VOA常速英语2008年-Former Liberian President Taylor's Imprint Stil

By Nico Colombant
Bokoni
08 February 2008

While former Liberian president, Charles Taylor, is being tried in The Hague for alleged¹ war crimes in Sierra Leone, his imprint² is still being felt in the neighboring country of Guinea as well. Some of his fighters repeatedly attacked villages there in 2000 and 2001.  Women are only starting to recover from being kidnapped and abused, while former fighters who remained in Guinea also feel persecuted³.  VOA's Nico Colombant reports from the village of Bokoni, near the borders with Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Birds chirp⁴ in a courtyard as Ouidoh Sorogoui spins yarn⁵ at the entrance of her home, making clothes for other villagers.

She recounts harrowing tales from the Taylor era.

Taylor-backed Revolutionary United Front fighters from Sierra Leone along with soldiers from Liberia's army, and fighters recruited from refugee camps in Guinea, repeatedly attacked this village in 2000 and 2001.

Her husband was killed. Women, including herself, were taken hostage, to become porters, cooks, and sexual slaves.

Sorogui explains how she was forced to steal from other people's farms at gunpoint. She says younger women were raped⁶.  She says at one point she was asked to walk on all fours naked, but refused and asked to be killed instead.

Sorogui says she finally escaped, naked, walking through forest back to her village.

During her ordeal⁷, she tore up an ankle, which has now doubled in size. So, she sits and spins yarn to stay off her feet.

Other former victims who are helped by a local non-governmental organization sell vegetable oil at a market in the nearby town of Macenta.

Aid worker Amadou Oury Bah has been helping⁸ women with similar stories from 40 villages and towns.

"Most of these women suffered from sexual abuse and have been used as sexual slaves," he said.  "They carried out some manual labor⁹ and [were] kept in cages without movement."

Guinea's army finally chased away Taylor's fighters from this region and then backed rebels who along with another group of fighters, backed by Ivory Coast, helped force Mr. Taylor into exile. The former Liberian president was then extradited from Nigeria and eventually sent to The Hague for trial, for his alleged crimes in Sierra Leone.

Bah says that for people affected¹⁰ by this turbulent time in West Africa's history wounds of war go away much slower than the fighting.

"We found upon their return that most of these women were stigmatized¹¹ and some of them were rejected by their husbands and some relatives," he added.

A regional government official in charge of women's issues, Marguerite Guilavogui, says men rejected these women after saying they had been passed on from one fighter to the next.   She says some husbands abandoned them, and that the war also created many widows and orphans¹².

Many women also never returned.  Bah tries to track down minors¹³ who disappeared, including one young girl who was kidnapped when she was a toddler.

"She was about three years old when she was adopted by the rebels and taken to Liberia in Lofa county," he explained.  "According to information we received, she was there with one of the rebel leaders, who felt threatened and fled from Liberia to Ghana. Since then, we have had no information about the little girl."

Bah says he is trying to help the hundreds of women who did come back.  He wants to make them more independent and confident in themselves with revenue generating projects, like making soap.

Abraham Bility helps former Liberian and Sierra Leonean child soldiers who feel persecuted now that the fighting is over.

"They are still considering anyone who can speak English, they consider you as somebody who is supporting Charles Taylor," he said.

Many are too afraid to go back to their home countries where they think the situation would be worse for them.  Many were recruited as fighters in refugee camps, from groups that had fled Liberia following the start of the initial Charles Taylor-led rebellion, which began in 1989.

"We have 112 children who were involved in the war during the Charles Taylor regime," added Mr. Bility.  "We are trying to talk to the community now, the quarter chief, the prefect, the governor of this forest region to allow them to move freely but they consider them to be the troublemakers¹⁴ in the community."

Back in Bokoni, in another courtyard, Mari, 13, is doing dishes.  Her mother was taken away from her by rebels during the war, and then died after returning to the village.

Mari says she never wants to see another armed man disrupt her peaceful village, or anywhere else in Guinea.

1 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

2 imprint   

n.印痕，痕迹；深刻的印象；vt.压印，牢记

参考例句：

• That dictionary is published under the Longman imprint.那本词典以朗曼公司的名义出版。
• Her speech left its imprint on me.她的演讲给我留下了深刻印象。

3 persecuted   

（尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人

参考例句：

• Throughout history, people have been persecuted for their religious beliefs. 人们因宗教信仰而受迫害的情况贯穿了整个历史。
• Members of these sects are ruthlessly persecuted and suppressed. 这些教派的成员遭到了残酷的迫害和镇压。

4 chirp   

v.(尤指鸟)唧唧喳喳的叫

参考例句：

• The birds chirp merrily at the top of tree.鸟儿在枝头欢快地啾啾鸣唱。
• The sparrows chirp outside the window every morning.麻雀每天清晨在窗外嘁嘁喳喳地叫。

5 yarn   

n.纱，纱线，纺线；奇闻漫谈，旅行轶事

参考例句：

• I stopped to have a yarn with him.我停下来跟他聊天。
• The basic structural unit of yarn is the fiber.纤维是纱的基本结构单元。

6 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

7 ordeal   

n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验

参考例句：

• She managed to keep her sanity throughout the ordeal.在那场磨难中她始终保持神志正常。
• Being lost in the wilderness for a week was an ordeal for me.在荒野里迷路一星期对我来说真是一场磨难。

8 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

9 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

10 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

11 stigmatized   

v.使受耻辱，指责，污辱( stigmatize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was stigmatized as an ex-convict. 他遭人污辱，说他给判过刑。 来自辞典例句
• Such a view has been stigmatized as mechanical jurisprudence. 蔑称这种观点为机械法学。 来自辞典例句

12 orphans   

孤儿( orphan的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The poor orphans were kept on short commons. 贫苦的孤儿们吃不饱饭。
• Their uncle was declared guardian to the orphans. 这些孤儿的叔父成为他们的监护人。

13 minors   

n.未成年人( minor的名词复数 )；副修科目；小公司；[逻辑学]小前提v.[主美国英语]副修，选修，兼修( minor的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The law forbids shops to sell alcohol to minors. 法律禁止商店向未成年者出售含酒精的饮料。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He had three minors this semester. 这学期他有三门副修科目。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 troublemakers   

n.惹是生非者，捣乱者( troublemaker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was employed to chuck out any troublemakers. 他受雇把捣乱者赶走。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She had automatically labelled the boys as troublemakers. 她不假思索地认定这些男孩子是捣蛋鬼。 来自《简明英汉词典》