Introduction
The following photographs were taken in Sierra Leone in May and June 2000, after the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) took 500 United Nations peacekeepers hostage and reignited the country's nine-year-old civil war.  Human Rights Watch researchers immediately began gathering testimonies from fleeing civilians, and soon established that the RUF had returned to its old tactics:abducting children, raping young girls, murdering innocent people, looting property, and cutting off the arms and legs of civilians.  Human Rights Watch continues to press for an international criminal tribunal to bring the perpetrators of these brutal abuses to justice.  We also investigate and publicize abuses committed by pro-government forces, who have indiscriminately bombed civilian-populated areas and summarily executed suspected RUF rebels.

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