May 8, 2023 [Liberia] Day 49: Former RUF commander takes the stand
Witness Defense 07 is heard
The defense questions Defense 07
The defense began by asking Defense 07 how he met Gibril Massaquoi. The witness testified that he had gotten to know him in 1991 during the war in Sierra Leone. They were both members of the RUF. Defense 07 gave his war name to the court. Gibril Massaquoi’s code name was Gaffa. In 1999, Defence 07 was serving as an RUF commander. He was fighting in Sierra Leone and later in Liberia. The Lomé peace agreement was signed in 1999 and it ended the fighting in Sierra Leone. Defense 07 estimated that the agreement was signed around July. After the signing, the witness continued to work for the RUF to maintain the peace.
The witness testified that Gibril Massaquoi was in prison in early 1999. After being released by the West Side Boys in January, he went back to the rebel lines. He worked as a spokesman and press secretary, he had begun these tasks back in 1997. After the Lomé agreement was signed, Foday Sankoh, aka Papay, called and asked him to be his assistant in Freetown. He worked on Spur Road until May 2000. The witness knew this because he was also based on Spur Road for the whole time that Gibril Massaquoi was working there. The witness was a part of the Ceasefire Monitoring Committee, he began working there in January 2000 until May 2000 when they were attacked. The witness described the attack: the ceasefire was broken and the Sierra Leonean government used civilians and soldiers to attack the RUF. He was in Bo, Southern Sierra Leone, on a mission when the attack took place. Everyone close to Foday Sankoh was arrested, but Gibril Massaquoi managed to escape to Lunsar. Foday Sankoh was shot in the leg and arrested. Before the attack, there had been skirmishes between the RUF and the UN, which led to the attack against Sankoh, Gibril Massaquoi, and others.
Defense 07 testified that after Sankoh’s arrest, General Issa took leadership of the RUF. They had a meeting where Issa forced himself as the leader, which the rest of the RUF leadership later agreed to. They had a general meeting in Kono around July or August. The witness was present at the meeting, along with Gibril Massaquoi, Morris Kallon, Red, Augustine Gbao, Abdul Razak and several other commanders. At the meeting, the idea came up that ECOWAS wanted the RUF to have a leader, so they had to appoint one. They named Issa as the leader during the meeting in Kono. The witness testified that neither he nor Gibril Massaquoi were happy with the appointment. After they had elected General Sesay as the interim leader, Sesay said that they needed a delegation to go to meet with Charles Taylor in Monrovia for the peace process. Gibril Massaquoi was elected as the leader of this delegation. General Issa told them that ECOWAS had contacted him about the meeting in Monrovia.
The delegation consisted of Gibril Massaquoi, Morris Kallon, Abdul Razak, Ray, General Issa, Defense 14, Pa Benda and others. Defense 07 did not know where Massaquoi went after the meeting, but he remembered that LURD blocked the road in Foya, Lofa County after the meeting. Defense 07 was tasked to take armed men and join the Liberian forces to reopen the road. He testified that the meeting in Kono was in July or August and he left for Liberia around September 2000. Gibril Massaquoi did not go with him, he returned to Lunsar and Makeni after the meeting in Kono.
Defense 07 testified that he had 90 men with him when he left for Liberia. They attacked on two flanks alongside the Liberians, he could not say how many troops were involved in the operation. One flank was in the area from Zorzor Road to Voinjama, and the other one was on Kolahun Road. The witness was located in Kolahun. Superman was not in Liberia with Defense 07’s forces at that time. The witness explained that Superman left for Liberia right after the meeting in Kono because he disagreed with the outcome of the meeting. The witness had two radio operators with him, H2 and [REDACTED].
The witness explained that the reason for reopening the road was for the RUF to continue with the peace process and to come to meet the ECOWAS leaders. They used that road to travel. The road was closed from Foya, to Kolahun, to Voinjama. They had to fight heavy battles to reopen the road in Kolahun and in an area between Kolahun and Voinjama. They also fought at the Liberian Produce Marketing Company (LPMC) near Voinjama. Defense 07 managed to push the enemy away from Voinjama and outside Liberia, back to Guinea where they had come from. They managed to reopen the road and the fighting ended after the operation. The original orders were to open the road in 72 hours, but because of the heavy battles at the LPMC, it took them ten days. After the road was opened, Gibril Massaquoi and the rest of the delegation travelled to Monrovia. They met the witness and Benjamin Yeaten in Voinjama, where the RUF headquarters in Liberia were located at the time. The delegation continued on their journey after an hour. The witness later found out that the delegation had reached Monrovia, but he did not join them there. He had later travelled to Monrovia, but could not recall when. The witness testified that he had not been to Monrovia before the delegation travelled in 2000.
The defense pointed out that Defense 07 had testified in the lower court that he had visited Monrovia after the delegation’s mission. He explained that he came to pay a visit after his mission. He came to Monrovia with Benjamin Yeaten and they met with President Taylor, who thanked them for opening the road in Lofa. At the time of his visit, neither Gibril Massaquoi nor any other members of the delegation were in Monrovia. Defense 07 testified that he left Liberia in June 2001. His troops in Liberia were called Cobra Unit. The name was to distinguish themselves from government troops. The Liberians knew that Cobra Unit consisted of Sierra Leoneans, because they spoke krio. They could not call themselves the RUF, because the RUF was fighting in Sierra Leone. They had to hide the fact that they were fighting in Liberia, the battles had to be covered up. These instructions came from Benjamin Yeaten, who, according to Defense 07, represented Charles Taylor. The witness speculated that they were trying to hide the fact from the international community.
Defense 07 testified that during the combat in Lofa, there not many civilians around as most of them had fled. Cobra Unit did not have any uniforms, they were all wearing different clothes. The witness saw Mosquito and Superman in Lofa. Superman had already left the RUF at the time. The witness also met some Liberian commanders, such as Benjamin Yeaten, Liberian Mosquito, Zigzag Marzah, Colonel Stanley and others. He saw them in combat, they were all fighting from Kolahun to Voinjama and all the way to Guinea. The witness described Zigzag Marzah as “part of us”, he was based in Foya. Benjamin Yeaten also participated in fighting. Defense 07 further testified that the Liberians did not supply them with arms and ammunition, they came with their own arms from Sierra Leone. Gibril Massaquoi was not supplying them with arms and ammunition. The witness had not seen him involved in fighting in Liberia on these missions.
The witness provided his code name to the court. As opposed to war names, code names were used to send messages on the field radio. Gibril’s code name was Gaffa. Between the times that Defense 07 went to Liberia in September 2000 and May 2001, he visited Sierra Leone twice, as he had responsibilities as a brigade commander. His only task in Liberia was to open the road and to ensure it stayed open. When the delegation travelled to Monrovia, the witness saw them in Voinjama. He saw them again after two weeks, when they went back to Sierra Leone. He also saw Gibril Massaquoi in Liberia when the delegation was travelling through Lofa again on their way to Mali. This was in late 2000, around November or December. After returning to Sierra Leone, Defense 07 met Massaquoi in Freetown. They met several times after the disarmament, in 2002, at the party office in Freetown. They did not meet in spring 2001, when Defense 07 returned to Sierra Leone. The witness testified that at the time, Gibril Massaquoi was in Northern Sierra Leone, at the headquarters in Makeni. He was working on the disarmament process. He learned about this from national radio and field radio. Massaquoi featured in radio broadcasts.
In 2002, Defense 07 met with Massaquoi in connection with the political party RUFP. They met at the party offices, they were preparing for the elections. The witness testified that when he left Liberia, there were no RUF soldiers left in Liberia. They left once the mission was completed. There were some ex-RUF fighters in Liberia, such as Superman who had left the RUF and brought some of his bodyguards to Liberia with him. Sam Bockarie came to Liberia in 1999 with a lot of men, and they never returned to Sierra Leone. When the RUFP was founded in 2002, some of the ex-fighters were charged in a court for the most serious crimes. There were also training centers and jobs provided for ex-fighters, such as farming.
The prosecution questions Defense 07
The prosecution began by asking Defense 07 about the skirmishes with the UN. The witness testified that he got information that the UN was forcing disarmament on the RUF, and this caused the skirmishes between the UN and RUF forces. The RUF did not want to give up their weapons. The witness got this information from General Issa. The RUF also took some UN peacekeepers hostage, which led to the Sierra Leonean government conducting the “grave attack” against Foday Sankoh’s office on Spur Road in May. Defense 07 testified that it was not ECOWAS’ idea for the RUF to come and fight in Liberia. It was the idea of President Taylor and Issa Sesay, to open the road so that the delegation could reach Monrovia. The witness did not know whether ECOWAS learned about these battles in Liberia between the RUF and the Liberian Armed Forces against LURD. He did not know why LURD had attacked Liberia and blocked the road, but he deemed that this it a part of LURD’s struggle against the Liberian government. This struggle could be characterized as a war. The witness denied that the RUF had joined the civil war in Liberia, since they did not join the Liberian army to fight in the war against LURD. The RUF joined the fighting to open the road and once that task was completed, they went back to Sierra Leone.
According to Defense 07, the reason that the RUF did not leave Liberia immediately after the road was opened in ten days was because they had to defend the road. They had come to Liberia for peace and were defending the road so that the peace delegation could move freely. The road in Lofa was the only land route to Monrovia. There were also sea and air routes. They drove LURD all the way back to Guinea to ensure that they would not come back and attack again. They also fought LURD in Guinea, they drove them to the border between Guinea and Liberia and followed them into Guinea. The prosecutor provided the witness with a code name and asked him if it corresponded with Defense 11’s real name, which he could not confirm. According to him, the RUF and LURD both lost men during the fighting in Lofa.
The witness was aware of what the delegation was doing in Monrovia. According to him, they met with President Charles Taylor and ECOWAS foreign ministers. As one of the leaders of the RUF, he was kept informed on the RUF field radio and he also got news from the BBC. Defense 07 didn’t know exactly what was talked about, but knew that the delegation was in Monrovia to talk about peace. When Defense 07 and Benjamin Yeaten came to Monrovia to be thanked by Charles Taylor, they were not thanked by ECOWAS, as ECOWAS was not involved in the operation. According to the witness, they did not thank him personally, but they appreciated the fact that the delegation could reach Monrovia. He could tell that ECOWAS appreciated his work: “because they call the RUF and we answer, and it’s like a father called you.” ECOWAS like a father “because they pioneered the peace”. When the witness and Benjamin Yeaten met Taylor in Monrovia, Taylor showed his appreciation to Yeaten. He gave the RUF leadership, General Sesay, money.
Defense 07 explained that the RUF received ammunition to fight, but it was the RUF’s property. They received ammunition in Lofa, where the fighting was: in Foya, Kolahun and Voinjama. The ammunition was flown in from Monrovia. He testified that when he got to Lofa, fighting had already started and the civilians had already fled. They did not look for civilians in the bush or in villages, they were only looking for the enemy.
The witness testified that Superman and Massaquoi were on friendly terms before Superman came to Liberia. When he left, they no longer had contact with each other. Superman left the RUF and came to Liberia because he was not in good terms with Issa Sesay. He came to surrender to Benjamin Yeaten. The Liberian government accepted him and ordered him to Lofa, around Vahun. Massaquoi did not go to see Superman in Lofa. Defense 07 knew this as he could not have gone around Lofa without him knowing. He testified that Massaquoi did not see Superman even after he returned to Sierra Leone, as he was too busy with all the meetings that he wouldn’t have had the time to meet with Superman.
Defense 07 saw Massaquoi in Freetown after disarmament until the elections in May 2002. The witness personally disarmed in December 2001, and stated that he was the last person to give up his guns. He and Massaquoi met every time he went to Freetown, about once every month and once after the elections. As to Massaquoi’s whereabouts in 2001, the witness testified that he heard about him being in Makeni on the field radio. He also heard on local and national radio that he was there. He estimated that over 500 current or former RUF fighters remained in Liberia when he left in May 2001.
Further questions from the defense
The times the witness met with Massaquoi in Freetown were not arranged. They would see each other at the party office. The last time they met was in May 2002. In 2003, their leader was arrested and he heard that Gibril Massaquoi was taken to a UN safehouse. The RUFP did not have much activity after the elections in May. Defense 07 testified that he saw Gibril in June or July 2002 in Thunder Hills, Kissi. Gibril was living there at the time.
Finally, the witness provided Superman’s real name the court. He also thanked Gibril for bringing peace to Sierra Leone.