Sierra Leone’s rebel leader paid an amount of 30,000 United States Dollars to a West African peacekeeping military officer who was based in Liberia as payment for the supply of arms and ammunition to Sierra Leonean rebels, but these arms and ammunition were never delivered by the officer, a defense witness for Charles Taylor told Special Court for Sierra Leone judges today in The Hague.
The witness, identified only by Pseudonym DCT-292, was a former executive member of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group in Sierra Leone, the group which prosecutors say that Mr. Taylor helped to wage war in Sierra Leone and in the process committing heinous crimes against the civilian population of the country.
The witness explained that RUF leader Foday Sankoh personally gave him (the witness) an amount of $30,000 which he took to a soldier in Liberia, who was an officer in the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) peacekeeping force in Liberia. The amount was for the supply of arms and ammunition to the RUF. This arrangement was facilitated by a Liberian national called Saye Boayue. Defense counsel for Mr. Taylor, Terry Munyard, sought to know how the witness and his RUF counterparts intended to transport the arms and ammunition from Liberia if they were supplied by the ECOMOG officer.
“I was supposed to receive the arms and ammunition from the ECOMOG man, he has to make sure that he leads me to the border of Sierra Leone and Liberia, then hand those arms and ammunition to a man called Michael Mike Lamin,” the witness explained.
Mr. Lamin himself was a senior Commander in the RUF.
Asked by Mr. Munyard whether he knew “how much, what quantity of arms and ammunition you were expecting to accompany to the border,” the witness said, “I didn’t know how much.”
The witness explained, however, that the arms deal with the ECOMOG office was futile because the officer had failed to deliver the arms and ammunition after receiving the money from him.
Prosecutors have argued that it was Mr. Taylor who supplied the RUF with arms and ammunition in return for blood diamonds mined by the rebels in Sierra Leone. Mr. Taylor has denied the allegations.
The witness, who served as a member of the RUF External Delegation, explained that he was based in Liberia when Mr. Taylor’s rebel forces attacked the country in 1989. He was arrested by the rebel forces and detained, along with other Sierra Leoneans inside a container, he said. One Pa Morlai, who he later came to know as RUF leader Mr. Sankoh, took them from their detention to a training base named Camp Naama in Liberia. The witness told the court that the RUF ideology urged them to treat civilians well and not to kill surrendered enemy forces. When the rebel group invaded Sierra Leone in 1991, several civilians were killed, something which he said caused RUF leader Mr. Sankoh to shed tears.
“He [Sankoh] was having a small Bible, he prayed and what I saw, he started crying for the number of people that were killed at the initial point. I cannot say who really did that but I believe it was war time, so he prayed for everybody and he told them “‘I have come with this fighting group,”” the witness said.
The witness, who only commenced his testimony yesterday, concluded his direct-examination today. Prosecution counsel Nicholas Koumjian commenced the cross-examination of the witness immediately. Mr. Koumjian sought to know about what happened to the diamonds mined by the RUF especially in the late 1990s, to which the witness said that the only person who can answer that question would be Issa Hassan Sesay, the former Interim Leader of the RUF, who is now serving a sentence of 52 years imprisonment in a Rwandan jail after Special Court for Sierra Leone judges convicted him for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law in the territory of Sierra Leone from 1996 to 2002.
“Diamonds that were reserved by the RUF, these diamonds, the only one that can tell about the whereabouts of these diamonds is Issa Sesay himself,” the witness said.
He said that Mr. Sesay had kept some of the diamonds and told them he was doing so for RUF leader Mr. Sankoh who at that time was incarcerated in Nigeria. The witness agreed with Mr. Koumjian that diamonds mined by the RUF in Sierra Leone had not been of any benefit to the people of the country.
“My Lord, I did not see any benefit, there was no benefit for the people of Sierra Leone,” the witness said.
DCT 292’s testimony continues tomorrow.
It has been established, it was the (ECOMOG) Commander General who was in charged in Liberia and the Guinea Soldiers at the Sierra Leone/ Guinea borders were the ones who supplied arms to the RUF. Both prosecution and defense witnesses have testified to this.
The (ECOMOG) Commander General and the Guinea Soldiers are critical witnesses for the prosecution to ask the court for subpoena. Why can’t the prosecution subpoena these guns runners, arm dealers and gun smugglers to testify, instead of implicating Ms Campbell? But no, the prosecution doesn’t want to get to the button of this trial. The prosecution motive is to keep delaying the trial and hoping some invisible hands will give them the magic bullet.
IF THE EVIDENCE IS NOT THERE, THE JUDGES MUST ACQUIT!
How are we sure this so called ECOMOG MIDDLE MAN THAT SUPPOSEDLY TOOK THE 30,000.00 DOLLARS FROM THIS NEW WITNESS, Dc292, was not an NPFL agent for taylor, and posing as ECOMOG peacekeeper? If the money was taken and arms not presented does not indicate all arms supplied from Liberia to RUF came from ECOMOG peacekeepers ONLY, neither will this convince the Judges that “wait a minute, taylor probably never supplied arms to RUF, and rather, it was Currupt Ecomog soldiers.” This is where I question the intelligence of Defense witnesses and their team! Do you think we will fall for this coached narrations and lying to the world even though the truth lies as plain as day and night? Give me a break!
Fallah need I remind you that the accuser must prove his allegations beyond reasonable doubt? why do you keep bring up various allegations and expecting the accussed to provide evidence of his innocenc instead of you the accuser providing evidence of his guilt? you surely have learnt alot from the prosecutors in this case.
Jacone,
You got it right, your comment of 2010/06/05 at 10:36am cannot be posted because it is stated as a fact without any evidence. Kindly refer us to the evidence, or the report. Alternatively, you can state it as an opinion or something that is alleged.
Thanks,
Alpha
Hmmm!!!!
Time and territorial control:
Did this witness give the year he is referring to when an ECOMOG officer
allegedly turned gun runner received such amount? Who was in charge
of that particular area where the ammos and weapons were to be
smuggled – Taylor or ECOMOG?
Sankoh’s power to release prisoners in Liberia and turned them into war machines under the nose of CT:
Did this witness say that “one Pa Morlai, who he later came to
know as RUF leader Mr. Sankoh, took them from their detention
to a training base named Camp Naama in Liberia”? I thought I
heard refutations from other defense witnesses against this assertion?
Sankoh the evangelist, Taylor the preacher:
Did he say that Sankoh carry a small Bible with him? I wonder if this
witness and his boss, Sankoh, ever read Jesus’ comments on love of God’s
creation and love of enemies. If Sankoh was a Bible carry soldier like his
boss CT, a would-be preacher turned the likes of Khmer Rouge’s Pol Put,
then what were their moral, ethical, theological, and philosophical justifications
for persecuting wars that killed many innocent people many of whom begged for their lives?
Why did they turn Liberia and Sierra Leone into West Africa’s killing fields?
Did they read the book of Revelation and came across the souls of the innocent crying out
to God for justice? Did they think they were going to get away with these killings?
Sankoh died before justice was served on him but CT, like Doe, will get justice
because the souls of the dead are crying out for justice. Then Prince Johnson, Boley,
Kromah, Conneh, and the others will get justice…justice for some of them might be slow
but it will come because they usurped the role of God by taking the lives of others.
Davenport,
One person cannot know about all that happened during the war in Liberia. As the result, the witness should testify about what he or she know and saw. If I was to testify in this trail, I was going to tell the court what I saw happened. Some of the things I saw during the war was things that was happening with out Mr. Taylor known about it. How I got to know that is that, when fighters who were doing the wrong things got to know that their report were going to Gbanga, they will run away. If I was told by Commander to do something, why will I run away when my commander is being told of what I am doing? It doesn’t sense if should run away while carrying out the commander orders!
Another contradiction, which of course is the mantra of Charles Taylor and his witnesses, I stand to be corrected, that other defense witnesses before DCT 292 had testified earlier that the RUF got their arms from the Guinean army through the exchange of cash crops at a border town between Sierra Leone & Guinea, and no arms came from Liberia, these late admissions that arms were actually paid for by the RUF from Liberia in the amount of US $30.000 and attempting to pin such transactions on Ecomog is another desperate attempt.this witness (DCT 292) needs to be grill by the prosecution to provide names, and it will all lead back to Charles Taylor and his gangs.
So what is your point Ziggy? Are you in a position now to help the defence present its case? if only one witness was required by the defence this case would have been closed since Mr Taylor testified and he would have been found NOT GUITY! But the defence team in their brilliance have being providing witnesses to testify on a specific source of ammunition that they were aware of, that is what is happening Ziggy! By the time the defence concludes its case, there will so much doubt in the prosecution case that even the devil if he were a judge in this court will not be able to render a guilty verdict based on the evidence presented by the prosecution. They MUST acquit.
Ziggy Salis,
You don’t have to say witnesses testified that RUF got weapons from ULIMO and Guinean Soldiers! The SALUTE report written by Sam Bockarie to Mr. Sankor state just that and the fact that ULIMO controlled the western and Northern border of Liberia from June 1992 to late 1997 can also prove that as well.
So how was RUF getting weapons to continue fighting in Sierra Leone from April of 1992 to August of 1997- at which time Mr. Taylor took over Liberia as President? Just to remind you, ULIMO enter weasuah located in lower Lofa in April 1992….. During that time, I was traveling to weasuah with 23 men who I paid to carry liquor, rice, dried fish, dried meat and palm oil for sale in weasuah, Lofa bridge and Smith Camp.
While we were in Lofa bridge, ULIMO entered Weasuah, so we had to take the road through Smith camp going through Takpelma to Bopolu. From Bopolu, we went through totoqueleh to Deekee and cross the ST. Paul River to Bong County!
The prosecution lie by saying that Mr. Taylor requested reinforcement from RUF during the fall of NPFL headquater in 1994 to recaptured Gbarnga but what the prosecution didn’t realized was that ULIMO was in complete controlled of the border of Sierra Leone and Guinea, as well as along the ST. Paul River from Guinea to Monrovia.
So how was it possible for RUF fighters to travel from Sierra Leone through ULIMO controlled areas to go fighting in Gbarnga? Does that make any sense? Of course not!
Another thing here is the fact that ECOMOG was training people in Liberia to fight in Sierra Leone. Have any of you care to know why ECOMOG was doing that? ECOMOG did prolong the war in both Countries, that is Liberia and Sierra Leone! People need to go back and connect the dots.
Davenport and Fallah,
I guess despite of all the preponderance of evidence to the contrary and inspite of all the defence witnesses who by the way were not houseboys or mechanics but high ups in both the RUF and NPFL, you are still bent on closing your eyes to the fact that the Prosecution just do not have a case right? It is sad to see that you are so bitter that nothing to you makes sense, even when it is so obvious. I guess even if Christ himself came down and told you that this man did not sell arms to the RUF you will say he is lying for the defence, right?
It is sad, sad, sad. And I say shame on you. Get over it, the case has too many holes in it to be real. It is a fallacy, so get use to that fact. There just isn’t a case to answer to. It is a waste of everyone’s time.
Helen,
The defense witnesses high up positions in the NPFL and the RUF is the reason why they are lying to their teeth, because any admission would doomed them in future trials. The prosecution witnesses do not have any reason to lie because they have probably been granted immunity and i say “PROBABLY.”
Nossirah,
So because you have based this your comment on speculation, I will not take you on too much on it however, I want you to know that many of the witnesses that have testified for the defence have testified openly and infact they were eye witnesses of the events they were testifying about. in contrast prosecution witnesses were secondhand, thirdhand and sometimes fourthhand hearsay witnesses. And some of the prosecution witnesses are nothing short of lunatics e.g Zigzag Marzah who confessed to committing so much war crimes and crimes against humanity that no reasonable prosecution could not have charged him for those crimes he has confessed to committing.
Helen,
I was looking for the point you wanted to forefront but found none.
Fallah,
It is also sad that you don’t know about ECOMOG arm deal during the conflicts both in Liberia and Sierra Lone. Arm deal involving ECOMOG soldiers was an open secret. It not news for this witness to that ECOMOG commanders sold arms to RUF. If you don’t know, that does not mean that it did not take place my brother.
Harris K Johnson
Harris K Johnson,
Your admission to been with Taylor and a family member negates any argument you have to offer on this site. Your position is biased and no matter what anybody says, is not going to change your position. I am sorry that these ill treatments did not happen to you, but that does not mean they did not happen.
I agree ECOMOG at one point in time played one warring faction against the other and i can bear witness to that. Can you in all honesty say Taylor and the NPFL did not commit any atrocity against the people of Liberia and Sierra Leone ? I know your obvious answer and that is the difference between you and i. If you prove me wrong, i will wholeheartedly apologize.
Nosirrah why do you keep bringing Liberia into this case. Reading the indictment in this trial will do you a lot of good. you will see that Mr Taylor is not charged for any crimes committed in Liberia in the indictment all the charges relates to SL. So in the context of this trial, please do not bring Liberia into it. there has not being a war crimes tribunal set up for Liberia yet. when that court comes onto being, we all can unanimously charge Mr Taylor, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Yomie Johnson, Alhaji Kromah and all other principal actors in the war and give them all a free and fair trial. But for now this case is about SL show us the proof the Charles Ghankay Taylor is responsible for the crimes committed in SL by the RUF and that he received dianmond in exchange for weapons. that he has ammassed billions od dollars as a result of his arms and diamonds dealing with the RUF. We want to see the evidence to prove these charges. is this a difficult thing to do?
As I sit and read,look at these stories on the news ………….
Read some of the comments, I think of my late father.what u see and hear all ways not the same.open your mind to things.these people, that is the super power what ever they say must be the truth..so when they say jump, we ask how high.they want to tell us how to act and treat our fellowman bad we jump to it. How here former president BUSH sitting at home writing about his on facebook with.a man that send his own people to kill thousands in to other mans country with ther president.no one will ever sent him to trial.
These people ,will never let their past or present president But HO! Africa, we must kill them sell them out.the world know what he did was worng but here he is sitting in his home.I am sick of B S trial here.everyone over there knows it.where is the evidances?the Big B told us it was Liberians killing Liberians and it was not their business so we should die. As I said my father told open your mind.Mr BUSH was telling us some thing here when he give us all those BOOKS u people need to learn from us.they already we were not Educated.because they brought Taylor back to us and said is your man. We said no! We sold him out an ask them to kill him for us.
This is what these people want to see from us ,figh
ting against each other. Is this no there is on sound of guns .But our minds are still fighting each other in many ways.
The prosecutors do not prove nothing, becaues all the fighter and playersknow about it too. The y
I like this particular prosecutors for presenting a very weak case. Good job prosecutors.
Hello Guys My Name Is Daniel Gborie I Am A Son of 1 of The Nigerian Soldiers In Liberia During The Ecomog war. I am looking for my father this October 29 will make me 16 years old I need to get in contact with him. His name is zamani I don’t know his last name he’s about 6’2-6’4ft tall and my contact number is +13125934879 I stay in the United state’s of America Chicago, IL He was in Nibatt 22 Battalion, He’s An Infantry, Serving from Ebawa Baracks, His Full Name is Zamani Kamba, He’s from Kebi state zuru my contact number is 3125934879