April 13, 2023 [Finland] Day 45: Various evidence admitted
Parties discuss their documentaire evidence
The Court began by going through pieces of documentary evidence presented by the prosecution and the defense. The evidence was related to Saleem Vahidy, the head of the Victim and Witness Section at the Special Court for Sierra Leone at the time when Gibril Massaquoi was at the safe house. Saleem Vahidy was unable to testify in court, so his answers to the questions that Finnish police had asked him via email were examined instead. The parties also presented a report of the attack on Gibril Massaquoi’s safe house prepared by Mr. Vahidy.
Witness Defense 02’s recording is viewed
The Court then watched a video recording of Defense 02’s testimony before the lower court.
Witness Corinne Dufka is heard
The defense questions Corinne Dufka
The defense began by asking Corinne Dufka about her educational background. Dufka testified that she has a master’s degree from Berkeley University. She currently works as a consultant in Washington DC. Between 1999 and 2003, she worked as a researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW). She was working on Sierra Leone and West Africa. She worked with HRW until 2020. She also worked as an advisor and researcher for the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) at the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) between 2 October 2002 and 1 October 2003, taking a sabbatical year from HRW. Her task was to provide historical context of the conflict in Sierra Leone to the OTP. She looked for witnesses and interviewed them and gathered background information on the atrocities investigated by the SCSL.
Dufka testified that during her time at HRW, before working for SCSL, her job was related to the Second Liberian Civil War. She investigated alleged atrocities by all sides of the conflict by speaking to victims and witnesses. By ‘all sides’, she was referring to government forces under Charles Taylor and LURD rebel forces. The first time she travelled to Liberia was in early 2002. Most of her investigative work took place in Sierra Leone, where she interviewed refugees who had fled from Liberia. The investigations in Liberia took approximately ten days, where she interviewed victims, witnesses and other people such as diplomats, representatives of human rights organizations and the UN, as well as researchers in Monrovia and other cities. She could not say how many people she had interviewed in Liberia, but estimated that she interviewed about 250 people in total during her research.
The witness testified that she visited refugee camps in Sierra Leone between 2001 and 2002 seven times but could not recall the dates. The camps were located in Eastern Sierra Leone, in Bo and Kenema. She explained: “There were all kinds of abuses committed by forces sympathetic to the Liberian government. Sexual violence, beatings, kidnappings, destruction of property. They followed a certain pattern because Lofa was an important area for both the rebels and the government forces. There were several, intense battles to take control of Lofa. Towns and villages changed hands”.
She also explained collective punishments carried out by government troops: “The Liberian forces considered certain ethnic groups as rebels based on either real or fictitious activities. Government forces used to accuse entire villages, rightly or wrongly, of supporting rebels and committed atrocities to punish them.” Dufka had documented one such incident, where a village was recaptured by the government forces and would gather the inhabitants and proclaim a punishment for their alleged support for the rebels. People were locked into houses and burned alive, women and children were raped and people were forced to carry goods for the soldiers back to their base. According to Dufka, such incidents occurred in numerous villages in Lofa county.
Dufka testified further that she had spoken with five witnesses about the events in Kiantahun and Kamatahun in September to December 2001. Dozens of civilians had fled Kiantahun and the government troops took them to Kamatahun, put them inside a house and burned them alive. About 70 people died during this incident. The witnesses seemed to be speaking about the same incident, with most of them saying that it took place in September 2001 in Kamatahun. One of Dufka’s colleagues had also received a witness statement from someone who spoke of the same atrocities in Lofa. Five out of these six witnesses mentioned a name believed to be the commander responsible, Zigzag Marzah. This name was mentioned by dozens of people as a person committing atrocities in Lofa. Zigzag Marzah is a Liberian commander, who Dufka described as “notoriously brutal”. Her research revealed 61 witnesses or victims of atrocities from different villages in Lofa, where this name came up frequently. Many witnesses named him as the commander. They could recognize the name as he used to introduce himself and other people at the scene said his name. Based on her interviews, Dufka described Zigzag Marzah as having killed, terrorized and kidnapped people in Lofa. Most people said that he was part of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) while some witnesses also mentioned that he was part of Jungle Fire.
According to the witness, the chain of command between various units and forces supporting the government in Lofa was blurred and difficult to understand. There were multiple different troops, such as the AFL, Jungle Fire, Navy Division and the Marine Division. She could not say what the relationships between these units and the AFL were. One witness had described that Jungle Fire wore yellow t-shirts.
Dufka testified that there was another notorious commander mentioned by the witnesses she interviewed, Stanley. She could not recall whether Stanley had been mentioned as being present in Kamatahun. She had compiled the content of her interviews and published a report called “Back to the Brink” and another report. The Back to the Brink report contained two of the interviews about the events in Kamatahun. The witness estimated that HRW had in total six witness statements about the events in Kamatahun Hassala. She had conducted these interviews in 2002, when she visited the refugee camps in Sierra Leone. The names of various soldiers came up in relation to Kamatahun, but she could only remember the name of Zigzag Marzah. She testified that none of the statements mentioned Gibril Massaquoi as the perpetrator and the names of Angel Gabriel or Angel did not come up during the interviews.
The interviews were conducted using HRW’s methodology: people were interviewed one-by-one using an interpreter. Dufka conducted interviews during seven trips in total, with a total of 61 witnesses. Many of the witnesses volunteered the name of the commander, while for some, she asked them if there had been a commander present or if they had heard the name of a commander. She never mentioned the name of a commander to the witnesses.
Dufka testified that her work at the SCSL were not related to the Second Liberian Civil War. She had not come across Gibril Massaquoi being called Angel Gabriel during her time at the SCSL. She could not remember how she had first met Gibril Massaquoi, but she interviewed him multiple times while working for the SCSL. At the time, Massaquoi was a spokesman for the RUF. He was living between Makeni and Freetown. Dufka was working with him because was she speaking with armed groups, and Massaquoi was the RUF’s spokesman. She had asked the RUF to release captured civilians and was looking for information about the atrocities committed by and against the RUF. She was not in contact with Massaquoi outside their meetings. She would call Masaquoi and ask for a meeting and it would usually be arranged a day or two afterwards. It was easy to reach Massaquoi at the time. All the meetings were initiated by her.
The witness described the different meetings she had with Massaquoi. The first meeting took place on 22 June 2001, in Makeni. They spoke about the fact that the RUF had committed to releasing all their prisoners, as well as some alleged ceasefire violations. The meeting was held in Massaquoi’s home-office. She could not remember for how long the meeting lasted. The second meeting between took place on 5 July 2001 in Makeni, in the same place as the first one. Dufka could not remember for how long this meeting lasted, but estimated that it took an hour. The topic was the same the first meeting. The first four meetings were all about the same topics, the release of the prisoners captured by the RUF and alleged ceasefire violations. The third meeting was held on 11 July 2001 and the fourth on 18 July, both in Makeni. At the time, there had been multiple alleged violations of the ceasefire by the RUF and the situation was tense. This was the reason for the many meetings in a short time period. Dufka was also interviewing witnesses in Makeni hospital.
Dufka further testified that Massaquoi played a role in the Sierra Leonean peace negotiations, but she doesn’t know any other details. She knew that Massaquoi was present in multiple important negotiations to bring peace to Sierra Leone. Their fifth meeting was in Freetown on 31 January 2002. They discussed the history of the conflict in Sierra Leone and the command structure towards the end of the war. The sixth meeting was on 18 July 2002 in Freetown, and the seventh meeting took place in August 2002, where they spoke more about the same. During the seventh meeting, she introduced Massaquoi to the SCSL Chief Investigator, Dr. Alan White. After introducing them, she left the meeting. They met at Mamba Point Hotel in Freetown. The eighth meeting was on 5 September 2002 in Freetown, they discussed the command structure in further detail.
The witness had taken detailed notes of each meeting and she pointed out that during the lower court trial, she had noted down the date, location and reason for each meeting. She had also taken notes after talking to two journalists who had met Massaquoi in 2001. Massaquoi had met with these journalists twice, in April and May 2001, in Makeni.
Dufka explained that she introduced Massaquoi to Alan White because she understood after their meetings that Massaquoi had detailed information about the command structure of the rebel groups in Sierra Leone. At the time, it was clear that a Special Court was going to be formed and she wanted to gain understanding of the people potentially responsible for atrocities. The mandate of the court covered only those who were the most responsible. Based on her research, she assessed that Massaquoi was not one of those who bore the greatest responsibility for the atrocities committed by the RUF. She believed that Dr. White would benefit from the information that Massaquoi had. Her assessment of Massaquoi’s responsibility was based on the witness testimonies she had received as an investigator for the SCSL. Massaquoi had also told her about his role in the RUF, such as his part in the diamond trade and one incident in 1992. She did not have exact information as to what he was alleged to have done at the time. She added that Massaquoi voluntarily gave up information about his role, which added to his credibility. The SCSL conducted its own investigation into Massaquoi’s possible responsibility for atrocities, but she did not have any more information on the investigation.
The witness testified that she found out after her meetings with Massaquoi that he had become a witness for the SCSL. The last time she saw Massaquoi was in September 2002. She could not recall whether his co-operation with the SCSL was common knowledge at any point. It would not have been safe for Massaquoi to travel to Liberia in summer 2003, as the indictments by the SCSL were being prepared around that time. As he had disappeared from the public eye, there were rumors in Freetown that he might be working for the SCSL. The indictment showed that the SCSL had in-depth knowledge of the RUF and the AFRC, which had been supported by Charles Taylor. Dufka explained: “When Charles Taylor’s indictment was published in June 2003, I could not see the defendant going to Liberia to support Taylor at the same time as he was trying to build a case before the Special Court for Sierra Leone.” The indictment was issued in March 2003 and published in June 2003. When asked whether Charles Taylor had done anything to prevent people testifying against him, she responded: “I can’t say what was on Charles Taylor’s mind at the time, but two senior RUF commanders had been killed by Liberian forces at the time, Sam Bockarie and Dennis Mingo.” According to her sources, these killings something to do with their knowledge of Charles Taylor’s role in the Sierra Leonean war. The witness speculated that it was probable that Charles Taylor knew of Massaquoi’s co-operation with the SCSL.
Dufka testified that she met L5 various times in Sierra Leone when he was conducting his research with refugees from Liberia. L5 worked with a community-based human rights organization which documented atrocities in Lofa County. She described L5’s reports as detailed.
The prosecution questions Corinne Dufka
The prosecution began by asking Dufka whether she was aware of any other position Massaquoi had in the RUF. She responded that she believes Massaquoi had different roles in the RUF in the past, but during the time she was involved with him he worked as a spokesman. She recalled reading somewhere that he had been a commander in the RUF. She believed that he had been high-ranking within the RUF as he had been Foday Sankoh’s assistant. Dufka explained that she had not asked Massaquoi about his role in the RUF, as she knew from the media that he was the spokesman. She testified that they did discuss Massaquoi’s previous roles within the RUF, but not in detail. Massaquoi had spoken about the execution of NPFL fighters by the RUF early during the Sierra Leonean war. She speculated that this happened in Kailahun district in the early 90s. Dufka could not recall if Massaquoi elaborated on his involvement in the incident.
Dufka was aware of the RUF’s involvement in the Second Liberian Civil War. She testified that in late 1999, Sam Bockarie got into a conflict with the RUF leadership and left for Liberia with hundreds of RUF fighters. They joined the Liberian security forces and fought for Charles Taylor.
Massaquoi had not mentioned that he had been to Liberia. She could not remember whether he had mentioned his role in the RUF external delegation. She could not remember anything about Massaquoi being involved with Charles Taylor. She had read some articles about the war in Sierra Leone and Massaquoi had mentioned that he had been a part of the diamond trade. She could not remember any details of what he had told her about the diamond trade. Dufka was not aware of the RUF house in Monrovia. She confirmed that Massaquoi never mentioned that he had been in Liberia in the early 2000s.
The witness testified that she was not in contact with Massaquoi between their meetings on 8 July 2001 and 31 January 2002. She had no idea what he was doing during this period. She confirmed that they never discussed arms deals. She considered Massaquoi a credible witness, who provided information she needed: “I think he seemed very honest about the fact that he knew about the wrongs done by the RUF. He told me that he was involved in one of the atrocities. He also gave detailed information about the command structure of the AFRC and the RUF. This information was very typical and fitted our methodology as it could be corroborated by other witnesses.”
Dufka could not recall what the Truth and Reconciliation Committee had written about Massaquoi in their report. When the prosecution pointed out that the report stated that there were reservations about Massaquoi’s statements, as he often downplayed his own role, Dufka responded that the report was published after their meetings. She did not know why the SCSL did not hear Massaquoi as a witness in the Charles Taylor trial. She did not know where he lived in 2003. She did not know about his housing or security arrangements after he had entered into the witness protection agreement. They had not discussed his participation in elections in 2002.
The witness testified that she did not think that Massaquoi would have been indicted by the SCSL. Her idea of the potential perpetrators the most responsible for atrocities did not include him, as he spent a part of the war in prison. According to her research, Massaquoi was not a commander on the battlefield and did not commit or order atrocities during the time period under the SCSL’s mandate. She based this assessment on discussions she had with victims, witnesses and people with knowledge of the war in Sierra Leone. She explained that she sought to verify the information that Massaquoi gave her from other sources. She recalled reading newspaper articles about Massaquoi’s possible co-operation with the SCSL, but could not remember which articles. She explained where the rumor about his co-operation came from: Massaquoi was living and spending a lot of time with former RUF members. The fact that, when they were arrested, he did not appear on the indictments and was not arrested himself, gave room for speculation. She confirmed that her statement that Charles Taylor likely knew about Massaquoi’s work with the SCSL was her own speculation.
Dufka mentioned a study from 2004, where former Sierra Leonean and Liberian fighters had been interviewed. Some of them had mentioned that Dennis Mingo and Sam Bockarie were killed because they knew about Charles Taylor’s support for the war in Sierra Leone. Dennis Mingo was also known as Superman. He was killed in November 2001.
The witness confirmed that she had not been to Lofa herself. The five people who mentioned the events in Kamatahun were all adults, both men and women. Some of them were from Kiantahun. They had all had been there to witness the events in Kamatahun. Some of the Liberian fighters she had interviewed had mentioned Sierra Leoneans and the RUF. None of them mentioned that RUF commanders committed atrocities in Lofa.
Dufka testified that she had spoken to L5 in 2021. She had contacted him because she thought that the information he had may be useful for the Finnish police. She called him to ask if she could give some of the information he gave her to the Finnish police.
She could not say how certain the witnesses who had mentioned Zigzag Marzah were of the commander’s identity. Numerous witnesses identified Zigzag and Stanley as the commanders at the scene, some of them mentioned that Zigzag was giving orders. She had not been to Lofa herself, and neither had the other HRW researchers gathering information at the time. Dufka could not tell whether Massaquoi was telling her the whole truth about his participation in the RUF, but he never refused to answer a question.
