May 11, 2023 [Liberia] Day 52: A new defense witness is heard
Witness H2 is heard
The defense questions H2
The defense began by asking H2 about his membership in the RUF. The witness testified that he was abducted in 1991, he was with the RUF from then until the director declared that the war was over in early 2002. In 1999, he was working as a radio operator in Liberia. He was sent there by General Issa Sesay. He was stationed in Lofa, but he often moved back and forth between Sierra Leone and Liberia. He was initially stationed with Superman. He served under Superman for a year and a half, until Superman was wounded and taken to Monrovia. H2 was then assigned to General Yeaten, aka Fifty. He explained: “I would never have come to Liberia if it had not been the collective agreement between the Liberian government and leadership of RUF”.
The witness testified that once, Issa Sesay came from Kono to the border and Yeaten came and met him there from Liberia. This meeting took place around 1999 or 2000, Superman had not been injured yet. The mission he was sent on in 1999 was to defend the route from Foya, Voinjama and Kolahun. The route had been attacked by rebels and the troops H2 belonged to were sent to defend the route. It was used by the RUF delegates, and to transport material and troops between Liberia and Sierra Leone. The witness’ assignment was in communication. The rebels were called LURD, their leader was Mosquito Spray.
H2 was initially based in Foya. He was later airlifted to Tendebu and when Voinjama was captured, he stayed there for a while before going to Kolahun. The witness did not meet Superman after he was wounded, as H2’s troop had retreated to Buedu. After receiving treatment in Monrovia, Superman returned to Vahun. At the time, LURD had captured Voinjama, Kolahun and Foya. The RUF was trying to fight them and retreated to Vahun. H2 met Superman in Vahun in 2001, around the middle of the year.
The witness had also been to Monrovia. He travelled with Benjamin Yeaten from the front to Monrovia and back. Once, Yeaten was sick, and the witness went with him to a village so that he could communicate with others. There was no fighting in Monrovia when H2 was there, the war was in Lofa at the time. H2 described a clash between Liberian and Sierra Leonean troops in Lofa: Charles Taylor said the insurgents were coming from Guinea, and he sent forces to fight them. The Liberians joined in the battle and lost. Upon their return to Lofa, the Liberian army and Colonel Chucky had a conflict which led to the death of one of Chucky’s bodyguards, Johnny Paul Koroma. The RUF fighters were attached to the SSS division, SSS Cobra in Liberia. They were not operating independently in Liberia, they were under the command of General Yeaten.
H2 knew of Sam Bockarie. Sam Bockarie had had a conflict with Sankoh and left for Liberia with a number of fighters in 1999. He also knew Eagle, he was a commander of a troop sent to support the fight in Liberia. The witness worked with Eagle in Kolahun until Voinjama was captured. H2 listed other Sierra Leonean commanders that were in Liberia between 1999 and 2001: Harris, Eagle, Superman, Colonel Chucky and Colonel Sheriff. He listed the Liberians he had met in Lofa: Benjamin Yeaten, Fasu, Green Eagle, Peanut Butter, Roland Duo, Zigzag Marzah, Colonel Jungle and Colonel Dubu Megason. Zigzag Marzah was with the Liberians working with Benjamin Yeaten. He was stationed with Yeaten and went anywhere Yeaten would go. When Yeaten went to Monrovia, he would leave Zigzag in charge. This was when Zigzag committed most of his atrocities; he would burn houses and kill people. He would act like he was the supreme commander and had to be obeyed. The witness testified that Zigzag burned houses and killed people in Popalahun, Kamatahun and Vahun. The killings in these places took place when Yeaten was in Monrovia.
Zigzag was the senior commander when Yeaten was in Monrovia. At the end of every month, H2 had to draft a security report and report what he had seen at the front. H2 was in Popalahun when Zigzag was committing these atrocities, he saw him putting civilians in the house and lighting the house on fire. They opposed it. H2 could not say how many people were killed inside the house. The attack on Popalahun took place in 2001 during the rainy season, around June or July. There was also another commander called Next to God, he was Liberian.
H2 was also present in Kamatahun when Zigzag committed atrocities. Superman and Zigzag had a conflict and Zigzag was told that he could no longer behave like a rebel, he was fighting for the government now, so he had to behave. H2 saw Zigzag shooting civilians in Kamatahun, the house was burned in Popalahun. H2 had not heard of Kamatahun Hassala or Kamatahun Tahamba. He described the location of the Kamatahun where Zigzag shot civilians: next to the main road going from Kolahun towards Foya and the Sierra Leonean border, it was the road that goes to Popalahun and Vahun. This incident also took place in 2001. H2’s troops had withdrawn from Guinea to Kolahun. The rains hadn’t started yet. There were reports made of this. When Yeaten returned, people told him what Zigzag had done. At the time, everyone was focused on the combat against the rebels. They did not want to blame anyone, nobody ordered Zigzag to behave like he did, he did it all on his own.
The witness knew Gibril Massaquoi, he was the RUF’s spokesman and one of the delegates moving between Sierra Leone and Liberia, one of the peacemakers. He had seen Gibril Massaquoi in Liberia once after 1999. He was travelling and was in Kolahun. These people came to Kolahun and continued to Monrovia by helicopter, they were on their way to peace negotiations. That same week, the witness went to Monrovia with Yeaten and stayed at a guest house near the Nigerian Embassy. H2 did not meet Massaquoi in Monrovia. He knew that Massaquoi was not a part of the combat troops. There was always a notification on the radio when reinforcements were being brought in, he would have known if Massaquoi was a part of reinforcements that came to fight. The witness could not recall Gibril Massaquoi travelling from Monrovia with Benjamin Yeaten.
The witness gave his code names and radio names.
Question from the court
H2 confirmed that Gibril Massaquoi’s code name in Sierra Leone was Gaffa. Every commander had a code name.
The prosecution questions H2
The prosecution began by asking H2 about his stay in Liberia. The witness testified that he was in Liberia from 1999 until late 2001 or early 2002. LURD was attacking the whole of Liberia, not just the route to Monrovia the RUF was using. Charles Taylor was using the road to supply the RUF with arms, ammunition and sometimes medical material. He did not know whether the RUF was paying for the supplies.
H2 testified that when he saw Massaquoi and the delegation going from Kolahun to Monrovia by helicopter, LURD was attacking between Voinjama and Zorzor. There was an ambush by LURD in a village in the area. For this reason, high-ranking officers avoided travelling by land and travelled by air instead. The witness listed the various places in Lofa that had landing spots for helicopters. According to H2, it took an hour and fifteen minutes to get to Monrovia by helicopter. The RUF used six different helicopters: ATU-001, ATU-002, ATU-003, SSS-001, SSS-002 and SSS-003. ATU-002 was also used as a combat helicopter. Both the Anti-Terrorist Unit (ATU) and the Special Security Service (SSS) were government troops under Taylor. The witness could not recall exactly when he had seen Massaquoi in Kolahun, it was either in 2000 or 2001.
The prosecution pointed out that H2 had told the Finnish police that he had seen Massaquoi with the delegation in Voinjama or Kolahun on his way to Monrovia in late 2001. The witness responded that he cannot provide the exact date, it could have been either 2000 or late 2001. He corrected his previous statement, testifying that he saw Massaquoi in Kolahun, not in Voinjama and added that he believes it was in 2001, late 2001.
The witness spent two Christmases in Monrovia, in 2000 to 2001 and 2001 to 2002. In 2001, H2 was in Monrovia with General Yeaten, who had gotten sick. H2 was there with his radio to help Yeaten with his communications. Eagle was also there, he came alone by motorcycle from Voinjama. H2 left Voinjama at the same time as Eagle, but they did not travel together.
According to H2, the RUF fighters were attached to the SSS as SSS Cobra. SSS Cobra was an addition, a reinforcement to the rest of the SSS troops. The rest of the SSS had their own uniforms, while SSS Cobra was given green and brown uniforms with “Libyan Workers’ Hardware” printed on them. Depending on the mission, they would use either the green or brown uniforms. Benjamin Yeaten was commanding SSS Cobra, but there were also other commanders, such as Sheriff, Harris, Superman and Eagle. Eagle returned to Sierra Leone in early 2000. Eagle was in Monrovia for Christmas 2001, after which they all returned to the border with Guinea. There was fighting and Eagle was supposed to join his troops, but he did not and returned to Sierra Leone instead. H2 confirmed that all RUF fighters in Liberia were a part of the SSS Cobra.
The witness testified that Zigzag Marzah spoke Liberian, he was Gio, his war name was Ziza. H2 did not witness the incident in Popalahun himself, but heard from the other fighters what had happened with Zigzag. In Kamatahun, he witnessed it firsthand: “He saw a group of men and he opened fire and later on we found that the men were not fighters”. This happened outside the village, when H2’s troop was approaching Kamatahun.
H2 explained that the RUF guest house in Monrovia had a few permanent employees and provided their names to the court. He confirmed that Defense 09 was at the guest house, he was a bodyguard to Foday Sankoh. Defense 09 was sent to the guest house before H2 had come to Liberia. When H2 left Monrovia, Defense 09 still stayed in the city. H2 met Defense 09 in Sierra Leone after the end of the war in 2002.
The witness further testified that when the Voinjama-Kolahun-Foya route was lost to rebels, there was also a route that began from Bomaru in Sierra Leone. It continued to Vahun, LPCM, Kumbo, Lofa Bridge, Bomi Hills and Monrovia. H2 had travelled along this route with Roland Duo in 2001, during the rainy season. They travelled sometimes by land, sometimes by helicopter.
Further questions from the defense
H2 testified that he saw the houses being lit on fire in Popalahun. He heard about Zigzag lighting the houses later. He could not tell exactly how many houses were set on fire, and added that he could see one or two houses burning at the entrance to the village.
Decision on using the police interviews of certain witnesses
After hearing witness H2, the court had to decide on a technical aspect as to whether to use the police interviews of two witnesses who were unable to testify in court. Under Finnish legislation, a witness could normally be brought to court with the help of Finnish police. The first witness, Y9, was hospitalized right before his scheduled hearing. The second, H3, had not appeared for his scheduled hearing. The court decided that their witness testimonies could be admitted by listening to the recording of their police interviews in court, as there was no feasible possibility to have them testify in court.
