February 26, 2008
FISH TOWN (TRC)?Chilling accounts of the massacre in 2003 of hundreds of
inhabitants of the town of Glaro, River
Gee County
have been heard by commissioners of Liberia's
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
In 2003, according to witnesses, militiamen loyal to former president Charles
Taylor rounded up 369 inhabitants of Glaro and massacred them at various
locations in River Gee
County.
The killings, witnesses appearing before the TRC ongoing Public Hearings in Fish
Town City,
River Gee
County, said were ordered by former
Maryland County
superintendent Dan Morias and General William Sumo.
Five years later, the killings have become the focus of an investigation by the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which is Liberia's
way of trying to make amends for the horrors of the country from 1979 to 2003.
Now full disclosures of what became known as the Glaro Massacre are being made
public.
Samuel B. Chea, Sr., former stipendiary magistrate now revenue judge of River
Gee County, told TRC commissioners Monday that the massacre was carried out by
fighters of the "Mountain Lions Brigade" of former president Taylor's
government.
According to Chea, the massacre was planned and executed by one Captain Paye
Suah, Major Nelson Paye and others under the supervision of former
superintendent Dan Morias and General William Sumo. He explained that at
separate intervals pickup loads of Glaro inhabitants were killed at different
locations including River Gbeh junction. He said the bones of the victims can
still be found in the area. At one point in time, Chea said, the fighters
executed the assistant stipendiary magistrate of the county, Joseph Watkins and
several prominent citizens of the area.
"Mr. Watkins was killed because we belong to the same tribe (Glaro), besides
being opposed to using the district as launch pad for attacks against the Ivory
Coast," Mr. Chea testified.
He said that because the people of Glaro refused to cooperate with the
government fighters, they (the fighters) began an attack on unarmed inhabitants
leading to the murder of 369 of them. The witness said the massacre in the
Glaro villages and towns were made possible by arms shipped into Liberia
by road to the county by Lebanese businessman Abbas Fawaz, manager of MWPI, a
logging company that operated in River Gee and Maryland
Counties.
Martha Watkins, wife of the murdered assistant stipendiary magistrate,
revealed that her husband and two others, Amos Chea and Amos Nyenoh were
arrested and killed by the government militia after they refused to organize a
defense force in Glaro.
She said following her husband's and others' arrests, Gen. Sumo ordered
fighters under his command to disembowel her for incessantly pleading for her
husband. She said her husband and the others were taken to a jail in Fish
Town, and days later when Sumo
arrived, were bundled in a pickup and led to their executions.
Martha explained that another militiaman, Zico Dalieh, now deputy station
manager for Gee Radio in Fish Town,
killed dozens of other Glaro inhabitants including a pregnant woman with three
young children. Watkins explained that before Dalieh murdered his victims, he
cut off their ears before sending them for execution.
Before one of the executions, she said, Dalieh nailed the legs and palm of
one of his victims before killing him.
The widow said most of the killings were sanctioned by former superintendent
Morias, "Dan Morias was commander for South Eastern Liberia. Dan Morias sent
defense force in the bush to arrest people and they were killed."
She testified that following the detention of her husband in Fish
Town, she pleaded with Morias to
release him but he refused. Morias now serves as ambassador-at-large.
