENT PAST
• Reacting to this system of exclusive patronage, a political outsider, Foday Sankoh, formed the RUF (Revolutionary United Front), and started an armed insurrection. Rebel leader and later president of neighbouring Liberia, Charles Taylor, backed Sankoh and the RUF.
• Dissatisfied with the government, the military took power in 1991. By 1996, foreign and domestic pressure forced the provisional governing council to hold general elections despite the bush war. A civilian, Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, became the first freely elected President for 34 years.
• Within a year a group of renegade officers forced his government to flee the country. President Kabbah regained power in March 1998 with the assistance of foreign mercenaries and ECOMOG, an armed intervention force sponsored by ECOWAS (Economic Organization of West African States).
• The military junta retreated to the bush and became a second rebel faction. In uneasy co-operation with the RUF, the rebel armies financed their participation in the war by mining and selling diamonds through Liberia.
• A surprise rebel attack in January 1999 temporarily wrestled half of Freetown from ECOMOG. The insurgents destroyed much of the town before being beaten back.
• In July 1999 all parties agreed to a regionally brokered cease-fire signed in Lome. It included an amnesty for all the crimes and human rights abuses committed during the war and a framework for the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of all participants in the conflict.
• The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution in October 1999 to provide an armed peace keeping force. It will replace the largely Nigerian based ECOMOG forces, seen by the rebels as being party to the conflict.
PRESENT
• Less than a quarter of the 45000 combatants have surrendered their weapons at the designated assembly points in compliance with the disarmament program.
• Human rights agencies in Sierra Leone report continued abuses and say that widespread banditry is increasing throughout the areas still controlled by the rebel factions.
• The rebel armies have surrendered very few of the estimated 10 000 children abducted during the war.
• All diamond mining and trading licenses have been revoked and all diamond trading activities outlawed. However, much of the diamond region is in the hands of recalcitrant RUF rebels who are unlikely to halt their mining operations.
If i will be accepted, i'll work there for a big while before i jump to another step. I might try to get scholarship for US,UK or wherever. or I would like to intern in any other international tribunal like ECCC. Then i hope i can hunt a job for UN :)
But if i will not, i have to decide whether i will go to Sierra Leone for internship.
But if i will not, i have to decide whether i will go to Sierra Leone for internship.
Positive: 1. I have a friend, Erin who have worked at ECCC together, and after she finished the internship, she got a job for UN in Sierra Leone so it'd be wonderful if i decide to go. 2. Human Rights is damp bad so i would like to see in real. 3. it'd be really useful and valuable experiences for me to go university at anywhere.
Negative: Security is quiet bad though in the UN building is safe. 2. Family doesn't agree with me about that. 3. i have to finde a sponsor for my living their and air ticket. 4....i don't know!!!
History: Current Situation
The deadline for disarmament was set for the 15th of December 1999. It passed with less than a quarter of the estimated 45 000 combatants turning up and surrendering their weapons at the Disarmament, Demobilisation and Rehabilitation (DDR) assembly points run by the United Nation's Peace Keepers. • Towards the end of January 2000 the West African states sponsoring the regional intervention force, ECOMOG, decided to maintain a substantial part of the force in the country until the United Nations Observer Mission to Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL) is in position and suitably mandated to maintain the peace. The UN soldiers arrived in Freetown at the beginning of December 1999, but funding and transportation difficulties have delayed their complete deployment. Despite the cease-fire and amnesty, human rights organisations in Sierra Leone are still reporting atrocities and harassment in areas where rebel forces not participating in the DDR are still armed.
• With the slow progress of the DDR programme, the rebel factions have not released the large numbers of abducted children thought to be held in their rural strongholds. An estimated 10 to 15 000 children between the ages of six and eighteen were kidnapped during the 8-year long war. Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) working with the issue have managed to negotiate the release of small groups of these children - 400 being the latest group released by AFRC (Armed Forced Ruling Council) rebels in the Port Loko area at the end of January 2000.
• Tense with political jockeying, the situation in Sierra Leone remains centred around its diamonds. On the 24th January, rebel leader Foday Sankoh (Revolutionary United Front), now Minister for Energy and Mineral affairs revoked all mining and trading licences and declared that anyone caught dealing in diamonds would be prosecuted. With a weak police force and almost non-existent judiciary, the threat is unlikely to be effective in curtailing the trade than any previous measures.
HISTORY• Sierra Leone was a British colony to which freed slaves returned in the late 1700's. They formed a social class which hardly integrated with the indigenous people.
• After Independence in 1961 successive governments were dominated by a small political elite who exclusively profited from the lucrative trade in diamonds. Little of this national income trickled down to benefit the rest of the population.
RECENT PAST
• Reacting to this system of exclusive patronage, a political outsider, Foday Sankoh, formed the RUF (Revolutionary United Front), and started an armed insurrection. Rebel leader and later president of neighbouring Liberia, Charles Taylor, backed Sankoh and the RUF.
• Dissatisfied with the government, the military took power in 1991. By 1996, foreign and domestic pressure forced the provisional governing council to hold general elections despite the bush war. A civilian, Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, became the first freely elected President for 34 years.
• Within a year a group of renegade officers forced his government to flee the country. President Kabbah regained power in March 1998 with the assistance of foreign mercenaries and ECOMOG, an armed intervention force sponsored by ECOWAS (Economic Organization of West African States).
• The military junta retreated to the bush and became a second rebel faction. In uneasy co-operation with the RUF, the rebel armies financed their participation in the war by mining and selling diamonds through Liberia.
• A surprise rebel attack in January 1999 temporarily wrestled half of Freetown from ECOMOG. The insurgents destroyed much of the town before being beaten back.
• In July 1999 all parties agreed to a regionally brokered cease-fire signed in Lome. It included an amnesty for all the crimes and human rights abuses committed during the war and a framework for the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of all participants in the conflict.
• The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution in October 1999 to provide an armed peace keeping force. It will replace the largely Nigerian based ECOMOG forces, seen by the rebels as being party to the conflict.
PRESENT
• Less than a quarter of the 45000 combatants have surrendered their weapons at the designated assembly points in compliance with the disarmament program.
• Human rights agencies in Sierra Leone report continued abuses and say that widespread banditry is increasing throughout the areas still controlled by the rebel factions.
• The rebel armies have surrendered very few of the estimated 10 000 children abducted during the war.
• All diamond mining and trading licenses have been revoked and all diamond trading activities outlawed. However, much of the diamond region is in the hands of recalcitrant RUF rebels who are unlikely to halt their mining operations.
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