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Oscar-winning
actress Angelina Jolie began a goodwill trip Monday to Sierra Leone
to meet survivors of this battered West African nation's devastating
war and urge authorities to make public the recommendations of a
special commission set up to reconcile the nation. Jolie, a goodwill
ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
since 2001, flew to Freetown late Monday, agency spokeswoman Rachel
Goldstein-Rodriguez said. Sierra Leone's Truth and Reconciliation
Commission, set up after a brutal 10-year-war ended in 2002, has
collected thousands of written statements documenting atrocities
and held public hearings in a bid to offer victims a shot at catharsis
by recounting their tales. The commission's final report was presented
to President Ahmed Tejah Kabbah in October 2004, but it and its
recommendations have yet to be made public. Jolie is expected to
meet Kabbah on Wednesday, as well as other government officials,
aid workers and victims of the bloodshed during her three-day visit,
the New York-based nonprofit organization Witness said in a statement.
(more about Angelina Jolie.)
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