1:30 (12:00 with 30 mins delay in video and audio): Court resumes afrer lunch break with a continuation of the evidence of TF1-584.
Judge: Please proceed Mr. Santora
Pros: Before the break, you were telling us about your communication with Maj. King and you said you created an immediate code, can you explain that?
Wit: It was the one that i created by myself at that very movement. It was not part of the codes we were using as RUF. It was just for me tio get their location.
Pros: You also told him to code the town where they were, what do you mean?
Wit: because the location where they were, he would not have just called it because ECOMOG would have know so he would have to use letters to code the town and i would understand.
Pros: Did you relay this information to anyone else?
Wit: I gave it to my boss, Superman.
Pros: Do you know if Superman passed this information anywhere else?
Wit: yes, he passed it to the Buedu station
Pros: I ask that the witness be shown the map, S3D. Can you just take a look at the map for a little while? What is this map?
Wit: It is a map that has Sierra Leone, but i am not seeing the entire Sierra Leone on the map.
Pros: Whta part do you see?
Wit: Kono, kenema, part of Kailahun and Bo
Pros: can you locate where you call PC Ground?
Witness identifies a place on the map as PD Ground.
Wit: On various markings, the one i first marked was the PC Ground. Close to Koidu was where the combat camp was, that was where RUF was in control of and the main road that goes right upto the Guinea border, we were also in control there.
Pros: Along each side of this highway, do you know who is in control?
Wit: I know that we were all based at PC Ground, but patrols used to leave from PC Ground to the Guinea border. Except when they will meet civilians once in a while, but there were no military personel.
Pros: Can you identify where Rambo and Isaac were?
Wit: Witness puts pen on the mark near Gandohun.
Pros: Can you write number 4 to where you pointed. You also talked about Yormandu where Komba Gbundema was based, can you identify where Yormandu is and put a number 7 next to it. Outline the portion with respect to the road that was under the control of the RUF as it relates to Yormandu. Can you put a number 8 on the road as it relates to Koidu. Can you put a mark where Tefeya is? Can you mark where Tombodu is?
Witness does several identifications on the map as they relate to places that she had earlier testified of.
Pros: You said you were based at a place called Ngiema, right?
Wit: No i was based in Ngaya.
Pros: Ok, can you point it on the map?
Witness identifies Ngaya on the map.
Pros: Now these various locations that were under the control of the RUF, were they connected to each other?
Wit: yes
Pros: How?
Wit: Well, there is a route from mayor that can take us to Small Sefadu, and go to Yormandu and it was there that they formed the group that went to Tefaya, which was between Yormandu and Baoma, and there was a road that goes straight to Bumbeh. You can also go to Ngandohun on the road that goes to Koidu town.
Pros: Now the roads that were not in your control and were used by ECOMOG, what was going on on these roads when you were at PC ground?
Wit: They set ambushes on the highway.
Pros: From which direction will ambushes be set?
Wit: From Tefeya to Bumpeh and fron Gandohun to Sewafeh
Pros: Who were running these ambushes?
Wit: The RUF under their various commanders in the various locations.
Pros: What does the arrow on the map signify?
Wit: My understanding is the direction from which the operation came.
Pros: Can you draw where these ambushes occured?
Witness identifies roads on the map with highlighter.
Pros: I will ask that the map be marked for identification.
Judge: It comes in as MFI-16
Pros: Now, when you were at PC Ground, do you know how you were receiving supplies?
Wit: One was from the attacks on towns, and i can recall twice when i saw arms and ammunition from Buedu, that was the only time we received supplies from Buedu.
Pros: Describe the first time you saw arms and ammunition from Buedu?
Wit; The men who were at the combat camp went on an attack on Koidu town. They captured two ECOMOG soldiers and brought them to Superman Ground. One of them died. Sam Bockarie asked that we should send the one man to Buedu. The men who took the ECOMOG soldier to Buedu came back with arms and ammunition, and some food from Buedu.
Pros: How did you know that?
Wit: they gave a report to Superman when they came and he sent a message to Buedu that he had received the things. I sent that message
Pros: Who did you send the message to?
Wit: To Sam Bockarie
Pros: How did you send the message?
Wit: I sent it by radio
Pros: What do you mean by arms and ammunition?
Wit: The arms were the guns and the ammunitions were the bullets used for the guns.
Pros: What kind of arms did they bring?
Wit: they brought a 60 milimeter, that was a mortar gun.
Pros: What aboutr ammunition?
Wit: they brought AK rounds, RPG bombs and bombs for the 60 milimeter.
Pros: how were the ammunitions packaged?
Wit: The AK Rounds were in boxes, some in bags and the bombs were in boxes.
Pros: How long after you had arrived at PC Ground do you recall receiving these arms and ammunition?
Wit: It was nearly 2 months.
Pros: You referred to a second time when arms and ammunition were sent from Buedu, how long had passed between the first time you got supplies and the second time?
Wit: It will be like another two months.
Pros: Who was sending these materials?
Wit: It was from Sam Bockarie, because when they brought them , he will send a message to the effect that he had sent them and they were coming.
Pros: What was Sam Bockarie’s position at this time?
Wit: he was heading the RUF within Sierra Leone
Pros: can you recall specific ambushes that you have talked about and what happened?
Wit: If i can recall one of them, the group at Tefeya sent a message that they had set an ambush along the Sewafeh and Bumpeh highway which was for a convoy where Mazwell Kobi was. They burnt some of the vehicles, captured arms and a walking stick that Mazwell Kobi was using. They sent it to Superman and i saw it.
Pros: What was happeneing with civcilians at this time when you were at PC ground?
Wit: When i went to PC Ground, i did not see any civilians but when they went on patrol, they capture civilians in the villages and brought them. There was training base at Superman Ground where all the civilians including those from Freetown were sent to the training base. They recruited them and they used to put them on standby just in case they needed manpower to carry anything.
Pros: What will happen to the women who were captured?
Wit; The women who were brought were those who the men will say i am taking this as my wife. he will bring her. Even if she came from the training base, she will stay with the combatant.
Pros: Did these women choose to become wives?
Wit: No
Pros: What do you mean?
Wit: If you are captured at the frontline, you will not be asked whether you love the man or not, you will be taken. If you are a small girl, you will be taken as a ward and when she is old enough, another RUF fighter will take her and turn her into his wife.
Pros: What will happen to a woman once she became a wife?
Wit: I think i have started talking about what the women did. For somepeople, they are unable to live with their wives. Some beat their wives. If you are lucky and have someone who takes care of people, some of them even when they said go, he wouldnt want to go, but if you meet someone who is wicked, you will fall under the direct command of that person.
Pros: Where did these things happen?
Wit: All areas occupied by RUF
Pros: When you were at PC Ground, do you know of any specific operations against civilians?
Wit: Civilians were based where ECOMOG soldiers were but when there was an attack, they were unable to move.
Pros: On the ambush at Tefeya, do you know of anything that happened to civilians?
Wit: Civilians died during the attack, they also captured civilians and brought them to the base.
Pros: What happened to the civilians at Koidu Ngieya?
Wit: It was an attack that was launched at Koidu Ngieya
Pros: Who launched the attack?
Wit: It was the RUF under Rambo’s control
Pros: You said civilians were killed, do you know how they were killed?
Wit: I did not ask about that
Pros: Do you know who was at Koidu Ngieya at that time?
Wit: From what Claris told me, it was the civilians and Kamajors
Pros: What did you mean when you said they killed lots of civilians in the town?
Wit: the RUF led by Rambo did the killing
Pros: How did Claris tell you this?
Wit: We saw each other and we spoke
Pros: Do you know where Koidu Ngieya is?
Wit: I never went there but it was under Rambo’s operational area
Pros: Do you know on what road it is?
Wit: It is on Ngadogun Kailahun route
Pros; What distriuct?
Wit: Kono district
Prois: Did you get information about other operations where civilians were affected?
Wit: the group that came from tefeya and attacked Bumpeh, they too i learnt that civilians died there.
Pros: How did you learn that?
Wit: I was on a set and later i went to tefeya to Foday Lansana and i learnt from them.
Pros: Did you ever monotor communications from radio operators at Gandohun and other locations?
Wit: yes, i monitored from Gandohun to Komba’s own area at Yormandu. I used to go to other frequencies when i heard them talking
Pros: Did you ever hear anything while you were monitoring on anything that happened to civilians?
Wit: Yes i did, I heard them at a point saying men were brave, when they wanted to chop off people’s arms, when they want to amputate people’s arms, they are telling them to take their arms and feet out of the war.
Pros: Who did you hear discussing this?
Wit: It was in Gandohun
Pros: What specifically were they saying?
Wit: After this expression had come, like i said, i did not listen too much to know where it happened or who had done it, but i understood that because the Kamajor business was too much in Kono and the civcilians had made up the kamajor group, when they encountered confrontations with them, they will tell them to remove their hands and feet from the war.
Pros: Who was using this expression?
Wit: the RUF
Pros: Who were the RUF using this expression to?
Wit: Any of the civilians whom they captured and when they were amputating his hand or feet
Pros: Do you know where this was happening?
Wit: Around the Bumpeh area
Pros: Did you ever go to Buedu?
Wit: yes i went with Superman when Mosquioto called a meeting. It was a meeting for Issa Sesa. They said he had taken diamonds to Liberia and said they were missing. In Kono, when they captured diamonds from civilians, they took them to Buedu. The commanders started grumbling that if any other commander had lost the diamond, they would have killed him, but since it was Issa, the bosses did not do anything. So there was a dispute. So Sam Bockarie called a meeting of all frontline commanders to meet in Buedu. He said the commanders should come and ask Issa what happened to the diamond. That was when i joined Superman to go to Buedu. I also wanted to take my child to my sister in Buedu.
Pros: How did Mosquito call a meeting?
Wit: he sent messages to the stations that were to send their commanders. he sent a message through radio.
Pros: How do you know this?
Wit: I received the message
Pros: how do you know it was sent to other stations?
Wit: Like i said, when there was a message for more than one to two stations, they will call the stations concerned on the national.
Pros: How many peole went to Buedu?
Wit: We were plenty, over 150
Pros: Was this message sent before or after Abacha died?
Wit: If i can recall, it happened before Abacha died.
Pros: When did you learn about the incident that Issa had lost the diamonds?
Wit: I was at PC Ground, before the meeting
Pros: How
Pros: I was talking with Major Selay and Sebatu was giving me information and some SLA soldiers came from Buedu and told us they were harrassed. They told us. They took diamonds from JPK’s wife and they were part of the diamonds that Issa lost.
Pros: How did you travel to Buedu?
Wit: I walked and passed through Gandohun, i spent 3 days to go through Kailahun and to Buedu.
Pros: What happened when you got to Buedu?
Wit: I arrived in the evening. I slept, the next day, they had the meeting but i did not attend the meeting because i went to my sister Sebatu and my family members. After the meeting, Sebatu was in the radio station but she came early that day. She told me that she is off because her master Sam Bockarie was leaving for Foya. And i saw the vehicles leaving. But i didnt know who went in that convoy. They came back that same day, in the evening and when they came…
Judge: Sorry, we have just run out of tape
Pros: Well i’ll just rehearse the same question tomorrow
Judge: Madam witness, we have just run out of tape and we’ll adjourn for the day and we’ll resume tomorrow at 9:30. Please adjourn court.