12:00:(12:30 with 30 mins delay for video and audio):
Judge: The court will now resume the evidence of the witness. Mr. Werner, you may continue.
Pros: Mr. Witness, before we continue, i just want to ask you a few things. You remember telling us about Pendembu, in waht district is that?
Wit: Kailahun district
Pros: And Kailahun Town?
Wit: Kailahun district
Pros: And Quiva?
Wit: Kailahun district
Pros: Which towns are located around Quiva?
Wit: There are villages, not towns
Pros: Which towns are closest to Quiva?
Wit: I think we have Jojuima
Pros: What about Baima?
Wit: Its in Kailahun District, Jawei Chiefdom
Pros: I want to clarify one thing on the transcript, page 56 line 23, you said from 1993, you were there until NPRC pushed out of Kailahun, and went to the Koindu jungle to the border with Liberia. Which jungle were you when you were pushed out of Kailahun?
Wit: In Kailahun town.
Pros: You remember talking about Peyama, in what district is Peyama?
Wit: Kenema district
Pros: And you were there with CO, Papa?
Wit: Yes
Pros: When did you get to that jungle?
Wit: 1994
Pros: What were you doing there?
Wit: I was a figfhter and i was also assisting the adjutant
Pros: Who was CO Papa?
Wit: he was the commander there
Pros: To which group did he belong?
Wit: he was a Jr. Commando
Pros: How long were you there?
Wit: 1994-95
Pros: What happened to you after there?
Wit: Sankoh called us from Zogoda and gave us an assignement to go to Kenema by-pass
Pros: What happened to you before that?
Wit: Sankoh sent us to Camp Lion training base to take advanced training, we the Jr. Commandos and some officers. He sent some of the officers to go and take Gorrila advanced training at Joikoya.
Pros: How long were you in Zogoda before going to Joikoya?
Wit: We didnt stay long there. We just spent a night there and left for the training
Pros: Where was Camp Lion located?
Wit: Joikoya town
Pros: What was the distance between Zogoda and Joikoya?
Wit: It was through the jungle and you’ll take about 2-3 hours walk
Pros: In what district was Joikoya?
Wit: Kenema District
Pros: What happened to you at Joikoya?
Wit: We underwent Gorila cadet training
Pros: What was your rank before you went to Camp Lion?
Wit: Sergeant
Pros: What did you learn at the training?
Wit: A lot. They taught us officer duties. We learnt about radio communications, also how to use the radio on the frequencies, the code and decoder.
Pros: Did you learn as well how to transcribe message?
Wit: To transfer a message. They taught us how to receive a message, how to write and send a message, all of those were taught.
Pros: Who taught you that?
Wit: Sankoh himself
Pros: Who else were there as instructors?
Wit: We had a woman called CO Monica, Maj. Titus, Amuyepeh, Jr. Vandy, Pato-Pato, but they were many.
Pros: Who was Monica?
Wit: We understood at the base that she was the training commander there
Pros: What else did you learn about her?
Wit: Until later, she was still a commander at Bunumbu training base in the kailahun district
Pros: When was that
Wit: 1998-99
Pros: What group did Monica belong to?
Wit: Vanguard
Pros: Who was Jr. Vandy?
Wit: He was a black guard but was a Jr. Commando
Pros: You told us the difference between directives, instructions, orders, what else did you learn about these words?
Wit: It was during this training that i knew the difference between these words. Eg, Sankoh will use directives, all other commanders were to use instructions or orders.
Pros: During this training, what did they tell you about the structure of the RUF?
Wit: They taught us about the military structure, brigades, battalions, platoons, companies, teams, etc.
Pros: What did you learn about how many fighters will be in one brigade?
Wit: 4000 gorilla man power
Pros: And battalions?
Wit: Then four battalions make up one brigade
Pros: How were battalions organized?
Wit: Battalions comprised about 999 but was rounded up to 1000 manpower.
Pros: What did you learn about Companies?
Wit: 4 companies made one battalion and each company comprised 250 man power
Pros: What about platoons?
Wit: 62 manpower made one platoon and 4 platoons made one company
Pros: And Squad?
Wit: comprised 15 man power and 4 squads made one platoon.
Pros: What did you learn about ideology in this training?
Wit: They taught us about ideology and Maj. Titus taught us that. He taught us how an officer should comport himself to subordinates or civilians, you should be gentle, you should not be rough.
Pros: How long did this training last?
Wit_ For about a month
Pros: What happened to you after the training?
Wit: I was promoted to second Lt and was sent to kenema By-Pass as a fighter and also assisting as an adjutant
Pros: Where is Kenema by-pass?
Wit: kenema district
Pros: To whom did you report at kenema by-pass
Wit: To my commander CO. Weaver J
Pros: Who was he?
Wit: Jr. Commando
Pros: When did you get there?
Wit: 1995
Pros: How long were you there?
Wit: For some few months
Pros: What happaned to you after your time with CO Weaver J?
Wit; Sankoh changed my assignment. He sent me back to the Peyama jungle.
Pros: Who was in charge when you went back there?
Wit: Sam Bockarie was the commander there
Pros: What did you do there?
Wit: I was there again as fighter and assisting as adjutant.
Pros: Which signatures did you see in all your time as adjutant?
Def: Objecttion, question vague and leading
Judge: I agree
Pros: I’ll rephrase. When you were working with CO Mohamed, which documents if any did you see while doing administrative work there?
Wit: I used to see radio messages and letters that he received from Sankoh
Pros: What did you see on those messages?
Wit: They were messages on how to go about things
Pros: At Peyama, which documents did you see?
Wit: radio messages that came from Sankoh. I also saw radio messages from other jungles.
Pros: And Kenema By-Pass, which documents did you see?
Wit: Letters from sankoh as well as radio messages
Pros: When at peyama, which documents did you see?
Wit: Radio messages used to come to Bockarie there. At that time, Sankoh was at Zogoda. Directives on how to go on offensive or radio messages that people were coming through the base and they should be received.
Pros: What other documents did you see?
Wit; While we were there, at one point, Sankoh sent a message that Bockarie should receive capt. Ben, that they were on a mission. They came and stopped at Peyama and re-orged and left for Kono.
Pros: What was the mission to Kono at that time?
Wit: It was to capture Gaya and Yengema in Kono. That was the message we received.
Pros: What else if anything did you learn about the operation on Gaya and Yengema?
Wit: They received man power from kailaun ad went and captured the two places. They were there for some time.
Pros; In which chiefdom is Gaya located?
Wit: I dont know the name of the chiefdom
Pros: When Capt. Ben was in Kono, with whom if any one did he meet at that time or with whom was he communicating?
Wit: To my knowlege, he was communicating directly with Sankoh in Zogoda
Pros: About the attack on Gaya and yengeme, did the communication take place before or after the attack?
Wit: I believe there was communication before and after the attack.
Pros: What was the communication about?
Wit: According what Ben told us, the communication was to put those places under control.
Pros: How many times did they attack Gaya?
Wit: Just once. That was the only attack and it was successful.
Pros: We’ll move to have the witness shown the document. Could you look at the first message on that document. Its 0000821. Have you seen that document before in the RUF?
Wit: No sir
Pros: Look at the first six lines, do you recognize what is said?
Wit: Yes, it says “By his directoves, Gaya and Yengema should be burnt donw to groudlion…” This is from Sankoh to Capt. Ben.
Pros: You see sub, hyphen, directive, what will be the sub?
Wit: It is just an abbreviation meaning Subject.
Pros: Look at the date, you see 29-04-95. You told us that this attack took place in 1996, what can you say about that?
Wit: yes, it could have been a mistake, but the attack took place.
Pros: What mistake?
Wit: The 1996 that i talked about.
Pros: Is this message consistent with what you were told by people coming back from the gaya and Yengema attack?
Wit: yes, because when they came with the materials, they told us they had burnt Gaya and Yengema to ground level and i see that in this message.
Pros: To your knowlege now, when did this attack happen?
Wit: 1995
Pros: A the time you saw these people coming from the Kono axis, who else can you remember coming to your place from Kono at that time?
Wit: The RUF were transporting materials from Kono to Peyama, we had an I.O, ie, Intelligence Office, his name was Chris A.B Mannah. he said he received message from Sankoh that he should take the meterials to Zogoda. He was the one i can recall as having taken part in that operation.
Pros: To whom was AB mannah reporting?
Wit: To Foday Sankoh. He was the I.O Officer in the jungle.
Pros: To your knowlege, to who else did Sankoh communicate about bringing the materials to Zogoda?
Wit: I dont have an idead about that?
Pros: How many messages did sankoh send about bringing the materials from Kono?
Wit: I cant say, i did not see messages. It was AB mannah who told me that he received a message in light.
Pros: What happened to you when you were with Bockarie at Peyama?
Wit: They later changed our assignement because we heard that the NPRC had recaptured kailahun district. Sankoh sent a message to Bockarie to move. I was part of the group that moved to counter-attack the NPRC.
Pros: When was that?
Wit: It should be the same 1995, because after the gaya attack, it did not take a long time when that attack took place.
Pros: Where in Kailahun district did this attack take place?
Wit: Kailahun town it self.
Pros: Which group was part of this attack on Kailahun town?
Wit: When Bockarie received the message, he called us to Formation and he gave us the information. He told us he wants to move with a force Sankoh called the Crack Force. So those of us who went on that mission were called the Crack Force.
Pros: What happened when you went with this unit?
Wit: We were many. Since the RUF had been pushed out of Kailahun town. We met them in a town called Ngeima. We re-orged there and attacked kailahun. We recaptured Kailahun and took Buedu. The soldiers in Koindu had to retreat through Guinea and went to Kenema.
Pros: What happened to you after the recapture of Kailahun town?
Wit: We were based in the Kailahun town itself. Dennis Lansana was the immediate commander that we reported to. From 1995 when we recaptured kailahun, i was with him there upto the time AFRC overthrew the govt. I was there helping with adminsitrative affairs.
Pros: When did the AFRC coup take place?
Wit: 1997
Prso: When you were with CO Dennis in Kailahun, what was the situation at the border between Sierra Leone and Liberia?
Wit: The situation was not ok. The ULIMO troops still occupied the border.
Pros: What happened there?
Wit: We understood that Bockarie had tried to use certain by-passes to enter Liberia.
Judge: This is an appropriate time to adjourne for lunch.Please adjourn court to 2:30PM.
Pros: