2006年VOA标准英语-Former Liberian Girl Soldier Struggles to

By Nico Colombant
Monrovia
04 January 2006

Later this month, Liberia will inaugurate Africa's first elected female president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. Her task will be to help rebuild her war-shattered nation. She says she will also help emancipate¹ women and girls who have faced years of abuse. VOA's Nico Colombant profiles one of these young women who needs help, former child soldier, Beauty Kanane.

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Beauty Kanane  
  

Beauty, a lanky² 17-year-old girl, is using the last of her disarmament money to buy shoes at a market in Monrovia.

She remembers how it was not too far from here, on a soccer field, at the age of 13, that she was abducted³. Her kidnappers⁴ were rebel soldiers who forced her to join their cause and liberate⁵ Liberia from the violent, corrupt⁶ rule of former President Charles Taylor.

She was taken to a rebel base in northern Lofa county and inserted into a battalion⁷ of AK-47-toting lady killers⁸, led by the infamous⁹ female teenage rebel leader known as Black Diamond.

"Me and my friends when we go on the football field, the people catch us and go in the car and take us to Lofa county," she recalled. "That is how I joined the people, that is how I joined at the time of Black Diamond, that is how I met Black Diamond and start fighting."

  
  
Beauty says many girls were raped¹⁰ by rebel leaders, but she says Black Diamond protected her.

She returned to Monrovia during battles known here as World War I, II and III. She says her mother died of a gunfire-induced heart attack. Her father and sisters fled to neighboring countries.

After the war ended, Beauty joined tens of thousands of other former fighters in disarming¹¹, but after an initial payment of $150, she lost her disarmament card. This disqualified her from other payments. She also dropped out of a U.N.-sponsored sewing class for former female fighters.

Beauty wants to go back to a regular school, but has no money.

"I do not have any money to go so I cannot. I have no one to support me. I want someone to help me to go to school. I want to go to school. If I go to school, I want to do something. I want to learn how to know how to read and write. During the war, most of our friends did not know anything," she said.

For now, she is getting free room and board, in a small, dark shack¹², from the owner of a rickety convenience store selling makeup¹³ and soap in a dirt alley¹⁴ of a slum.

  
  
She helps him take care of his children, washes their clothes, and cooks.

He says he greeted her with open arms, noticing how nice she was. He gives her what he can, but says he hopes she could get help from the government or the United Nations to get an education.

"She is here, she works with me, very cooperatively. She sometimes helps me wash my children's clothes and what have you. We still want her to go to school and learn better. There is work to be done because she has to learn this is what I have been saying, all. If she learns, the future will be bright for her. She has not gone anywhere with life so she needs to learn. As she goes to school, the future will be bright for her," he said.

Her best friend Patricia, a runaway¹⁵ teenager, also helps out with the shop owner's family. Poor girls like Beauty and Patricia cannot afford to go to the few schools which exist in Monrovia. All of these require a fee. So they just pass time.

"We play, play together, drink Coke, sleep together, do everything together. In the day, we cook, after cooking we go walk around before we come home to sleep," said Beauty.

The two girls also smoke a lot of marijuana, which they get from neighborhood boys.

One of them is now Beauty's boyfriend, 23-year-old Bollah Jr., another former fighter. He comes to visit often. He proudly displays the tee-shirt he got from his disarmament carpentry class.

"This is my tee-shirt for YMCA Trade Department," said Bollah Jr.

Bollah has known war most of his life, and fought against the rebels and Beauty's side.

"For the war, I was in the bush, struggling for Taylor. I was fighting. I was nine years of age when I start holding gun for Taylor. My only side was different and her side was different," he said.

He says it makes no difference anymore, though, whose side they were fighting for. They just want a better future.

Beauty and Bollah say they want children one day, but that first they need to get jobs. And Bollah says he will make sure their children will never go to war.

"They are not going to be combatants because I am going to discipline them. I am going to tell how war is not good. War is bad," he concluded.

1 emancipate   

v.解放，解除

参考例句：

• This new machine will emancipate us from the hard work.这部新机器将把我们从繁重劳动中解放出来。
• To emancipate all mankind,we will balk at no sacrifice,even that of our lives.为了全人类的解放,即使牺牲生命也在所不惜。

2 lanky   

adj.瘦长的

参考例句：

• He was six feet four,all lanky and leggy.他身高6英尺4英寸，瘦高个儿，大长腿。
• Tom was a lanky boy with long skinny legs.汤姆是一个腿很细的瘦高个儿。

3 abducted   

劫持，诱拐( abduct的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（肢体等）外展

参考例句：

• Detectives have not ruled out the possibility that she was abducted. 侦探尚未排除她被绑架的可能性。
• The kid was abducted at the gate of kindergarten. 那小孩在幼儿园大门口被绑架走了。

4 kidnappers   

n.拐子，绑匪( kidnapper的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They were freed yesterday by their kidnappers unharmed. 他们昨天被绑架者释放了，没有受到伤害。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The kidnappers had threatened to behead all four unless their jailed comrades were released. 帮匪们曾经威胁说如果印度方面不释放他们的同伙，他们就要将这四名人质全部斩首。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 liberate   

v.解放，使获得自由，释出，放出；vt.解放，使获自由

参考例句：

• They did their best to liberate slaves.他们尽最大能力去解放奴隶。
• This will liberate him from economic worry.这将消除他经济上的忧虑。

6 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

7 battalion   

n.营；部队；大队(的人)

参考例句：

• The town was garrisoned by a battalion.该镇由一营士兵驻守。
• At the end of the drill parade,the battalion fell out.操练之后，队伍解散了。

8 killers   

凶手( killer的名词复数 )； 消灭…者； 致命物； 极难的事

参考例句：

• He remained steadfast in his determination to bring the killers to justice. 他要将杀人凶手绳之以法的决心一直没有动摇。
• They were professional killers who did in John. 杀死约翰的这些人是职业杀手。

9 infamous   

adj.声名狼藉的，臭名昭著的，邪恶的

参考例句：

• He was infamous for his anti-feminist attitudes.他因反对女性主义而声名狼藉。
• I was shocked by her infamous behaviour.她的无耻行径令我震惊。

10 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句

11 disarming   

adj.消除敌意的，使人消气的v.裁军( disarm的现在分词 )；使息怒

参考例句：

• He flashed her a disarming smile. 他朝她笑了一下，让她消消气。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We will agree to disarming troops and leaving their weapons at military positions. 我们将同意解除军队的武装并把武器留在军事阵地。 来自辞典例句

12 shack   

adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚

参考例句：

• He had to sit down five times before he reached his shack.在走到他的茅棚以前，他不得不坐在地上歇了五次。
• The boys made a shack out of the old boards in the backyard.男孩们在后院用旧木板盖起一间小木屋。

13 makeup   

n.组织；性格；化装品

参考例句：

• Those who failed the exam take a makeup exam.这次考试不及格的人必须参加补考。
• Do you think her beauty could makeup for her stupidity?你认为她的美丽能弥补她的愚蠢吗？

14 alley   

n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路

参考例句：

• We live in the same alley.我们住在同一条小巷里。
• The blind alley ended in a brick wall.这条死胡同的尽头是砖墙。

15 runaway   

n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的

参考例句：

• The police have not found the runaway to date.警察迄今没抓到逃犯。
• He was praised for bringing up the runaway horse.他勒住了脱缰之马受到了表扬。