May 1, 2008
GBARPOLU (TRC)?Weeping intermittently during her testimony Thursday, a
witness told commissioners of Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
(TRC) how fighters of Alhaji Kromah's defunct United Liberation Movement for
Democracy (ULIMO) sexually assaulted her using pepper.
Witness Termah Ballah said she lived in the village
of Wayyama, where ULIMO fighters
carried out killings and raped women. She said in language indecent to repeat
that she was severely tortured via her genital parts.
Termah said after they sought refuge, they encountered a fighter called "Golafalee,"
who along with other fighters subjected her to severe humiliation and physical
pains.
She was testifying at ongoing public hearings of the TRC in rural Liberia
at the Bopolu City
Hall in Bopolu
City, Gbarpolu
County.
The witness said the tortures inflicted heavy pains on her and others.
Termah testified, "We got to the village...I was tied, laying down. We cried,
we cried, until later one soldier came and said you leave these people. We
remained in the rope until daybreak. That thing we were doing?I had belly. I
delivered the baby, but it didn't live. All these things happened to me."
She explained that the following month, the fighters again entered the
village from Wayyama, and she was unable to walk. But she added, "They juke me
with the knife in my back. Now I have no strength to walk. The rope that the
soldiers took to tie on my waist was very long, but they say if I don't walk,
they will drag me."
Drawing the emotions of the audience, she continued, "When we got to the
village, they tied my foot on this side. They tied my hand. They opened my
foot. They take the pepper...and put it down. When they cut the rope I fell down.
They told me to go take bath; they put me in the water..."
The TRC is an independent body set up to investigate the root causes of the
Liberian crisis, document human rights violations, review the history of
Liberia, and put all human rights abuses that occurred during the period from 1979
to 2003 on record. The TRC mandate is to also identify victims and perpetrators
and make recommendations on amnesty, prosecution and reparation.
The ongoing rural public hearings are being held under the theme:
"Confronting Our Difficult Past, For A Better Future."
