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Angelina
Jolie Meets President Kabbah
By
Marian Samu
UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, Angelina Jolie, has
had audience with President Alhaji Dr. Ahmad
Tejan Kabbah at his Hill Station Office in Freetown.
Angelina
Jolie, a renowned film actress is in Sierra
Leone as a guest of WITNESS, an international
human rights organization which was charged
with responsibility of producing a video version
of the report of the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC). She is in Freetown to discuss
with government on how far the recommendations
of the report have been addressed.
Speaking
to President in his office, Angelina Jolie said
she was here to give support to the TRC report
and to find out how far government had gone
on with addressing the recommendations of the
report.
President
Kabbah assured his guest that government is
treating the report very seriously, and that
the report was already with the Attorney- General
and Minister of Justice to prepare a draft Government
White Paper on the TRC report for consideration
and approval by government. President Kabbah
informed Angelina Jolie that the Chairman of
the TRC had intimated government of some corrections
that had to be made to the original report submitted
to government and said that it would be only
after receiving the corrected version from the
Chairman of the TRC that the Government White
Paper would be released.
The
Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set
up by the Sierra Leone Government in 2002 as
one of several mechanisms for national reconciliation
and the consolidation of peace to be fostered.
It was established to address impunity and break
the cycle of violence, by providing a forum
for both the victims and perpetrators of human
rights violations to tell their story, get a
clear picture of the past in order to facilitate
genuine healing and reconciliation.
The
objective of the Commission was to create an
impartial historical record of violations and
abuses of human rights and international humanitarian
law related to the armed conflict in Sierra
Leone, and to address impunity, respond to the
needs of the victims, to promote healing and
reconciliation and to prevent a repetition of
the violations and abuses suffered.
Earlier,
the Deputy Chairman of the TRC, Justice Mrs.
Laura Marcus-Jones, introduced Angelina Jolie
to President Kabbah. She was accompanied by
the Executive Director of WITNESS, Gillian Caldwell
and representatives of some human rights organizations
in Sierra Leone.
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