4 April 2008
The long winded trial of the former Liberian leader is progressing steadily with various eventful episodes, especially now that proceedings are characterized by witness testimonies, after each testimony by prosecution witnesses, the defense rises to its feet to obfuscate the evidence by questioning even if the questions were said to be unorthodox.
Prosecution witness Isaac Mongor had his chance to say all that he knows about Charles Taylor's involvement with the RUF and other activities that the former leader carried out during the alleged bloodstained rebellious nightmares in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
With the testimony over, Mongor has fallen prey to a horde of questioning from defense counsels, who think that the testimony is both inconsistent and full of lies. After his testimony, he is being cross-examined by Charles Taylor's lawyers. They said he has lied about link between their client and the former RUF Chairman, Foday Sankoh. The Analyst jolts through what is gathered from the Trial Chamber's webpage.
Terry Munyard, one of Charles Taylor's defense attorneys, yesterday resumed cross-examining prosecution witness Isaac Mongor, attacking his (Mongor's) credibility, and saying that there were inconsistencies between Mongor's story and what he (Munyard) said really happened during the conflict in Liberia.
Also, he said, there are inconsistencies between Mongor's testimony and his prior statements to the prosecution. The cross-examination also raised questions about some practices in the Office of the Prosecutor in its dealings with Mongor.
Details of his position of the Mongor;s testimony Questioning Mongor's involvement with the NPFL
The defense spent considerable time focusing on the witness's account of fighting with Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) in Liberia in 1990. The questions focused on several areas, including: the credibility of Mongor's claim to have been captured by the NPFL; where the NPFL conducted its battles; where Mongor had been and what he had done while with the NPFL; and how Mongor came to meet Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leader Foday Sankoh and train RUF forces to fight in Sierra Leone.
Munyard questioned Mongor about where and when specifically Mongor claimed to have been abducted by the NPFL. After many questions and the aid of a map, Mongor stated he had been abducted in early December 1989 in a village in Nimba County whose name he didn't know, but which, he said, lies between Borplay and Logatuo, near the border with Ivory Coast.
Through a series of questions, Munyard elicited a timeline from Mongor about his movements in Liberia after his abduction. Mongor said after his abduction, he was immediately sent to Borplay, still in December 1989, for almost two months of military training.
From Borpleh, he said he had been sent to fight the Armed Forces of Liberia in Ganta in late January 1990, and that Ganta had taken just under a week to fall. From there, Mongor said he and other NPFL soldiers advanced on the town of Gbarnga, where they fought for one night before the forces of Prince Johnson (of the Independent NPFL faction) retreated. After taking Gbarnga in January-February 1990, Mongor testified that he had been sent to fight in Kakata and Bong Mines in February 1990 - an operation lasting two weeks - before he returned to NPFL headquarters in Gbarnga.
From Gbarnga, Mongor testified that he worked as part of Charles Taylor's executive mansion guard, manning an anti-aircraft gun mounted in a vehicle when Taylor visited the front lines, including near the outskirts of Monrovia and Bong Mines.
Then he said that in March 1990, Taylor sent him to join Foday Sankoh and train RUF fighters at Camp Nama in Liberia. At first, he said there were few recruits, so he traveled between Camp Nama and Gbarnga, where he continued his duties as a member of Taylor's executive mansion guard.
But, Mongor testified, by the end of March 1990 there were many RUF recruits, and from that point he was permanently stationed at Camp Nama until he moved with the RUF to invade Sierra Leone in March 1991.
Munyard expressed disbelief that Mongor had done so much in just a few months between early December 1989 and the end of March 1990, and that the NPFL had advanced from the border with Ivory Coast all the way to the capital in just two-to-three months. Additionally, he asserted that Mongor was lying, because his account did not match what he said were the true facts. Namely, Munyard put to the witness that he was lying about the following: his abduction by the NPFL, because Mongor testified he had been taken captive by the NPFL between Borplay and Loguatuo in December 1989, while Munyard asserted that the NPFL did not control that area until several months after they first invaded Liberia from Ivory Coast in December 1989; his training in Borplay in December 1989 because the NPFL training base there did not open until May 1990; because Mongor's account of living in houses at the training base in Borplay did not match what Munyard said to be the case: that the NPFL recruits lived in the surrounding forest during their training; because the name Mongor gave for his training commander did not match the names of the persons whom Munyard said were really the commanders; and because Mongor said he had been trained for less than two months, while Munyard asserted that all training at Borplay had lasted four months; the fall of Ganta, because Mongor said it had been in January 1990 and taken less than a week, while Munyard claimed fighting there lasted about a month, and that Ganta did not fall until mid-1990; the fall of Gbarnga, because Mongor claimed there had been fighting and casualties there, which Munyard said had not been the case. Rather, Munyard asserted, Prince Johnson's troops had abandoned the town without a fight.
Additionally Munyard suggested that Mongor was lying about fighting at Gbarnga because the NPFL had not taken it until January or February 1991, about one year after Mongor said he fought there; the course of the war, because Munyard claimed that in contradiction of Mongor's account, the NPFL did not advance from Ganta to Gbarnga, but rather from Ganta south to Tapeta and then to Buchanan.
Mongor replied that there were different groups in the NPFL and they didn't all move together serving in Taylor's executive mansion guard, because Munyard claimed that Mongor's description of the guard commander was not accurate, and that the guard commander had not taken that position until 1993, long after Mongor had left Liberia for Sierra Leone.
Further, Munyard claimed that Mongor could not have operated an anti-aircraft gun at the time because the NPFL did not yet have any. Defense also claimed that Mongor's description of Taylor's vehicle, a Nissan Patrol, was inaccurate because Taylor was using a bulletproof Mercedes Benz jeep at the time. Mongor insisted his account was accurate.
Munyard also claimed that Mongor was lying about being selected by Taylor to train the RUF. Mongor said he had been selected because after Taylor told the BBC that Sierra Leone would taste the bitterness of war - following ECOMOG jet attacks on the NPFL from bases in Sierra Leone - Taylor had been careful not to allow his special forces to engage in the RUF's training, instead seeking to disguise his support for the RUF.
Munyard suggested that Special Forces, those NPFL men who had trained in Burkina Faso and Libya, indeed had been involved in the RUF training, but Mongor denied this. Munyard also put to Mongor that Taylor had not given his statement to the BBC until November 1990, long after Mongor said he had left Gbarnga and was already training RUF recruits at Camp Nama, so that the BBC interview could not have been a reason for Taylor to select Mongor for the training. Mongor disputed that the BBC interview had been in November 1990.
Munyard asserted that Mongor had never guarded Taylor in the NPFL, but had been recruited to the RUF directly by Foday Sankoh, and joined because he believed in the RUF's objective to overthrow one-party governance in Sierra Leone.
Inconsistent prior statements
The defense questioned Mongor about discrepancies between his testimony and the notes that prosecutors and investigators from the Special Court took over the course of 24 separate interviews with him. In every case, Mongor stuck to the account of his testimony, saying that investigators may have misunderstood him, or arguing that the notes did not contradict his testimony. Specific examples included:
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