The Hague

October 31, 2008

Defense Counsel Morris Anyah continued his cross-examination of the witness and established the following.

Corrections and clarifications in statements

On August 11, 2007 the witness made the following corrections and clarifications to his previous statement dated September 11, 2003:
– SAG Musa was changed into SAJ Musa;
– The witness saw Mosquito and SAJ Musa after the ECOMOG intervention changed into The witness saw Mosquito and SAJ Musa during the
   AFRC rule;
– Operation Pay Yourself and Operation No Living Thing were added;
– People speaking Liberian English are mentioned in none of the four statements: the witness mentioned this the first time in Court;
– In his statement given while he was in The Hague, the witness said he was with CO Matthew for one month, while in Court he testified he
   was with him for three months;
– Ex-SLA was changed into SLA.

Youths driving the rebels out of Koidu Town

In February 1998 the rebels were driven out of Koidu Town by youths and Kamajors were invited in. Some of these youths were armed, they were soldiers, trained fighters but not belonging to any particular group. The witness was also engaged in the fighting, at the back with a stick as a weapon. More than 300 youths were involved in this. The witness does not know if Mosquito and SAJ Musa were among the rebels who were driven out of Koidu, because he did not see them. None of the rebels died as far as the witness knows, because he was fighting at the back and he did not see any corpses of rebels afterwards. About 200 rebels were driven out, a mixed group of AFRC and RUF.

Escaping Operation No Living Thing

This group that was driven out practised Operation Pay Yourself, but the next group coming from Freetown practised Operation No Living Thing. They would not spare anyone, “not even a chicken”. The rebels would kill everybody, unless they had a use for you, if you had knew a trade that they were in need of. That is why the witness told the rebel who halted him that he was a mechanic. Actually his work was being a security guard with a mine company. He had medium knowledge about repairing vehicles, but had more knowledge than the rebels, so he was able to practise this knowledge.

Re-examination

Prosecution Counsel Mohamed Bangura conducted a short re-examination. When asked what it meant that the second group of AFRC/RUF who conducted the Operation No Living Thing would “not even spare a chicken”, the witness answered that it was their way and their manner: they did not want to see anybody, meaning they would kill everybody and burn their houses.

When asked why he lied about being a security guard and saying he was a mechanic, the witness answered that at the time he knew the rebels were looking for mechanics and that he said this to save his life.

The photographs MFI-1, MFI-2 and MFI-3 were tendered as evidence and became prosecution exhibits P223a, b and c.

Presiding Judge Doherty thanked the witness for giving his evidence, wished him a safe journey home and dismissed the witness.

Court is adjourned at 1.30 p.m. until Monday 9.30 a.m.