March 6, 2008
ZWERDU (TRC)?Fighters of the defunct Liberia Peace Council (LPC) in 1994
roasted dozens of captives and village inhabitants accused of witchcraft
activities in Grand Gedeh
County, a witness told
commissioners of Liberia's
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
Albert Mowen, special assistant to the superintendent of Gbarzohn Statutory
District said the fighters laid their victims on driers, made to roast animals,
and burned them to death in blazing fires lit with wood.
He was testifying Wednesday at the ongoing public hearings of the TRC at the
Zwedru City Hall
in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh
County.
Mowen said the act was a constant practice of the rebels in various towns
and villages in Gbarzohn, saying that dozens of inhabitants of various towns
and villages fell prey to the rebels' action.
"When they put those accused of witchcraft activities on the drier they
cried until they are completely burned to death," Mowen said. He said following
the deaths, relatives were ordered to bury the charred remains.
He claimed the rebels were led by David Torjillah, a former Armed Forces of
Liberia (AFL) soldier now deceased, and Alex Yarbo.
Mr. Mowen said the fighters flogged his brother, Thomas Mowen, to death
after they arrested his entire family and accused them of collaborating with
fighters of the defunct National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL).
"The LPC fighters took us to their base, tied and beat us with their
cartridge belt. The belt hit my brother Thomas on his private part and he died
on the spot," the witness said in an emotional tone.
The LPC one of several warring factions in the Liberian civil war was led by
Dr. George Boley. Another witness, a former fighter of the group, Stephen Jones
said Boley personally brought in supplies of arms and ammunition for the rebels
through the Port of Greenville,
Sinoe County
during their occupation of territories in southeastern Liberia.
Meanwhile, Oliver Wah, another witness testified Wednesday that fighters of
the LPC massacred 27 inhabitants including his father, mother and sister in
Gbeapo Kanweaken in River Gee
County on May 7, 1995.
He said the fighters of the group who launched a village attack upon orders
from their leadership lined up the town's inhabitants and ordered them to lie
down before they slit their throats with cutlasses.
He said before the killings he saw the rebels rape the women, including his
mother and sister.
Having escaped from the rebels, Oliver explained, he concealed himself in a
nearby orchard where he witnessed the slaughters.
He said after the rebels left the town he returned and slept with the dead
bodies until the next morning when he piled the remains of the decomposing
corpses on mattresses in the bush near the town.
The distressed 11th-grade student of the Zwedru
Multilateral High School
said the remains of the victims can still be found in the area.
