Revolutionary United Front Totally Explained

Everything about The Revolutionary United Front totally explained

The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was a rebel army that fought a failed ten-year insurrection in Sierra Leone, starting in 1991 and ending in 2002. It later developed into a political party, which existed until 2007.

Creation

When it began, it put forward the slogan, "No More Slaves, No More Masters. Power and Wealth to the People."
   While its goal was clearly to overthrow the government of Sierra Leone, the RUF gave little indication of what sort of government would replace it. The group didn't advocate Marxism or any similar leftist ideology, nor did it advocate extreme nationalism or Fascism. It also didn't claim to be a force fighting for a certain ethnic group or region.
   At one point, during ongoing peace negotiations in 1995, RUF published a pamphlet entitled "Footpaths to Democracy: Toward a New Sierra Leone", which contained some rhetoric references to social justice and pan-Africanism.
   The RUF was created by Foday Sankoh, of Temne and Lokko background, and two allies, Abu Kanu and Rashid Mansaray, with substantial assistance from Charles Taylor of Liberia.
   At first, the RUF was popular with Sierra Leoneans, many of whom resented a Freetown elite seen as corrupt and looked forward to promised free education and health care and equitable sharing of diamond revenues. However, the RUF developed a reputation internationally for enormous cruelty during its decade-long struggle.

Coup

Foday Sankoh didn't stand by his earlier promises of equitably sharing of diamond revenues and used these funds to buy arms for Charles Taylor and himself.
With the diamond mines under the control of the rebel group, the RUF became singularly focused on protecting its resource base.

Child Soldiers

There were many child soldiers in the RUF, up to 23,000 at one point. Most were used for attacks on villages and on guard duty at diamond fields. Today, about 20,000 are still left serving in the military of Sierra Leone.The RUF made extensive use of child soldiers, using horrific methods to numb their new recruits to barbarity.
Thousands of abducted boys and girls were forced to serve as soldiers or as prostitutes, Guerrillas frequently carved the initials "RUF" on their chests, and officers reportedly rubbed cocaine into open cuts on their troops to make them maniacal and fearless.

Atrocities

The RUF was notorious for severing the limbs of those victims it didn't murder, particularly children. Brandishing machetes, RUF rebels amputated the hands, arms, and legs of tens of thousands of Sierra Leoneans.
The RUF indicated that the reason for these actions was that amputees could no longer mine diamonds, which might be used to support government troops.
The election slogan at that time was that the people 'had power in their hands', so the RUF would hack the hands off to prevent voting.

Foreign Intervention

In March 1997, Sankoh fled to Nigeria, where he was put under house arrest, and then imprisoned. From this time until Sankoh's release in 1999, Sam Bockarie performed the task of director of military operations of the RUF. In 1999, an intervention by the USA, the United Kingdom, and other countries as well as the UN resulted in the signing of the Lomé Peace Accord on 7 July, 1999. Sankoh was allowed to return under the conditions of the agreement. However fighting again broke out, and the United Nations sent peacekeeping troops in hopes of integrating the RUF into a new national army. This intervention failed as well, and by 2000 they held 500 UN peacekeepers hostage until their release was negotiated by Taylor. The British and Guineans finally sent in a small professional force in 2001. The RUF was routed following several crushing defeats at the hands of the British forces and the revolution ended. Sankoh was captured by a mob and handed to the British where he was indicted for multiple war crimes by a UN-backed court. In 2003 Sankoh died in prison before the trial took place. In July 2007, RUFP merged with the All People's Congress.

Cultural References

Law & Order episode "Blood Money" was heavily mounted around the strife in Sierra Leone and the traffic in conflict diamonds. Most recently, the RUF has been featured in the movies Blood Diamond and Lord of War. It has also been featured in the book "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" by Ishmael Beah.

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