February 29, 2008
FISH TOWN (TRC)?Abbas Fawaz, Lebanese businessman and owner of the Maryland
Wood Processing Industries (MWPI) provided logistical and financial support to
Ivorian dissidents to invade C?te
d'Ivoire, a rural journalist accused of committing atrocities told
commissioners of Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on
Wednesday.
Zico Dalieh, programs manager of Gee Radio in Fish
Town, River
Gee County
said several truck loads of arms and ammunitions concealed under bags of rice,
were regularly transported by Mr. Fawaz from the Port
of Harper in Maryland
County across the Ivorian frontier
to supply the rebels.
The company, Dalieh said, paid monthly salaries to the rebels and repaired
vehicles used for their operation in C?te d'Ivoire.
"One day, arms and ammunitions concealed under bags of rice arrived in the
company's trucks from Harper before Generals Benjamin Yeaten, Paul Vaye,
Chuckie Taylor and others arrived to transport them across the Ivorian border
for operation," recounted Mr. Dalieh, who headed the company's operation in
River Gee at the time.
He revealed that during the company's operation in the area, former
president Charles Taylor established military barracks at Jidepo Jaklaken for
the government militia fighters, adding that Fawaz was given the responsibility
to support them financially and logistically.
Dalieh said one day a convoy of vehicles arrived at the border with C?te d'Ivoire
carrying General Benjamin Yeaten, Chuckie Taylor, William Sumo and some French-speaking
soldiers. He said the group later crossed into C?te d'Ivoire,
where they were engaged in military operations against Ivorian government
forces.
The rural journalist, who appeared before the commission to respond to
accusations by previous witnesses that he committed atrocities, said Lebanese
managers of the company were seen armed with AK-47 rifles when fighters of the
Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) launched their rebellion against the Taylor
government in 2003.
He said that on one occasion, one of the managers, Joseph Noredin, escorted
a truck loaded with food, arms and ammunition for use by the fighters in C?te d'Ivoire.
Dalieh's testimony was similar to claims by Solo Chea, the County's revenue
judge that arms and ammunitions bound for rebels in C?te d'Ivoire
were shipped into Liberia
through the Port of Harper
and transported by road to River Gee
County by Fawaz, who was Chief
Executive Officer (CEO) of MWPI.
The TRC is an independent body set up to investigate the root causes of the
Liberian crisis, document human rights violations and other abuses that
occurred from 1979 to 2003. The TRC mandate is to also identify victims and
perpetrators and make recommendations on amnesty, prosecution and reparation.
The public hearings, under the theme: "Confronting Our Difficult Past for a
Better Future will Monday convene in Zwedru, Grand
Gedeh County
for a week before moving to Greenville,
Sinoe County."
