February 24, 2023 [Liberia] Day 19: Looting civilians shot in Waterside
Witness Y5 is heard
The prosecution questions Y5
The prosecution began their questioning by asking about Y5’s participation in the wars in Liberia. Y5 testified that he had fought in government forces between 2002 and 2003. At the time, he fought in Waterside as part of a militia, during what he named “World Wars I-III”. According to Y5, in Waterside, there were foreign troops from Sierra Leone, called ‘aqbah’, fighting on the government’s side. He explained that the fighting on Waterside was against LURD, who was, at the time, on Bushrod Island, which is over the Waterside Bridge past Vai Town. According to Y5, Waterside Bridge is also called Gabriel Tucker bridge.
Y5 testified that civilians were not treated well in Monrovia and especially in Waterside. He stated that a lot of killings took place and that there were orders to kill looting civilians. Some of the soldiers also looted in Waterside. When asked, Y5 testified that Chief Fifty, also known as Benjamin Yeaten, gave the order to kill civilians who were looting. He explained that commanders gave orders to the aqbah men, who would then execute the orders. Y5 and other militia men were below the aqbah men in the chain of command. The witness named some aqbah commanders, such as General Salomi, General Yaney, Angel Gabriel and Mickey. He testified that he personally witnessed the aqbah men execute Yeaten’s orders multiple times.
The witness described an incident where General Salomi died, and the aqbah men were angry. The next day, he and other militia men broke into a store, as they thought it would contain valuables. They realized that it was a cookie store and whilst some of the militia men looted the store anyway, according to Y5, the Sierra Leoneans did not care for such goods. The store remained open and civilians from West Point and Rock Town came over. As the civilians entered the store, Chief Fifty gave an order to kill everyone going to the store and the aqbah men carried out the killing. According to Y5, after Salomi’s death Angel Gabriel was the aqbah man present at the scene. He stated that he did not hear Fifty give the order to Angel Gabriel. After the order was given, civilians were shot inside the store, and he saw bodies in front of the shop. Y5 testified that he was present that day and personally witnessed the shooting take place and confirmed that the aqbah men and militia men were shooting. He explained that Angel Gabriel was also shooting, he was an aqbah commander at the time and he was angry because of Salomi’s death. Y5 had heard Angel Gabriel speak and described him speaking English with a Krio accent. Y5 testified that he heard Angel Gabriel give orders to the aqbah men, ordering them to “shoot to kill.”
Y5 explained that Angel Gabriel was usually up on Rocktown Hill and the other soldiers below, they did not usually see him during the day. According to Y5, Sierra Leoneans called him Gibril Massaquoi and Liberians called him Angel Gabriel.
Y5 estimated that peace came to Liberia within a week from the shooting at the store. He gave details on the location of the cookie store: near the government’s checkpoint in Waterside, at the Gabriel Tucker Bridge, also called New Bridge. The government had another checkpoint at the LEC gate. Y5 confirmed that he had not heard any news about a person being arrested in relation to the events in Waterside before his interview with the Finnish police.
The defense questions Y5
The defense began their questioning by asking about the government checkpoint at the bridge. Y5 named two commanders who had been at the checkpoint: Tony Montana and Zigzag Marzah. He confirmed that there was no separate base for government troops by the bridge, only the checkpoint. The defense pointed out that Y5 had testified in the lower court that Benjamin Yeaten was in command of the checkpoint, which he confirmed. Angel Gabriel had the same checkpoint by the bridge, but he was also located up at the LEC or down by Waterside. Y5 had heard the name Angel Gabriel in Waterside from soldiers whose names he could not remember. He knew a person called Mickey, he was one of the aqbah men. The defense referred to the police investigation, where Y5 had said that he was friends with a Sierra Leonean man named Mickey who had told him the name Angel Gabriel. Y5 first stated that he could not remember saying this, but after hearing the audio of the police interview, he stated that he did in fact remember.
Y5 stated that he had seen Angel Gabriel two or three times. He described a car with the Sierra Leonean flag and a lion on it that ‘they’ used to travel in.
Next, there was a discussion as to the last time that Y5 had seen Angel Gabriel. He estimated that the first time that he had seen Angel Gabriel was in Duala, the second time in Artington, and the last time he was in Waterside, “the day before the ceasefire, just before the roads reopened”. He stated that the last time he saw Angel Gabriel, he hadn’t done anything to him apart from give the order. The defense then referred to the police investigation, where Y5 had stated that he had seen Massaquoi the last time one day before the ceasefire, at nighttime, and he was playing music and smoking with his friends. Y5 confirmed this, stating that he meant that he hadn’t seen him do anything bad at that time. He then clarified that this last time occurred after the order to kill civilians had been given, estimating that it was about a week later. The defense then referred to the lower court’s judgment, where Y5 had testified that the last time he had seen Gibril Massaquoi was in Waterside, the night before the ceasefire, where he saw him and another Sierra Leonean man get into a car and drive away. Y5 confirmed this, stating that he could not remember which of the two times was actually the last time that he had seen Massaquoi.
Y5 testified that Massaquoi moved at night because he was a mercenary. He was not sure why mercenaries usually moved at night but estimated that it was because they didn’t want people to see them. According to Y5, Angel Gabriel stayed up in Rocktown during the day.
He then explained that the first time that he had seen Angel Gabriel, in Duala, he had seen him with other people inside a car. He explained that he later found out in Waterside, when the name was used, that the person in the car had been Angel Gabriel.
Y5 stated that Angel Gabriel had been a member of a delegation. He had seen Angel Gabriel in a convoy, with a Sierra Leonean flag on the car, which he thought was the RUF. He estimated that he had seen this convoy before World Wars II and III, in 1997.
Next, Y5 explained how the Finnish police had gotten in touch with him through his friend, Witness X2. Y5 had been working in the jungle, when X2 called him and said that the Finnish police was in Liberia and wanted to ask about the Liberian wars. Y5 was not aware whether X2 had been interviewed by the police at the time, X2 had only told him that he was told about the matter. X2 asked Y5 whether he would have any information about the war, as he knew that he had been involved. When the defense pointed out that Y5 had told the lower court that X2 had asked him if he had any information about the RUF’s connection to the civil war in Liberia, he confirmed this. He then stated that Employee 1 had called him to the interview.
Y5 stated that he had heard, a long time ago, that Angel Gabriel lived on Fourteen Houses Road in Monrovia. The defense pointed out that during the police interview, Y5 had told the police that he was not aware where Angel Gabriel had lived. Y5 responded that he did not know it at the time, he had only heard of it. He explained that “the generals didn’t have a specific house or area where they lived”, and “you could hear that he lived somewhere and see that he lived somewhere else”.
The prosecution asked a final question about what he had said at the lower court regarding burying bodies. Y5 explained that when attacks happened, bodies were left on the street and were buried later.
Finally, the prosecution pointed out that the witness had correctly identified the photo of the defendant during his police interview. The defense asked the court to take into account the date on which the police interview and photo identification had taken place.
Witness Y4 is heard
The prosecution questions Y4
The prosecution began by asking where Y4 had lived during the wars in Liberia. He testified that at the beginning of the wars, in 1989-1990, he was living in Monrovia and fled to Lofa with his parents. He then returned to Monrovia in 1991 or 1992, when he was 12 or 13, while there was still fighting there. Because of the fighting, Y4 could not stay in school, so he began working in construction with his father. Y4 testified that he did not participate in any fighting or join any armed groups. However, he witnessed different battles, stating that from the years 1991-96, he witnessed Charles Taylor’s rebels fighting against peacekeepers. Y4 explained that the fighting ended in 2003 with the ceasefire and Taylor leaving the country. According to Y4, before the end of the war, LURD and government forces were fighting in Monrovia, in Duala, Freeport, Waterside and on Slipway bridge. There were mercenaries from other countries, such as Guinea and Sierra Leone, fighting on the sides of both the government and LURD. According to Y4, the mercenaries from Sierra Leone were called aqbah troops.
Y4 saw these troops fighting in Monrovia. He testified to seeing them when he would go looking for food, such as in Duala and on the Stockton bridge, which he explained was in Gardnersville, on the road between Gardnersville and Freeport. Y4 explained that he had worked as a contractor for Benjamin Yeaten to work for his mother. While working, he saw some of the commanders of the aqbah troops. He stated that as he was on good terms with the soldiers, he heard the names of the commanders from them: Mosquito, Prince, Gibril, Salome and a Kissi person from Sierra Leone. According to Y4, Gibril was also called Angel Gabriel by some soldiers and his Sierra Leonean friends called him Gibril.
Y4 estimated that he saw Gibril in 2001 or 2002 in Monrovia, when there was fighting between LURD and government troops. According to Y4, civilians were badly mistreated at the time, they were killed due to stray bullets and intentionally killed. Y4 explained that when civilians went looking for food, soldiers would break into stores and would shoot to scare them away and some civilians were killed. According to Y4, incidents like this happened in Waterside and in Gardnersville, on the Stockton bridge.
Y4 testified that he was in Waterside when one such incident occurred, clarifying that he was not directly at the scene. He testified that he had gone to Waterside to look for food when he heard gunshots and saw people running away. After the gunshots, Y4 saw bodies on the ground. According to Y4, on the same day, one of the aqbah generals had been killed, so the men were angry and began firing “suppressing fire.” Y4 described how he heard gunfire from LEC gate and saw a group of people running from the store towards Johanssen. He saw bodies both inside and outside the store, and injured people trying to crawl away. The store was in Waterside among other stores, but Y4 could not remember exactly where. According to Y4, the aqbah general that had been killed, called Salome, had been killed in the mortar fire coming from the other side of the bridge. The people shooting inside the store were government forces mixed with the Sierra Leonean mercenaries.
The witness confirmed that he had not seen the actual shooting take place, but he had seen aqbah commanders in Waterside at the time. They were giving orders to drive the civilians out and shooting, killing and wounding civilians. According to Y4, there were both aqbah and ATU commanders on the scene and Angel Gabriel was one of the aqbah commanders giving orders. Y4 explained the different times that he had seen Angel Gabriel/Gibril: at Yeaten’s apartment with “the late Vinny”, once by the Kiss FM radio station in a jeep, and at Waterside, the day civilians were killed at the store.
According to Y4, the battles in Monrovia at the time were called World Wars I-III. He estimated that the incident in Waterside took place between 2002 and 2003, maybe early 2002. According to Y4, it took a few months after this incident “for things to calm down” in 2003. The witness testified that Angel Gabriel spoke in good, clear English. Angel Gabriel was the most common name that he heard, and he was also called Gabriel or Gibril by the Sierra Leoneans. Y4 confirmed that he had not heard any news about someone being arrested in Finland before his police interview.
The defense questions Y4
The defense began their questioning by asking about Y4’s construction work. He testified that the site was on Duport Road, in Pipeline, Paynesville. There were no military operations occurring in the area at the time, but he sometimes heard the sounds of fighting from the work site. Y4 estimated that the site was a long way from Waterside, about 30 or 45-minutes’ drive. He explained that in addition to looking for food in Waterside, him and the other construction workers were sometimes forced to carry ammunition and supplies for the soldiers. At the time of the incident in Waterside, Y4 was looking for food, he was first ordered to carry ammunition to EJ Roye and went to Waterside to look for food afterwards. Y4 testified that he never carried arms. He was at EJ Roye when he heard heavy firing coming from the direction of Old Bridge and Vai Town.
The defense asked Y4 to clarify the locations of a few areas in Monrovia. He confirmed that Crown Hill is near EJ Roye, at Broad and Johansson Street. Sniper Hill is located up at Mamba Point, on Benson Street. Y4 explained that he went to Waterside when the shooting had ended to look for food to loot. Once asked, Y4 confirmed that he had told the lower court that he had heard Angel Gabriel give orders to shoot. He explained that he knew that Angel Gabriel was the commander of the aqbah troops, that one of their commanders had been killed and they were angry about it. While he was not on the scene himself, he was in the area, so he could see Angel Gabriel, who was the only commander on the scene, giving orders. The witness further explained that Angel Gabriel was on a straight road, so could be seen from a distance. He could hear and see the order being given from a distance and then went to take cover.
Y4 confirmed that he had heard the name Sam Bockarie and had heard that he had been killed in Nimba. He testified that he had seen Bockarie in Monrovia while he was working at Yeaten’s mother’s house, when aqbah soldiers had come to the house. The soldiers had said their names.
Next, there was a discussion as to the use of the word “kamajaro” soldiers, which Y4 had used to describe Sierra Leonean soldiers, and whether Angel Gabriel was a commander such troops and / or one of them.
The Finnish police had contacted Y4 via Employee 1. Employee 1 had reached Y4 through his friend [REDACTED]. According to Y4, Employee 1 was speaking with [REDACTED] about looking for witnesses, and [REDACTED] gave him Y4’s number. The witness explained that this friend was the one who had hired him to work for Benjamin Yeaten. Employee 1 had then called him. Y4 could not remember whether his friend had told him that he had given his number to Employee 1, or the other way around.
Finally, Y4 estimated that he had identified Gibril and Yeaten from the photos shown to him by the Finnish police.
Before concluding the hearing, the prosecution had some remaining questions for Y4. He was asked about the potential other names for Angel Gabriel. The witness testified that his full name is Massaquoi. Y4’s late brother was an ATU commander, and he was present when they had a big party and the names of these high-ranking officials were mentioned. Y4 had also heard the name Massaquoi from child soldiers following the Sierra Leoneans. According to Y4, the incident in Waterside took place during the day. He also confirmed that Yaney was also present at Benjamin Yeaten’s mother’s house, he was one of the bodyguards.
Finally, was pointed out that that, at his police interview, the witness correctly identified a photo of the defendant as ‘Massaquoi’, and stated that a photo of Sam Bockarie resembled Salami.
