Tommy Lee Kiadii, a perpetrator, narrated terrible accounts of atrocities he committed during the Liberian civil war, begging his victims for forgiveness.
MONROVIA (TRC)?Perpetrators
Ask For Forgiveness
At the sixth hearing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia,
a perpetrator, Tommy Lee Kiadii, narrated terrible accounts of atrocities he
committed during the Liberian civil war, begging his victims for forgiveness.
Kiadii, 36, testifying before the TRC on Wednesday, pleaded with his family
for mercy because according to him he killed his grandmother and his father.
Mr. Kiadii said while fighting for the defunct National Patriotic Front of
Liberia (NPFL) from 1990 to 1994, he was initiated in African
charms and became powerful to the point that he could not recognize his family
members, leading him to execute his grandmother and father and burn down their
houses. He said he also burned a mosque in Grand
Cape Mount County.
According to Kiadii, because of the atrocities he committed, there has been
no peace between him and his family.
He said that he wasrecruited by the late Christian "Putu" Major, then battle
field commander of the defunct NPFL in Bong Mines, trained and sent to the
battlefront in Grand Cape Mount, where he committed most of the atrocities.
He said a talisman was given to him in early 1990, and following a dream he had
one night, he was told to make a sacrifice of any member of his family. Kiadii
said he then sacrificed his grandmother and father, lamenting, "I am regretting
today for such actions."
The second witness, Ahmed A. Trawally, said his mother was stabbed in the
back and her breasts were cutoff by ULIMO-J fighters who held their entire
household at gunpoint in Suacoco, Bong
County.
He said this happened when Gbarnga, then a stronghold of the NPFL fell to coalition
forces made-up of the Liberia Peace Council, ULIMO-K, Lofa Defense Force and
ULIMO-J. Trawally recalled that the attackers painted their faces black.
Trawally,23, who appealed to the Truth Commission for assistance to return
to school, said he didn't know the whereabouts of his two sisters, Fanta and
Mamu Trawally, since 1994. And he has not seen his only brother, who is now
residing in the United States.
Peter Gayeson, a Ghanaian who has been residing in Liberia
since 1976, recounted the many atrocities committed by the defunct National
Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) and the Independent National Patriotic Front
of Liberia (INPFL), both in Monrovia
and Grand Cape
Mount County.
He said that he and others were ordered to bury the dead, most of them
already in an advanced decomposed state. He said the death of so many people
was the result of various battles for the control of territories between the
NPFL and INPFL or ECOMOG troops.
Gayeson, 55, said scores of Ghanaians including his brother, Ansumana Ansah,
were among some of the several foreigners massacred during the rebellion in
1990.
The day's last witness, Boakai Massalley, narrated the "painful execution of
his father and others" in his presence on a football field in Tewor District, Grand
Cape Mount County
by forces of the defunct ULIMO-K of Alhaji G.V. Kromah.
Boakai identified the man who executed his father and others only as "Senegalese,"
whom Boakai claims is presently roaming the streets of Monrovia.
He said they were executed because "Senegalese" said he wanted to eat human
hearts, which prompted his men to gather the entire town residents.,line them
up on the field and cut their throats one by one.
