February 26, 2008
FISH TOWN (TRC)?Witnesses told commissioners of Liberia's
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Monday that they saw slain RUF
Commander Sam Bockarie and former Sierra Leonean junta leader Johnny Paul
Koroma among several Ivorian dissidents in the town of Glaro,
River Gee
County in 2002 before they attacked
neighboring Ivory Coast.
The witnesses said a long convoy of vehicles arrived at 4:30 am in the town
and onboard the vehicles were Bockarie, Koroma, Gen. Benjamin Yeaten, Chucky
Taylor, Solo Junior, Robert Gaye, Jr. (the son of former Ivorian military
leader, Robert Gaye), General William Sumo, Nelson Paye, former Maryland County
Superintendent Dan Morias and others.
Testifying on the first day of the TRC Public Hearings in Fish
Town City,
River Gee
County, witnesses explained that
following the arrival of the men, government militiamen under their command
forced the local residents to carry arms and ammunitions across the Ivorian
frontier.
The fighters, they explained, forcibly conscripted youth of the area to join
them to attack the Ivory Coast
through the Zor border crossing point.
Solo B. Chea, Sr. Revenue Judge of River
Gee County
told those present at the hearings that following the refusal of the local
people to acquiesce to the Ivorian attack, the government fighters rounded up
several prominent citizens of the area and took them to separate locations in
the county for execution.
He said those executed included Joseph Watkins, Associated Stipendiary
Magistrate of River Gee, Amos Nyenoh and Marcus Zuo. He explained that theirs
ears were cut off before they were killed execution-style.
Chea said arms and ammunition brought into the town were shipped into Liberia
through the Port of Harper
and transported by road to River Gee
County by Lebanese businessman
Abbas Fawaz, manager of MWPI, a logging company that operated in the area.
Chea's testimony was corroborated by Hilary Watkins, Obada Toffin Kesseh,
Esther Tenneh Sokolo and Martha Watkins?all inhabitants of the town of Glaro.
Meanwhile, a 65-year-old distressed father, Otis Oguntee, told commissioners
of the TRC Monday that he and his wife were forced to witness the slaughter of
their 14-year-old son, Emmanuel Oguntee, accused of being a recruit of the
Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) by rebels of the National Patriotic Front of
Liberia (NPFL) in 1990.
"My son Emmanuel Oguntee was brought before me and my wife and slaughtered
as the rebels held us at gunpoint to witness the slaughter. They accused him of
being an AFL recruit," the visually impaired elderly man said.
After the slaughter, Mr. Oguntee explained, the rebels compelled him to
respond to the killing, saying, "I said, ?Thanks be to God.'" But he said the
commander of the fighters told him to say "Thanks be to the freedom
fighters."
The TRC is an independent body set up to investigate the root causes of the
Liberian crisis and document human rights violations and other abuses between
1979 and 2003. The TRC mandate is to also identify victims and perpetrators and
make recommendations on amnesty, prosecution and reparation.
The public hearings are being held under the theme: "Confronting Our
Difficult Past for a Better Future."
