February 23, 2023 [Liberia] Day 18: Executions in Waterside
Witness X2 is heard
The prosecution questions X2
The prosecution began by asking about X2’s participation in the crises in Liberia. The witness testified that he was a soldier on the government’s side during World War III, in 2003 and 2004. He was stationed in Waterside. The government was carrying out attacks against the rebels, who were on Bushrod Island. The rebels were LURD troops. Bushrod island is at the end of the Vai Town bridge that goes towards Freeport. According to the witness, soldiers sometimes looted in Waterside, looking for food for themselves and for civilians. The witness testified that a biscuit store near Waterside bridge was looted and civilians were executed inside the store. This biscuit store was located near the LEC gate junction, near UN Drive. X2 explained that executions occurred because people were breaking army rules by looting, so commanders ordered their killing. He was there himself to witness the executions and heard the orders being given. The soldiers carrying out the executions were government soldiers and members of militias.
X2 testified that the only commander present that he recognized at the time was Senegalese. He could not estimate how many people were killed at the store, as the executions were carried out at night and the store was locked. Both soldiers and civilians were executed, as they had all been looting. There were also foreign soldiers, mercenaries, in Waterside. Some of them were from Sierra Leone. The witness had not personally fought alongside them. The Sierra Leoneans were called aqbah, and they were not stationed in a particular place. X2 recalled the names of some of the soldiers belonging to the aqbah troops, such as General Yaney and Angel or Angel Gabriel. He had not met them personally, but had seen them in Waterside. He explained that: “At the time the mood they were in we never used to go closer to them because they were too fearful (…) They carried out funny funny accusations and executions because of the mood they were in”. These executions were mostly carried out because soldiers would break their rules by for example raping women, looting and killing innocent people. According to X2, women would sometimes go to look for food for their families and soldiers would then rape them. Innocent people were sometimes accused of giving information to the rebels and were executed by government troops.
The witness testified that he had not seen Yaney and Angel Gabriel involved in rape. He had heard about them being involved in killing innocent people, but had not witnessed it himself. He had heard that the aqbah were always with Benjamin Yeaten and when they came to Waterside and saw looting, they opened fire. The witness estimated that Angel Gabriel was a high-ranking leader in aqbah because the younger aqbah soldiers took orders from him. Angel Gabriel spoke English. The witness did not know of any names for him other than Angel Gabriel.
X2 explained that he had seen Yaney and Angel Gabriel in Waterside and also saw Yaney on the new bridge, the Gabriel Tucker bridge. The first time he saw them, it was rumored that they were going to do an attack across the bridge. X2 was there when they attacked. The last time he saw them was when they were planning a general attack. President Charles Taylor was on his way to the front, so all the generals met together. This planning took place around the same time as the arrival of UNMIL, which was ECOMOG working with the UN. After that, the war lasted less than two weeks before there was a ceasefire.
Finally, the witness testified that he had heard Angel Gabriel giving orders to the aqbah troops. He had ordered them to execute or disarm soldiers that had broken the rules. The witness had not seen these orders being carried out in the form of executions.
The defense questions X2
The defense began by asking X2 about the World Wars. The witness explained that World Wars I and II took place from late 2002 until 2003. He was in Monrovia at the time. He named some of the commanders present in Waterside during World War III: General Senegalese, Benjamin Yeaten and Michael Highgrade. There was also a general from the Ministry of Defense and Tony Montana, the commander of Son of the Devil.
The witness had not seen Angel Gabriel during the incident at the biscuit store. He had not seen Angel Gabriel regularly, only here and there, he could not remember the exact number of times that he had seen him. The defense referred to his lower court testimony, where X2 had testified that he saw Angel Gabriel twice in July 2003, during World War III. He had also testified that he had not heard Angel Gabriel speak either of these times. The witness repeated that he did not get close to Angel Gabriel as he was scared of him. He added that he had not personally heard Angel Gabriel giving orders, but many people had told him what they had heard.
X2 testified that the Finnish police had contacted him via a friend of his, [REDACTED], who had been to several interviews and had told him that the Finnish police would like to contact him. He was then contacted by Employee 1.
Additional questions from the prosecution
The prosecution asked some further questions about the names the witness had used for Angel Gabriel in previous hearings. X2 first responded: “I don’t know if he had other names that were attached to him at that time because sometimes some people can use different names”. He then recalled that Angel Gabriel was called Gibril, Gabriel Massaquoi or something similar. These names referred to the same person as Angel Gabriel.
Back to the defense
The defense then asked X2 if he remembered discussing the name Gibril Massaquoi with the Finnish police. He testified that he used the name Gibril Massaquoi as he was one of the mercenaries. He did not know that the interview was about Gibril Massaquoi before meeting with the Finnish police, because he did not know what the interview was about. During the war, X2 had heard from the aqbah men that Gibril Massaquoi and Angel Gabriel were the same person.
X2 stated that everyone in Angel Gabriel’s group spoke English, but he had not heard him speak himself. He knew before his police interview that there would be a trial in Monrovia, but he did not know the details of it. The witness repeated that he did not know who the trial was about but said that he knew he would be asked about the crisis and about Monrovia particularly. He had heard from his friend [REDACTED] in Tubmanburg hat there were questions being asked, but he did not know that it was ‘a trial like this’.
It was pointed out that the witness was not asked to make a photo identification during his police interview.
Witness X6 is heard
The prosecution questions X6
The prosecution began by asking about X6’s participation in the wars in Liberia. The witness testified that he had fought in World Wars I-III in 2002 and 2003. In World War II, he was in Foya, Voinjama and Lofa all the way to Montserrado county, Monrovia. X6 began in Lofa and when LURD pushed them they retreated thorough Gbarpolo and Bomi to Montserrado. He was fighting on the government side and LURD followed them all the way to Monrovia. They started in Gbarpolu and Bomi, and then were pushed to Iron Gate and then to VOA. Once they were pushed out of these places, they ended up in Waterside. The witnesses’ troop was on Front Street and the rest of the government forces were on Waterside. Benjamin was at the EJ Roye building and Michael Highgrade at the Ducor building.
According to X6, Angel Gabriel was in control of Water Street all the way to Old Bridge. Benjamin Yeaten was the key commander, the head of the whole military. He was stationed at EJ Roye. Angel Gabriel was a commander with his own group called aqbah. Most of them were mercenaries from Sierra Leone. Angel Gabriel was also from Sierra Leone and spoke Krio with his men. X6 testified that he would often come in a pickup and talk to his troops, and then leave in the pickup. He described that civilians would come over from West Point and look for food during pauses in the fighting. Some of them were hit by stray bullets.
Next, X6 was asked about an incident where civilians were killed. One morning, he was on patrol, coming from Johanssen towards Waterside. He and his boss Glasco were travelling on a pickup towards the LEC junction. They heard gunfire, so they drove down. As they arrived on the scene, they saw two bodies in front of a store and five bodies inside it. Many aqbah men were on the scene and Glasco asked who had given the order. One of the aqbah men responded that it was Angel Gabriel. Glasco also asked where Angel Gabriel was, and the man responded that Angel Gabriel had just gone towards the Old Bridge. A friend of X6’s, [REDACTED], said to Glasco that if they just sit there, the Sierra Leoneans will kill all of their citizens. Glasco then went after Angel Gabriel, telling them to stay behind. When Glasco went to Angel Gabriel, the two began to argue, and began to walk back towards X6 and the others. Angel Gabriel said: “It was not me, it was the President that gave the order to shoot people that were looting”. Glasco then called Yeaten, who came to the scene. He inspected the situation and ordered the men to meet him at EJ Roye. Glasco, Angel Gabriel and Benjamin Yeaten all got on pickup trucks and left. X6 and others followed and waited for them outside EJ Roye. After a while, Glasco came out and gave his men money to get food. They later ended up in Congo Town.
X6 testified that he did not see Angel Gabriel after disarmament. Disarmament took place less than two weeks after the incident in Waterside, when UNMIL came in. He specified that the store was located near a triple junction between Water Street and LEC Gate, not far from West Point. He saw the bodies of civilians and soldiers all over Waterside in addition to the ones that he previously mentioned. Some were hit by stray bullets, some were killed in battles, and some had broken rules such as by looting and were killed. X6 was not there during the killing done by Angel Gabriel at the store, but he testified that commanders used to do so. According to X6, he mostly saw Angel Gabriel in Montserrado, not elsewhere in Liberia. The witness also explained that when UNMIL arrived, they were ordered to disarm and go home.
The defense questions X6
The defense began by asking about the witness’ troop in the government forces. He testified that his troop was called the War Veteran Special Task Force. Angel Gabriel was in control of Old Bridge. Glasco was his commander, and he and his troop were on Front Street. The defense referred to his police interview, where X6 had said that Salami was responsible for the Old Bridge all the way to LEC. X6 responded that Salami was under Angel Gabriel, who was one of the leaders of the whole war. The defense also pointed out that at the lower court, X6 had mentioned the bodies near the store, but had not spoken anything about bodies being inside the store as well. X6 responded that he had said in the lower court that there were bodies inside the store, but he had not gone inside to check. The defense referred to his lower court’s testimony, where he had testified that Glasco had seen dead people in front of the store. X6 confirmed that he was personally present at the store.
X6 explained that when he got to the store, they were told that Angel Gabriel was on his way and Glasco went after him. The defense pointed out that he had testified in the lower court that Angel Gabriel was stationed at Old Bridge and Glasco had gone to meet him and tensions were running high. X6 confirmed this. Glasco went after Angel Gabriel towards Old Bridge, while X6 and the others stayed behind. The witness repeated that Benjamin Yeaten came and all the commanders went to EJ Roye.
The defense referred to his police interview, where the witness had said that there was a rocket attack and Glasco had been wounded, and Salami and other soldiers had died. There was confusion as to when this had happened, in relation to the events and the store and the commanders going to EJ Roye. An audio recording of his police interview was played. X6 testified that he remembers saying this, including mentioning of the rocket strike. He explained that it had been a long time since the events and some of the things were coming back to him only after listening to the recording.
In his police interview, the witness had also mentioned that Angel Gabriel took 7 people under the bridge. The witness responded that he wasn’t there himself, but someone told him about it in Congo Town. X6 confirmed that he had only been personally present at the biscuit store. He also stated that the rocket strike occurred on the same day as the incident at the biscuit store.
The witness then explained how he got into contact with the Finnish police. He was contacted by one of his men, [REDACTED], who put him in touch with Employee 1. X6 was not aware whether [REDACTED] had been interviewed by the police or whether Employee 1 had spoken to him. He only told him that there people were looking for people who had been involved with the aqbah troops. He did not tell him any details about the case. The defense referred to his lower court testimony, where X6 had said that [REDACTED] had contacted him and asked him to come to the police interview, and that they were together. X6 then responded that he was not sure whether [REDACTED] actually came to the interview. The defense pointed out that X6 had told the lower court that [REDACTED] had told him details about the case. The witness denied this. X6’s police interview recording was played again and it was revealed that there had been an error in interpretation.
Next, X6 was asked about the photographs that he was shown by the police to identify the perpetrator of the acts he had spoken about. X6 testified that he has issues with his eyesight.
Final question from the prosecution
The prosecution then asked the witness a final question about what he had heard about the people being taken by Angel Gabriel. The witness responded that he was told that Angel Gabriel killed the seven people that he had taken under the bridge.
It was pointed out that the witness identified the defendant as Gibril Massaquoi from the series of photographs presented to him at his police interview.
