Research journal six by Carli Swisher

The topic I had was the R.U.F which stands for the Revolutionary United Front. This group is a from Sierra Leone that is self funding largely through the extraction of diamonds. They fought a ten year war in this country against the soldiers. A man by the name of Foday Sankoh started this group because of the government. He hated that the Samuel Doe's government had, had power for 24 years and their goal was to  end it. He got a group of men on his side and they started going form  town to town killing everyone in their sites. They would take over diamond areas, get pushed out by the government and then take it over again. If the government caught you and they accused you of being in collaboration with the rebels you were jailed and sometimes killed. If the rebels knew that you weren't with them they would torture you. They would cut off slowly a hand, genitals, feet and ears. If you were a girl they would sometimes rape you in front of your family. There were some that would be soldiers by day and rebels by night and what they would do was fight as soldiers and then blame it on the rebels. These men were called sobels. After this started to happen the rebels would raid towns wearing stolen army uniforms. The rebels would get young men and turn them into rebels. The rebels had about 3-4 thousand and small groups of 5-6 hundred. The problem the army was having was that about 20% of their troops were disloyal.
In 1995 the government had called upon the Executive Outcomes which was a security that had successfully repelled rebels in other countries. After lots of attacks form the EO the rebels ceased-fire and sought for peace talks with the government. But then attacked a jail where their leader was held and it all started again. They attacked more towns and even attacked Freetown in 1999.
In 2001 reports of their abuse had decreased and things were changing. Only 49 of the rebels were charged with 16 counts of murder and 54 counts of shooting with intent to commit murder. There were only a few who went to trial in front od a judge in 2002. Their trials were postponed and looked at again in 2003 of the five people who were charged two died before the trial. One of them was Foday Sankoh.  Although they are not around and more they did a lot of damage while they were in the group. These men were heartless and only cared for themselves. They destroyed families, houses, towns, and the kids the people of Sierrs Leone. 

www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/ruf.htm