May 12, 2023 [Liberia] Day 53: Final Witness in Monrovia
Witness Defense 01 is heard
The defense questions Defense 01
The defense began by asking Defense 01 where he had first met Gibril Massaquoi. The witness testified that he had known him since his school years, as he was his teacher in secondary school. They both lived in Pujehun, where they both were abducted by the RUF. In early 1999, the witness was in Freetown and later in 1999 he was in Lunsar. According to Defense 01, Gibril Massaquoi was with Foday Sankoh in Nigeria in 1997. Issa Sesay had Gibril and Steve Bio arrested in Bo and he was in prison until 6 January 1999. After being released, he went to Lunsar. Defense 01 was a battalion commander in Lunsar at the time, he received Gibril there. The witness sent Gibril to Makeni to receive medical treatment and he stayed there until late 1999, November, when Foday Sankoh invited him to Freetown to work as his personal assistant. Massaquoi worked with Sankoh and participated in meetings with him. Defense 01 stayed in Lunsar. He had been named the Director of the Port Loko District for the RUFP in Lunsar and would occasionally go to Freetown for meetings, where he met Gibril. Gibril travelled to Lunsar sometimes, to bring food from Sankoh to ex-fighters, and try to unite them and open the party office.
According to Defense 01, Gibril worked as Sankoh’s personal assistant until 8 May 2000, when Sankoh was arrested. This was in connection to an attack on Sankoh, caused by the RUF attacking UN peacekeepers in Makeni and Kailahun in April 2000. NGOs, students and regular people attacked Sankoh’s residence. Everyone at the residence escaped to survive. A few days later, they saw Gibril and the others in Lunsar. Sankoh was never released after his arrest, which led to a power vacuum in the RUF. Issa Sesay was later appointed as the leader in Kono. Issa Sesay was the head of the RUF’s military wing, while Gibril Massaquoi was part of the political wing, he had not been a fighter since 1999. After some negotiations with ECOWAS and the UN, there was a general meeting in Kono in July or August, all the commanders were invited. At the meeting, it was decided that a delegation led by Massaquoi should be sent to Liberia. The delegation included Abdul Razak, Defense 20, Defense 24 and Jonathan Kposowa. Their mission was to move to get the peacekeepers released and to advance the peace process in Sierra Leone. They left for Liberia in August 2000. They travelled back and forth between Kono and Liberia. The witness did not know if there was a particular reason that the delegation travelled to Monrovia and speculated that it was to be able to meet with West African leaders.
The witness met Gibril Massaquoi in Makeni when the delegation came back from its mission to Liberia. They had a meeting with Issa Sesay and others. They had various meetings like that, as the delegation came to update Issa Sesay on their progress. The witness himself participated in a meeting held in October 2000, the UN peacekeepers had been released and the peace process was about to begin. Defense 01 also met with Massaquoi in Makeni in December 2000, when the delegation returned from Liberia for good. After the delegation’s return, Massaquoi worked with the tripartite arrangement between the Sierra Leonean government, UNAMSIL and the RUF. The committee had meetings in various locations, they were looking at how to disarm, demobilize and reintegrate the fighters after the war and how to reunite child soldiers with their families. Defense 01 testified that Massaquoi participated in all of these meetings, they continued until November or December 2001. Massaquoi did not return to Liberia, he was living in Makeni at the time. The witness also participated in the tripartite meetings as he had been appointed Child Soldiers Coordinator. He saw Massaquoi during these meetings. One meeting was held in Kenema in 2001, he could not recall the exact date. The meetings lasted about three to four hours each. After the Kenema meeting, Defense 01 returned to Lunsar and Massaquoi returned to Makeni. The witness had also participated in one tripartite meeting in Freetown in August or September and one in Magburaka in 2001. There were meetings every two or three weeks.
Defense 01 testified that he lived in Lunsar until December 2001, when he moved to Freetown. At the time, Massaquoi was living in Freetown. He had been evacuated there by the UN in November 2001, after he had had a conflict with Issa Sesay. The witness was not in Makeni when this incident took place. He had heard that Issa Sesay had accused Massaquoi of inciting the miners in Tongo to stop digging. When Gibril Massaquoi was brought to Freetown, Defense 01 lived with him at 10B Thunder Hill Road, Kissi. He moved in with Gibril Massaquoi straight after leaving Lunsar in December 2001, as there was nothing left to do in Lunsar, there was no RUF activity there. He decided to go to Freetown to study, he was admitted to the Sierra Leone University for 2002, but he could not pursue his studies for financial reasons and had drop out. He then applied to another program for the term 2002-2003 and studied agriculture. The witness listed the other people living with them in Thunder Hills.
The witness lived with Massaquoi from late 2001 until 2003. He saw Massaquoi in the mornings and after he got back from school. Massaquoi did not leave the house for long periods of time, except in 2003, when the Special Court took him away. In 2003, Defense 01 heard from the BBC Focus on Africa program, that Gibril, Augustine Gbao and Issa Sesay had been arrested and they had been taken to an undisclosed location. Later that night, he saw Gibril at the house with the Special Court’s prosecution team and security guards. Gibril told him that he was safe and not to worry. He packed his things and took his family to the safe house that same night. Defense 01 could not remember the exact date that this happened, but estimated that it was in early 2003. Later, he met Massaquoi in the safe house in Freetown. The safe house was located on Cotton Street, opposite the Okeke fishing company, on the main road, near Light District. The first time he visited the safe house was two to three years later, in 2006 and again in 2008. Two weeks before he was supposed to leave, Gibril called. When the witness got to the safe house, Defense 10, Michael Bona, the children, the wife, the cook and the security guards were all there.
Defense 01 explained that Gibril was involved in the political activities of the RUFP between 2001 and 2002. In early 2002, he quit the RUFP and began setting up a fishing project to train ex-fighters. This project was accepted by the DDR, who wanted to fund the project, but as he was taken under the protection of the Special Court, the funding was never transferred to his account. Massaquoi was preparing the papers in Freetown. The project was supposed to be with ex-fighters from Pujehun, in Gbondapi. The witness testified that he saw the written document that he had prepared, he was with him the day he sent it to the DDR. Defense 01 had prepared an agriculture project, to involve ex-fighters in rice farming, funded by the DDR. The preparation of his project took a week. He did not know how long it took Gibril to write his own document, as Defense 01 only became involved in the data analysis phase of Gibril’s project. He explained that they would analyze responses to surveys of people’s needs. Gibril Massaquoi sent people to carry out the surveys and bring back the completed forms to him.
The witness knew Defense 13, she was Gibril Massaquoi’s wife. They were together in Freetown but did not live in the same house. He heard about the birth of their son in December 2000.
Defense 01 had not heard of anyone called Angel Gabriel or Angel. At school from 1991 to 1993, Gibril was called Gibs.
The prosecution questions Defense 01
The prosecution began by asking Defense 01 about the meeting in Kono. The witness confirmed that he was present at the meeting. He did not know why Liberia was chosen as the location for these meetings. He confirmed that Massaquoi attended every tripartite meeting that took place since December 2000: “If there is any number better than 100 percent I would have told this court. He attended all three of the meetings I attended.” He also indicated that this could be confirmed by UNASMIL, the Sierra Leonean government, or the Ministry of Justice. The witness testified that these meetings took place in 2001. He could not estimate how many meetings were held in 2001 in total. In 2002, the President declared peace at Freetown International Airport.
When Defense 01 moved to Freetown in December 2001, he moved immediately to the same house as Massaquoi. He was certain of the date, as it was the year he began his studies. The prosecution pointed out that Defense 01 had testified in the lower court that he had lived with Massaquoi when he had enrolled in university in 2003 to 2004. There was discussion in court as to when the witness was enrolled in university, and when he moved to Massaquoi’s house.
The witness testified that when they lived together, he was not with Gibril every second. He was not aware of Gibril going to Gbondapi for the fishing project in 2002. Defense 13 lived in Freetown between 2001 and 2003. When asked whether Gibril used to meet with her, he responded: “Defense 13 is his wife, he can go to her anytime, any hour, I don’t need to monitor him.” The safe house that Defense 01 visited was located in central Freetown. He gave details of how to reach it. The witness had heard that it was not the first safe house Gibril had lived in, but he did not know where he had lived before he had visited him. The prosecution pointed out that Defense 01 had told the Finnish police that he had been to all three of the places where Massaquoi was held. He had previously testified that the first one, on KLM Road, he had visited three times the second one only once, and the third one, located on Congo Cross, he had visited often. The witness responded that the one on Congo Cross was the safe house he had already mentioned, located near Light. The first one was located on Kiyama Road. The second house was in Brookfields.
Defense 01 gave the name of Massaquoi and Defense 13’s son to the court. He testified that the child originally had a Muslim name, but Defense 13 changed it to a Christian name when he was baptized at church. The witness was there when the child was baptized. He had heard that Defense 13 gave birth in Liberia.
The witness was not aware of Massaquoi’s travels to Liberia in 2001. He had heard something about it, but did not have any details. He had also heard that Massaquoi had travelled to the United States in cooperation with the Special Court.
Final questions from the defense
Defense 01 testified that Massaquoi lived in Freetown at the same time as Defense 13. He knew that he used to meet Defense 13 and the child, but he could not say how often. He clarified that the DDR negotiations were the same thing as the tripartite negotiations.
The defense pointed out that he had mentioned a fighter named Angel Gabriel during his police interview. This Angel Gabriel was not a commander, but a fighter in Makeni, Lunsar and Kono. The witness responded that he had testified today that there was one Angel Gabriel, but that was not Gibril. He confirmed that he had heard this name being used by someone. He was not in Lunsar, but in Kono, Buedu and Kailahun. There were also other people named Angel, five to seven in total. Most of them were RUF members. As for the Angel Gabriel he had spoken to the police about, he was not sure if he had been an RUF member. One of the people named Angel was in Lunsar, he was a radio operator. Some of them were in Liberia. The witness had heard of fighters going from Sierra Leone to Liberia and back, testifying that: “You know in RUF we have a monitoring system, I was a commander and I heard that they were in Liberia fighting, I had a radio so I used to hear”. He himself fought in Sierra Leone.
Final questions from the prosecution
Defense 01 speculated that he had heard of the Angel who had been in Liberia to fight around 1998 to 2000.