Two perpetrators testifying before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia Tuesday begged for forgiveness.
MONROVIA (TRC)--Narrating horrible accounts of their involvement in Liberia's civil conflict, two perpetrators testifying before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia Tuesday begged for forgiveness.
Before dozens of Liberians at the Centennial Memorial Pavilion, Evangelists Milton Blayhyi, alias "General Butt Naked" of the disbanded United Liberation Movement for Democracy-J (ULIMOD-J), and Allen Nicholas, alias "Arab Devil" of the former National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), asked their victims for mercy, claiming they were under the influence of "demons."
Blayhyi said that at the age of eleven, he was initiated into the traditional priesthood to protect and defend the Krahn people. Therefore, when the war started, he, Nyaseo Baway and Oldman Swen were invited to Monrovia to support to the late President Samuel Doe and his government.
Blayhyi, 37, who cried during his admission of atrocities committed, asked for forgiveness, saying, "everything was done in secret because the late Roosevelt Johnson and one General Lincoln did not want them to be exposed."
He admitted that the ULIMO-J carried out two major massacres in March of 1995 in Grand Cape Mount County, an area which was also under their control.
Blayhyi, said the April 6,1996 fracas in Monrovia between ULIMO-J and "government forces" of Charles Taylor's NPFL and Alhaji Kromah's ULIMO-K fighters resulted from differences between General Johnson and General Lincoln on the one hand, and Armah Youlu, Releigh Seekie and other hand.
Blayhyi confessed that during the civil conflict he executed a total of 20,000 people as sacrifices.
He confessed to ordering fighters under his command to rape women but said that only those who had had affairs with NPFL fighter were raped.
He also revealed that a seed planted in the Executive Mansion could only be removed by him provided that those who will accompany him believe what he believes.
Blayhyi appealed to Liberians for pardon, saying, "what we did at the time was not of our own but upon orders of evil men."
He thanked the TRC Board of Commissioners for the process and the opportunity provided him to narrate his experiences about the war.
The second perpetrator, Mustapha Allen Nicholas, alias "Arab Devil," recounted ghastly account of atrocities committed by him and other combatants of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL).
Nicholas admitted involvement in the Carter Camp and Du-port Road Massacres and narrated accounts of atrocities committed in Gbarnga and other places he claimed were under the command of Generals John P. Namayan, Melvin Sogbandi, Benjamin Yeaten, Mark Guahn and others.
He claimed that former Deputy Speaker of the National Transitional Legislative Assembly Samuel Saye Dokie was killed by General Christopher Vambo and others on the orders of Gen. Yeaten. Nicholas said the order to kill Dokie came from "above." However, he did not elaborate on what he meant by "above."
He appealed to all those whom he victimized during the conflict to grant him reprieve, saying, "I am begging all of you to please forgive me. What I did was done under the influence of demons. Please forgive us, especially me, I am asking for forgiveness."
Earlier, Jeremiah Wanplu Nah, a victim, said his left ear was cutoff at the Caldwell Bridge in 1990 by fighters of the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL) of General Prince Johnson, who arrested and accused him of being an informant and a Krahn man.
Nah claimed that in 2003 while running a foreign exchange bureau in Duala one police officer named "Sebastian," now working with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), took away L$15,000.00 and severely beat his brother. Nah,35, is demanding reparation of that amount before he forgives Sebastian.
He appealed to the TRC to help restore his left ear by sending him for medical treatment, saying he has been outcast socially and had to grapple with daily public resentment.
