A Long Way Gon, by Ishmael Beah

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The novel A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah is a book about the civil way in Sierra Leone which took place during the early 1990's all the way up until the early 2000's. During this civil war many human right were violated and some were even taken away from the innocent citizens of Sierra Leone by a group of men and children that called themselves the rebels. They were rebelling against the Sierra Leone government and their ways of showing their anger was by raiding villages and brutally attacking whoever was in the town at the time of attack. Then before they left the town they would burn down all the houses and buildings to ensure that no one could return to the village and survive. Some of the rights that were taken away from these citizens by the rebels were the right to life and the right to food and shelter for all. The right to life was taken away from thousands people during the civil war in Sierra Leone. The right to life was taken away from citizens by the rebels and towards the end even by the Sierra Leone Army. The right to life was being violated on several different occasions because innocent people who had not done anything wrong were being shot and killed, raped, beaten to death, stabbed, some had their throats slit which actually left some decapitated and the ones that were captured were forced to join their army or they would be brutally treated until their death. One event from the book that shows the right to life right being violated that really stood out to me was when Ishmael was in a throat slitting competition. The competition was to see who slits throats best. The rebels captured three men during the last raid. Then they tied them up and choose three boys to slit their throats and whosoever victim died first was the winner. This was a horrible and brutal event from the book to read about. The right to food and shelter for all was taken

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