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Article: Face to face with former child soldiers--and hope: Messenger of Peace Michael Douglas visits Sierra Leone. (First Person).(related article: A day with Abu Bakr)
- Article from:
- UN Chronicle
- Article date:
- June 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 United Nations Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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When actor Michael Douglas agreed to go to Sierra Leone to film a documentary for the United Nations, he could not have envisioned the impact the visit to the war-torn West African country would have on him. By the end of his five-day stay in February 2003, he had seen first-hand the widespread devastation in the diamond-rich Kono District and the extent to which the decade-long civil war had shattered lives, but he also witnessed the attempts of dozens of former child soldiers to reclaim lost childhoods, the laborious efforts of young men in their daily search for diamonds in the alluvial fields, and the efforts of UN peacekeepers helping to rebuild communities.
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