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Liberia: Direct Examination of Prosecution Witness Isaac Mongor Ends, Cross-Examination Begins
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GUEST BLOG
1 April 2008
Posted to the web 1 April 2008
The monitors of former President Charles Taylor's trial report for www.charlestaylortrial.org
Direct Examination of Prosecution Witness Isaac Mongor Ends, Cross-Examination Begins
As the trial of Charles Taylor resumed following the Special Court for Sierra Leone's two-week judicial recess, prosecutors re-called witness Isaac Mongor to the stand. (Two-and-a-half weeks ago, Mongor's testimony had been paused in order to allow Joseph "Zigzag" Marzah to testify; his testimony had to be heard before the recess for logistical reasons relating to witness protection.)
Under questioning from Prosecutor Nick Koumjian, Mongor, a former commander in the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), continued to testify about key events of the war in Sierra Leone and crimes committed by rebel forces in its course. He also described the rebel hierarchy, at the top of which he said was Charles Taylor, whom he described as the "the owner of the RUF".
Following the lunch break, Defense Counsel Terry Munyard began his cross-examination of Isaac Mongor. Munyard implied that Mongor was only testifying to save himself from prosecution, and accused Mongor of lying about important details in his account.
Testimony about key events and hierarchy
The prosecution began the day by asking about the January 1999 invasion of Freetown. Mongor testified that the entering force, under the command of Gullit, had come under pressure from ECOMOG peacekeepers and needed to retreat. Mongor said that RUF commander Sam Bockarie (Mosquito) ordered the withdrawing rebels to set the Nigerian embassy and other places on fire. Further, he testified that rebel attacks on ECOMOG forces at Hastings (on the Freetown peninsula, outside the city) were important to the successful rebel retreat from Freetown. When asked about the relationship between the RUF and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) during the time of the invasion, Mongor stated that they "were one" and that there were no problems between the organizations.
Mongor testified that following the signing of the Lomé Peace Accord in July 1999, RUF leader Foday Sankoh returned to Freetown, and that at the time his senior commanders were Sam Bockarie, Issa Sesay, and Morris Kallon, in addition to Johnny Paul Koroma of the AFRC. Sankoh and Bockarie allegedly had an argument over the communications radio, and when Sankoh sent people to arrest Bockarie, Bockarie fled to Liberia with some of his men. Issa Sesay replaced him.
In 2000, after the RUF had abducted UN peacekeepers, Mongor said that delegations from Nigeria, Libya and Liberia came to visit with Sankoh. Mongor testified that Joe Tuah, the artillery commander for the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), was in the Liberian delegation. Mongor said he personally warned Tuah about a planned incursion against Taylor for which a former Liberian army officer, Gen. Bropleh, had attempted to recruit him.
Mongor said that he was arrested on May 7, 2000 by senior members of the West Side Boys, a splinter faction of Johnny Paul Koroma's AFRC. Mongor explained that these former soldiers were disappointed with the Lomé Accords because they did not include a provision reinstating them into the Sierra Leonean Army. He said he was tortured and taken to the Pademba Road Prison in Freetown, where he was joined the next day by Sankoh and many other RUF members following the shooting of demonstrators at Sankoh's house. Mongor said he was detained for over five years and three months, only learning at his first court appearance that he was being charged with murders that occurred at Sankoh's house the day after his arrest. He was not released until August 2005.
Mongor described a system of discipline within the RUF, where rebels were punished for refusing to fight, disobeying orders, or stealing diamonds. Detainees were kept in a "dungeon" - a pit dug in the ground and covered with corrugated metal, and some offenses were punished by death.
Alleged links to Taylor
As prosecutors seek to demonstrate that Taylor had control over the RUF/AFRC in Sierra Leone, Mongor offered the following relevant anecdotes:
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- Mongor testified that between the January 1999 invasion of Freetown and the Lomé Peace Accord in July of that year, the RUF had participated in an operation in Liberia against a commander there called "Mosquito Spray", who was fighting against Charles Taylor's government. According to Mongor, Bockarie told him that Taylor had asked him to send men to fight Mosquito Spray in Lofa County, Liberia.
- Mongor testified that after the signing of the Lomé Peace Accord in July 1999, RUF leader Foday Sankoh and AFRC leader Johnny Paul Koroma had both been summoned to Liberia before returning to Sierra Leone. Mongor claimed that Sankoh told him upon his arrival in Sierra Leone that they had met with Charles Taylor, who told them to work together and according to the dictates of the Accord. Mongor said that Sankoh came to Makeni accompanied by UN peacekeepers. In their presence, Sankoh told RUF commanders that the war was over, and the next morning apologized to local civilians.
- According to Mongor, following the 1999 rift in the RUF between Sankoh and Bockarie, there was no change in the relationship between the RUF and Charles Taylor because Sankoh maintained communication with the Liberian president. Mongor stated that Issa Sesay at first communicated with Taylor through Sankoh, but later also communicated directly with him.
- Mongor stated that when Sankoh came from Liberia following the Lomé Accords, he had a satellite phone with him that he used in order to talk with Charles Taylor. Mongor testified that he heard Sankoh talking with Taylor.
- Mongor testified that following his release from prison in August 2005, he went to visit the three RUF accused - Issa Sesay, Morris Kallon, and Augustine Gbao - in the detention facility of the Special Court, where their trial was underway. Mongor said Sesay told him of two RUF missions to meet with Taylor in Monrovia. The first was before Sierra Leone's elections in 2002, when Sesay and two other commanders traveled to Monrovia. According to Mongor, Sesay said that Taylor had asked them to let Sam Bockarie return to Sierra Leone. After their return to Sierra Leone, Morris Kallon urged them to turn down Taylor's request because Bockarie's return would cause infighting in the RUF. Later, during the election campaign and disarmament, Issa Sesay sent a delegation to Taylor seeking money and materials for the campaign. The delegation was arrested, but later released and returned without the requested funds and materials. Mongor said Issa Sesay told him he had refused to go himself out of fear that Taylor would kill him.
- Mongor testified that he had seen Johnny Paul Koroma and Sam Bockarie with diamonds, and that Bockarie had told him he always took them to Taylor in Monrovia in exchange for ammunition. Mongor stated that these diamonds were at the heart of the dispute between Sankoh and Bockarie, because Taylor had shown diamonds to Sankoh when he came to Liberia in July 1999. On his return to Sierra Leone Sankoh became angry with Mongor and others because he hadn't received reports from his RUF commanders about all of these diamonds.
- Mongor testified that the RUF placed human heads on sticks at checkpoints, a practice that was also used by the NPFL, which also used human intestines as rope at checkpoints. Mongor testified that Taylor had driven through such checkpoints in Liberia when Mongor worked as one of his security escorts.
- Asked to describe the relationship between Charles Taylor and Sam Bockarie, Mongor said they were like father and son, and that Mosquito used to call Taylor his "father". He said that when he visited the RUF headquarters in Beudu, Bockarie had shown him daily reports on field activities that he communicated to Taylor over a satellite phone or field radio.
- Mongor said that within the RUF, Taylor was commonly called the CIC - "Commander in Chief", which meant that he had command over all of the RUF. "He was the owner of the RUF."
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