As his cross-examination moved into a second week, Charles Taylor’s 19th defense witness, Issa Hassan Sesay, this week distanced the former Liberian president from the creation of the rebel group that waged a bloody civil war in Sierra Leone from 1991 to 2002. Mr. Sesay also denied allegations that it was Mr. Taylor who promoted a senior rebel commander in Sierra Leone to the rank of General.
Prosecutors have maintained that the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was created with substantial support from Mr. Taylor. In addition, prosecutors allege the former president, while he served as leader of his own rebel group, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), helped train RUF fighters in Sierra Leone and equipped them to invade Sierra Leone in March 1991. Prosecutors further accuse Mr. Taylor of meeting with RUF leader Foday Sankoh in Libya, and the two men planned the invasion of Liberia and Sierra Leone respectively. Mr. Taylor has denied these allegations. On Monday, Mr. Sesay distanced Mr. Taylor from the creation of the RUF, insisting instead that the rebel group was created by its leader Foday Sankoh.
“You know that the RUF was created with the acquiescence and support of Charles Taylor,” prosecution counsel Nicholas Koumjian stated to Mr. Sesay on Monday.
“Well, I cannot explain because I was not there when Mr. Sankoh and Mr. Taylor discussed,” Mr. Sesay responded.
“Most of the RUF fighters I knew at the base [camp where RUF fighters were trained], it was Pa Kallon [Senior adviser to Mr. Sankoh] who took them to the base,” he added.
Mr. Koumjian on Monday read several testimonies from previous witnesses before the Special Court for Sierra Leone in Freetown that explained how the RUF recruited fighters in Liberia. According to Mr. Koumjian, RUF fighters were recruited from among people who had been arrested by NPFL rebels in Liberia.
One of the testimonies read in court on Monday was that of Morris Kallon, a former RUF commander who, like Mr. Sesay, has been convicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone judges in Freetown for his role in the Sierra Leonean conflict and is presently serving a 40 year jail sentence in Rwanda. Mr. Kallon explained in his testimony that RUF leaders removed him from the custody of NPFL fighters and took him to the training base at Camp Naama in Liberia. Prosecutors say that such a recruitment drive and training by the RUF inside NPFL territory could not have happened without Mr. Taylor’s knowledge.
Mr. Taylor has denied knowledge of any such activities. When asked about these allegations, Mr. Sesay also told the court that he had no idea that the RUF had recruited fighters from NPFL controlled areas and that Mr. Taylor did not provide any support to the RUF while they underwent training at Camp Naama.
“It was obvious to you that the RUF was created and supported by Charles Taylor, but you just don’t want to say that because you are here to protect Charles Taylor,” Mr. Koumjian told Mr. Sesay.
“No. That is not true. It was Mr. Sankoh who created the RUF. It was Mr. Sankoh who trained the RUF, and he used to tell us that he was supported by his brother Pa Kallon and Pa Kallon told us the same thing at Pendembu,” Mr. Sesay said.
Mr. Sesay, you are clever, it’s clear to you that none of this could have been done without the consent of Charles Taylor,” Mr. Koumjian put to Mr. Sesay again.
In response, Mr. Sesay said, “Well, if you assess it that way, but I have to believe what Mr. Sankoh told me…but Mr. Sankoh did not tell me that he had links with Mr. Taylor…according to him, he was Mr. Taylor’s friend and he was responsible for his own revolution.”
Mr. Sesay’s account of how and where Mr. Taylor and Mr. Sankoh met, however, contradicted what Mr. Taylor told the court in his testimony in 2009. According to Mr. Taylor, he never met Mr. Sankoh in Libya. Mr. Taylor explained in his testimony that when United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia (ULIMO) rebels started attacking the NPFL with support from the government of Sierra Leone, he asked to meet the leader of the RUF because he realized the need to collaborate with the RUF to curtail attacks from ULIMO and the Sierra Leone government. Mr. Taylor said that was the first time he met Mr. Sankoh. On Monday, Mr. Sesay gave a different story.
When asked to tell the court what Mr. Sankoh told him about how he met Mr. Taylor, Mr. Sesay said, “According to Mr. Sankoh, he said he met Mr. Taylor in Libya and later in Liberia because Mr. Sankoh and his men were also training in Libya.”
Mr. Sesay, however, added, “Mr. Sankoh told us that he was not the leader in Libya, it was Allie Kabbah who was the leader.”
Before the RUF invasion of Sierra Leone in 1991, Mr. Sankoh made a satellite phone call to the BBC where he announced that the RUF will invade Sierra Leone in 90 days if the country’s then leader, Joseph Saidu Momoh, did not step down as president. While Mr. Sesay admitted that Mr. Sankoh did not have a satellite phone at this time, he said he could not tell whether the RUF leader had used the satellite phone that Mr. Taylor was using at that time to communicate with the international media.
When asked whether “Foday Sankoh’s threat, the 90 day ultimatum, was made on Charles Taylor’s satellite phone,” Mr. Sesay said, “I don’t know that.”
Mr. Sesay agreed that the RUF invasion in Sierra Leone was moved to an earlier date in March 1991 because of border clashes that took place between NPFL fighters and Sierra Leone Army (SLA) forces in Bomaru, eastern Sierra Leone. When these clashes between the NPFL and the SLA occurred, the RUF used that opportunity to immediately invade Sierra Leone, Mr. Sesay said. He explained that Mr. Sankoh and other NPFL commanders, including Anthony Menkunagbe and Oliver Varney, brought four trucks that were used to transport RUF fighters from Camp Naama to the Sierra Leone-Liberian border where they entered Bomaru.
On Tuesday, Mr. Koumjian questioned Mr. Sesay about the friendship between Mr. Taylor and RUF leader Foday Sankoh – a friendship prosecutors say predates the invasion of Sierra Leone in March 1991.
Prosecutors say that the two men became friends while they trained their respective fighters in Libya in the late 1980s and that the basis of such friendship was to provide mutual assistance to each other in their respective invasions of Liberia and Sierra Leone. When he testified as a witness in his own defense, Mr. Taylor said that he did not know Mr. Sankoh prior to the RUF’s invasion of Sierra Leone in 1991. In his testimony on Monday, Mr. Sesay told the court that while they underwent training at Camp Naama in Liberia in 1990, Mr. Sankoh informed them that he was already friends with Mr. Taylor. On Tuesday, Prosecutors decided to dig further.
Mr. Koumjian put to Mr. Sesay that in a previous BBC interview, Mr. Taylor had announced, “It is known by everyone that I have been friendly with Foday Sankoh for many years before the revolution.”
During his testimony, Mr. Taylor responded to the statement above by saying, “I said it is known by everyone that I knew Foday Sankoh before the revolution when in fact I did not.”
“Was it known by all of you at Naama that Foday Sankoh was friendly with Charles Taylor or Charles Taylor was friendly with Foday Sankoh many years before the revolution?” Mr. Koumjian asked Mr. Sesay.
In response, Mr. Sesay said, “I cannot say what was happening before the revolution, but Mr. Sankoh told us at Naama that he was friends with Mr. Taylor…[He said so] at Naama and also in Sierra Leone.”
Prosecutors are seeking to establish that the friendship between Mr. Taylor and Mr. Sankoh before the wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone saw the commencement of a joint criminal enterprise between the two men, and the purpose of such enterprise was to capture and control political power in their respective countries. In the pursuit of this enterprise in Sierra Leone, prosecutors allege that the RUF committed heinous crimes in Sierra Leone, crimes they say that Mr. Taylor bears the greatest responsibility for. Mr. Taylor has denied the allegations against him.
On Wednesday, Mr. Koumjian questioned Mr. Sesay about allegations that Mr. Taylor promoted RUF commander Sam Bockarie to the rank of Two Star General in late 1998, a time when the Sierra Leonean rebels were actively pursuing the conflict in Sierra Leone. Mr. Sesay insisted that it was not Mr. Taylor who issued the promotion to the Sierra Leonean rebel commander.
Prosecutors allege that when RUF leader Mr. Sankoh was incarcerated by the government of Sierra Leone, Mr. Taylor had full control over the RUF and that the rebel group’s commanders took all orders from the former Liberian president. According to several prosecution witnesses, sometime in 1998, RUF commander Mr. Bockarie returned from Liberia and informed them that Mr. Taylor had promoted him to the rank of General in the RUF. Prosecutors say this points at Mr. Taylor’s control over the Sierra Leonean rebel group.
Mr. Taylor has dismissed these allegations as false. Mr. Sesay has told the court that Mr. Bockarie was promoted by Johnny Paul Koroma, then former leader of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), a group of Sierra Leonean soldiers who overthrew the elected government of Sierra Leone in 1997 and teamed up with the RUF to establish a government. The joint AFRC/RUF junta regime was forcefully removed from power by Economic Community of West African States (ECOMOG) peacekeepers in 1998.
On Wednesday, Mr. Koumjian in cross-examining Mr. Sesay showed him individual pictures of Mr. Bockarie, Mr. Taylor’s former vice president Moses Blah, and the former Director of Special Security Services Benjamin Yeaten who, according to Mr. Koumjian, all displayed their stars indicating their military ranks in the same fashion. In the picture, all three persons were wearing “red berets” with the stars indicating their positions as Generals on the front of their berets.
“The red berets are identical that Sam Bockarie, Benjamin Yeaten, and Moses Blah are wearing, correct?” Mr. Koumjian asked Mr. Sesay.
“Yes, I see them, but we too had red berets.” Mr. Sesay responded.
When the prosecution noted that “[i]t’s the same uniform, the same type of khaki uniform that Sam Bockarie has with the Liberians,” Mr. Sesay explained that “this is a US camouflage that the Nigerians used to wear, we used to capture them.”
“When we joined the AFRC, [Corporal] Gborie used to supply those red berets to the RUF. Even when we fought ECOMOG, we used to capture these camouflage, we captured lots of red berets,” he added.
Mr. Koumjian pointed out that the difference between the Sierra Leone Army (SLA) and Mr. Taylor’s forces was that in Sierra Leone, the soldiers displayed their stars on their military uniforms while Mr. Taylor’s forces displayed theirs on their berets, as done by Mr. Yeaten and Mr. Blah. Mr. Sesay agreed with Mr. Koumjian on this.
“It’s correct, isn’t it, that the Sierra Leone Army would not wear stars on the beret?” Mr. Koumjian asked again.
In response, Mr. Sesay said, “Yes, the Sierra Leone Army, they put their ranks on their uniform.”
“This is just further evidence that the promotion of Sam Bockarie was done by Mr. Taylor, not Johnny Paul Koroma,” Mr. Koumjian challenged Mr. Sesay.
“No,” Mr. Sesay said. “He was promoted by Johnny Paul. They can promote you and you’ll remove the star from the uniform and put it on your beret. That’s what Sam Bockarie did.”
On Thursday, Mr. Sesay made considerable effort to distance the RUF from the 1999 invasion of Freetown, an attack which saw the commission of heinous crimes including murder, rape, amputations of the arms and limbs of civilians, and the looting and destruction of civilian property. Mr. Sesay insisted that the invasion of Freetown was solely an operation undertaken by the AFRC soldiers.
“It was an AFRC operation, it was an independent operation that they carried out,” Mr. Sesay told the court in reference to the January 1999 invasion of Freetown.
Mr. Sesay explained that “they [AFRC] fought from Koinadugu [Northern Sierra Leone] right up to Freetown on their own.”
According to Mr. Sesay, the action of the democratic government of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah to execute members of the Sierra Leone Army (SLA), who had been found guilty by a Court Martial for their involvement in the coup, was the main reason why the AFRC decided to attack Freetown.
“That is why they attacked Freetown, they said their colleagues had been killed,” Mr. Sesay told the court.
Prosecutors on the otherhand have insisted that the 1999 Freetown invasion was a joint operation undertaken by the AFRC and the RUF in pursuit of their joint criminal enterprise in Sierra Leone. Prosecutors hope that by proving the RUF’s involvement in the Freetown invasion, Mr. Taylor would be held liable because according to prosecutors, when Mr. Taylor allegedly provided arms and ammunition to the RUF to attack the diamond rich town of Kono in December 1998, the rebels used that operation and the same arms and ammunition to advance to the northern part of the country before they proceeded to Freetown in January 1999.
Mr. Sesay has denied these allegations, telling the court instead that the AFRC troops that attacked Freetown took off from Koinadugu under the leadership of Solomon Anthony James Musa (SAJ Musa) but that when SAJ Musa died before the troops entered Freetown, Alex Tamba Brima, aka Gullit, (also now convicted by the Special Court and serving a jail term in Rwanda) took over the leadership of the troops. It was at that time that he made contact with RUF commander Mr. Bockarie.
“According to [my radio] operator, it was Gullit’s name that was mentioned to Sam Bockarie’s operator. He said Gullit told Sam Bockarie that SAJ Musa was dead. Then Sam Bockarie told Gullit that they should wait for reinforcement to come so that they will attack Freetown,” Mr. Sesay explained.
Mr. Sesay added that Gullit did not wait for the reinforcement to arrive when he led his troops into Freetown.
When asked whether it was Mr. Bockarie who offered to send reinforcements to support Gullit’s troops, Mr. Sesay said, “That is what my operator told me…based on the instruction he gave Gullit to wait to get reinforcement for us to attack Freetown, but Gullit did not wait, he did not go ahead with what he was told.”
Mr. Sesay told the court that the RUF was not involved in the plan to attack Freetown because the AFRC’s SAJ Musa and the RUF’s Mr. Boackarie were not on speaking terms. When asked why Mr. Bockarie was “offering to send reinforcement to this renegade group,” Mr. Sesay said that “when Gullit told Bockarie that SAJ Musa was dead, since Gullit was his friend, Bockarie was ready to work with him.”
Mr. Sesay said that the RUF fighters who moved to reinforce the AFRC could not enter Freetown because ECOMOG forces stopped them at Waterloo outside Freetown.
“ECOMOG was in Hastings and Jui and so they [RUF} could not go to Freetown,” Mr. Sesay said.
He agreed that their purpose was to enter Freetown.
Mr. Koumjian then played in court a January 1999 audio clip of a BBC interview by a Colonel FAT Sesay in which the Colonel told the interviewer that “we have again overthrown the SLPP [Sierra Leone People’s Party]…the combined forces of the AFRC and the RUF forces.”
In response to this, Mr. Sesay said, “I knew that he was lying because at that time, the RUF were in Makeni.”
Mr. Sesay insisted, “I was not part of the planning, nor was I part of the execution of the attack on Freetown.”
When told that RUF’s Mr. Bockarie had “called his papay [Mr. Taylor]” to inform him that the rebel forces had entered Freetown, Mr. Sesay said, “I didn’t know about that.”
Utter baloney
Let this innocent man be freed and let’s put this chapter behind us. Koumjian and Hollies the trinity, David Crang put you guys in this mess and escapes under the alleged reason of taking a new job eh. Beware.
Exellent, mr. Koumjian, for this peice that says thousands;”Mr. Sesay, you are clever, it’s clear to you that none of this could have been done without the consent of Charles Taylor,” Mr. Koumjian put to Mr. Sesay again.” Though I hate taylor, but I also think he was as clever as Issa, because not only did both vision, ahead of time, what would ultimately come to pass, which is indictment, taylor possibly went ahead of elimination of key witnesses such as Boakerie( General Mosquito) the menance, Sankoh,General But Kisser,and several others whose testimonies would have being damaging to any possible trials! This is why, I believe, in all of Issa’s accounts, Issa has clevery left out saying anything about Yeathen because he knows Yeathen is still around, though, in hiding. Defense, I believe, had coached Issa in being very careful about bringing names of those still around! This is my “theory” to focus on for the next 5 days! I will find connections to my theory as the CROSS continues, Sam, Helen, Jose AKA General Fix It, and Jacone, the American Trained General of Damaged Control…jfallahmenjor taylor’s Buddy.
@ fellow bloggers
Sesay testimony today raises some veracity concerns. However, the back and forth use of prior testimony by multiple witnesses is confusing and misleading in itself. The opportunity to cross or recross the witness prior testimony is too far off. Today I found myself doubting some of his testimony…but my concerns can only be remedied if at all when the cross or recross of the witness’ whose prior testimony was used takes the stand. The only exception would be the prior testimony of the accused, CT.
On a more practical note, my suggestion that JFmenjor posts be ignored is serious, His hate mongoring and inciting language are the tools used to start and fuel civil wars.
peace and blessings
Dear cen,
I too am frustrated with the manner in which Mr. Sesay is now examined. However, on the issue of money, Mr. Taylor was not for certain as to the amounts given; and Mr. Sesay stated that other than the money given to him for fuel, the money was for lodging while in Monrovia.
In reference to Sam Bockarie’s request to return to Sierra Leone at Mr. Taylor’s suggestion, Mr. Sesay supported Mr. Taylor’s claim that Mr. Taylor did not SUGGEST to Mr. Sesay that Sam Bockarie be allowed to return; Mr. Taylor merely restated Sam Bockarie’s request to Mr. Sesay.
When the prosecution began its cross, he stated that more than 2,000 pages had been created of Mr. Sesay’s testimony; perhaps they are only attempting to equal that amount with their cross.
Sam
I agree.
Cen; I thought you guys are the very ones promoting not only divisiveness on this site, but basis for the next civil war! Don’t you remember how some of pro-taylor rhetorics in the past about indirectly insulting victims about how taylor is welcome to come back to Liberia for “some more?” I am Liberian and 90% of people hurt from this unrest in Liberia were my Native Brothers and Sisters, and to hear these Cousins and Brothers of taylor clan say these does not only infuriate me, but causes me to harbor more malice and plans for vengence! I am human like everyone else on this site, Cen. That is why I admonished everybody at the beginning to stay on the topic and stop bringing up issues that build animosity between two sets of pople of Liberia, that you very well know exist, just like racism exists in America between Black and White! And you guys further love to get me going when you question my nationality of liberia knowing very well you are wrong..this is the closest I will attempt explaining myself on this topic…no more revisit of this ..Cen..leave jfallahmenjor in peace as he mourns the deaths of members of his clan that were murdered in cold blood.
JFMenjor
I thought you were Lebanese? I understand if you are angry, hurt, or what ever. But it is time for meaningful exchange and educating one another. Sometimes people only here what we have said many many days or years later. So just speak your position without so much venom. Also, people tend to tune us out if the message is caustic.
peace and blessings
ps. hate the behavior of persons not the person…we are all god’s children
fjmenjor
Also, what two sets of people are you referring to….ameri-lib and nat-lib?
For the record I am aligned on the side of justice for all. I am not a CT supporter or non-supporter.
peace & blessings
Please! please! please!, Fallah Menjor,
Stop pretending like you don’t know who killed or caused mayham to your people. You know ALHAJI KROMAH took his men through Lofa and destroyed the people poro society , burned their homes and damaged all they had. Why are you blaming Taylor and not your country man kromah…Try to be fair for God sake……
Dear j.fallah menjor,
We cannot publish your comment due to copyright policies. If you can provide the link to the article you copied, we will happily publish that link with your comment.
Thank you.
I got this from Running Africa.com. However, I am fine if you are concerned and which is your right not to publish it. Is it possible for me to quote few passages from it, by Emmanuel Abalo, who writes for International Wire Services?
Dear j.fallah menjor,
Yes, it will be okay to provide quotes from a few passages. Please also provide us with the full link to the article.
J fallah,I think u guys are running out of idea now,there is n evidence, you guys expect sassey to lie since he in jail,no your fail,do u have evidence that Taylor eliminate RUF member no there is no such evidence,as for Bokarie he die resisting arrest point blank.we need evidence not they say.
Issa Saysay’s testimony to a letter signed “Essa Sasay” and presidented to this court by Charles Taylor from his ‘presidential files’, has turned up to be a forge document. What was the mindset of Taylor and his lawer Mr. Griffith?Did they think that Issa Sesay would have never appear as their own witness? Again another major contradictions; during Taylor’ testimonies, when confronted with prosecution witnesses accounts that it was he Taylor who personally requested Issa Sesay to take Sam Bockarie back, Taylor denials that such accounts were lies;But today Issa Sesay confirmed that it was Charles Taylor who asked him to take Sam Bockarie back, and he had promised to discussed said with his field generals. Taylor has been given sufficient chance to defends himself, but all he’s done is lied and continue to implicates himself.
So Ziggy Salis, is Issa Sesay a credible witness? I will appreciate a direct answer to the question since you are now jumping up because of some seeming contradiction between his testimony and that of Charles Taylor.
Another Charles Taylor international associate faces extradition
Posted August 21, 2010
Another international associate and black market arms dealer of former Liberian President Charles Taylor is facing extradition to answer an indictment which charges that he tried to buy airplanes from US companies to transport illegal arms to conflict spots around the world. Viktor Bout was indicted on February 17, 2010 by U.S Prosecutors.
An appeals court in Thailand on Friday granted a request made by the U.S. Government for the extradition of Mr. Viktor Bout. As the verdict of his extradition was read, Mr. Bout hung his head and cried. Known as the “Merchant of Death” the high profile arms dealer and Russian native is accused by US prosecutor of selling and brokering arms deal which exacerbated wars and conflicts and supported regimes in Afghanistan, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Sudan.
Mr.. Bout is on the United Nations list of individuals sanctioned for his direct support to former Liberian President Charles Taylor’s whose regime in West Africa is alleged to have supported rebels in neighboring Sierra Leone between 1991 – 2001. The war claimed the lives of nearly 250,000 people and dislocated another 1 million others in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Mr. Bout has denied US prosecutors charges against him saying he was infact a legitimate arms dealer.
Mr.. Taylor is facing war crimes trial in the Hague before the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
Lauren Rozen, a foreign policy report for the online website Politico charges that ” Bout became linked to Charles Taylor through Sanjivan Ruprah, a Kenyan, in 2000. Ruprah was a biz partner of Bout’s, and has two Liberian passports. Bout and Ruprah got some diamond mines in exchange for their services. Bout was happy to take diamonds in payment for his lethal loads to Liberia, Congo and Angola. He had even tried to set up a diamond export business in the Congo…”
Ruprah remains at large and is believed to be back in business in somewhere in parts of Africa supplying arms to various groups.
The former Taylor associate Mr. Bout is said to have made millions in the illicit black-market arms market
A U.S Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets statement details that the arms dealer Mr. Bout as owns several bank accounts, air cargo firms and shell companies under various names. Authorities believe Mr. Bout used these various assets to evade international tracking of his business ventures in arms deliveries to nefarious and shady individuals and insurgent groups across the globe.
In a letter dated October 26, 2001 from the Chairman of the UN Security Council Committee established pursuant to the resolution 1343 of 2001 concerning Liberia addressed to the President of the Security Council, it was noted that the ” the main company behind many of the arms shipments was San Air, in the United Arab Emirates. San Air is an agent for Centrafrican Airlines, the main company of Viktor Bout, and the owner of many of the arms trafficking planes involved. San Air’s bank accounts were used for many payments for arms deliveries to Liberia and the money trail is described in the section on government expenditures”
The UN Panel at the time recommended that an arms embargo be extended on Liberia, that all UN member states abstain from supplying weans to the Mano River Countries and an arms embargo be imposed on the armed non-state actors in the three Mano River Union countries (namely the LURD and ULIMO factions, the RUF and Guinean armed dissident groups).
In its report, the UN Panel in its analysis of the aviation network involved in arms supplies to Liberia under the regime of ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor cited “evidence of involvement of Sergui Denissenko, Alexander Islamov, Papel Popov and Sanjivan Ruprah. All these individuals are directly connected to Viktor Bout and the operations of his aircraft…”
In section 23 of the Executive Summary of the UN Panel’s Report, the Panel documented how the “Singapore-based mother company of the Oriental Timber Company, a company with significant timber operations in Liberia arranged a $500,00 USD payment for arms shipment in August, 1999; how the Bureau of Maritime Affairs in Liberia headed at the time by another Taylor Associate Mr. Benoni Urey assisted violation of the arms embargo and paid directly to Victor Bout’s San Air’s bank account and how Sanjivan Ruprah, a diamond dealer and partner of Viktor Bout had taken residence in Liberia, at the end of the arms pipeline”.
International wire reports say “U.S DEA agents posed as Colombian guerrillas and lured the elusive Mr. Bout on tape promising to sell the crew 700 to 800 surface-to-air missiles, enough ammo for a small war, cargo planes and even “how-to” classes to use the weapons.”
Mr. Bout’s lawyers have served notice that they intend to file an appeal against the decision to extradite him to the US for prosecution.
On his “official” website VictorBout.com, Mr. Bout states that…”Venturing into Africa was a matter of necessity rather than choice. ”
By Emmanuel Abalo and International Wire Services
http://www.runningafrica.com
Powered by The African Media Network, Lawrenceville, GA USA. Gabriel S. Gworlekaju Jr. President/CEO; Patrick K. Manjoe,
Executive Director
Fallah, why did you not provide this information to the prosecution during their case? for your information non of what is stated in that article is new. those allegations have been adequately addressed in this trial during Charles Taylor’s testimony. you see the difference between a court of law and villages square gossip corner like the newspaper you have quoted, is that the court of law deals on EVIDENCE. You saw what happened in the Dutch arms case where the accussed was aquited for lack of evidence. the appeals court only over-turned the ruling to allow the prosecution to call additional evidence. after hearing that new evidence the trial chamber will still have to examine the evidence in light of the charges and access the adequacy of such evidence. So do not be quick to rejoice for your joy shall turn to sorrow when Bout is eventually aquited for lack of evidence.
Do you have any comments about the attrocities committed by US troops in Afganistan and Iraq as recently revealed on the wikileaks website? how did your holy and righteous western sponsors measure up to “human rights” when it concerns non US citizen? those crimes committed as revealed in those documents and videos are they not war crimes? why have they not been brought to justice? why have the US tried to hide those actions from the rest of the world? why did global witness and human rights watch and other western sponsored so called human rights groups who are quick to shout at the top of their voice about similar actions in Africa and other developing countries, not talk about these crimes committed by the western troops?
We are not fools man, were know why.
Sam, probably the Prosecution doesn’t need this information because it already has it. I posted this so people could read as part of information technology that is directly related to the taylor trial. That’s all, Sam, but if this hurts your feeling, my apologies, Buddy.
And for your other inquiry about US Afghanastan War and your claims of war crimes, I can not answer to that because you could easly contact The US State Department, and I am sure you will get their response, Sam. I am afraid you are attepting to drag me into some thing totally irrelivant to taylor trial and not related close to the murders of 250,000 unarmed civilians, and sexual slavery of the survivals who were made to dig diamonds , as alleged, for taylor and RUF at gun-Point. That’s what we are concerned with, Sam.
JfMenjor
very interesting…thanks for posting
Tracey,
I was wondering… where is Mike Lamin?
Simeon,
Are you talking about the RUF Mike Lamin? If he is the one you are asking about, just be patient because you will likely see him as a witness for Charles Taylor in this trial. I have no doubt that given the way the defence has tried to bring the real actors in the conflict in SL to testify in the court (and not third hand hearsay), he and Ibrahim Bah may soon be called to come and tell the world what really happend during the war and who the “real” leader of the RUF was and what the RUF did with their diamonds and where they get their arms from.
Yet another list of What Mr. Sessay does not know!
When told that RUF’s Mr. Bockarie had “called his papay [Mr. Taylor]” to inform him that the rebel forces had entered Freetown, Mr. Sesay said, “I didn’t know about that.”
Sessay?