allAfrica.com: Liberia: Former RUF Radio Operator - Taylor Gave Orders, Arms, and Ammunition to RUF (Page 1 of 3)

Liberia: Former RUF Radio Operator - Taylor Gave Orders, Arms, and Ammunition to RUF

The monitors of former President Charles Taylor's trial report for www.charlestaylortrial.org

Former RUF Radio Operator - Taylor Gave Orders, Arms, and Ammunition to RUF

The prosecution today led a former Revolutionary United Front (RUF) radio operator through his evidence, and he testified to close communication between RUF commanders and the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), including its leader, Charles Taylor. Shielded from public view by a screen and visible on video only with distortion, protected witness TF1-516 described arms and ammunition shipments to the RUF ordered by Taylor, as well as recounting that Taylor gave orders to senior RUF commander Sam Bockarie around the time of the January 1999 invasion of Freetown.

Training with the RUF

Late yesterday the witness began his testimony by telling of his abduction by Liberian members of the RUF when he was 17 years old. Prosecutor Mohamed Bangura picked up the questioning this morning with additional questions about the training base in Kailahun to which the witness was taken. The witness testified that he had spent about three months at the Ahmadiyya Secondary School base. He said that all of the recruits had been civilians, many of them students, and that they had not been free to leave. Anyone caught escaping would be killed, as he said happened to a colleague, whom he said was shot and beheaded by one of the trainers, Rambo, to set an example. The witness named the previous prosecution witness, Isaac Mongor, as being one of the trainers at the school. The witness was subsequently moved to another secondary school base. When the number of recruits swelled to around 5,000, the group was divided between bases at two school campuses. The witness said that boys under the age of 20, such as himself, were put in "Small Boy Units" (SBUs), and girls under 20 were placed in "Small Girl Units" (SGUs). Later in the day he testified that he had seen boys as young as 10-12, and girls who were 15-16 years old. Women recruits over 20 years old were placed in a unit called Women Army Command Soldiers (WACS).

At the training base, witness TF1-516 said they had learned how to move on the front line, and had been taught to send civilians captured at the front to the rear for military training because the RUF was in need of "manpower". Prosecutor Bangura asked what he had learned of the RUF leadership at the time, and the witness said that there were two elements of the RUF: "Special Forces" who were Taylor's NPFL fighters, and "Vanguards" who had been trained in Liberia under Foday Sankoh before the invasion of Sierra Leone. He was told that Sankoh would be coming and that [Charles] Ghankay Taylor was providing support.

Following his training, the witness said he was sent to the front and promptly wounded when a bullet severed the tendon in his ankle. After three months in a Sierra Leonean hospital with no improvement, Sankoh came and transferred him and other difficult medical cases to the northwestern Liberian town of Foya. He said he spent six months there and that there was much improvement.

Becoming a radio operator

The witness stated that in 1992-1993, after his convalescence in Foya, he was sent first to Koidu, then to Beudu, where he spent nine months charging batteries in the radio station because he still couldn't walk. He then received a pass to go to his village to seek native treatment for his injury, but once there was arrested by RUF men for being absent without leave. He was sent to Gema, where he again spent time charging batteries.

By 1994 he was in Kangary Hills, assigned to a unit that took care of ammunition, when a friend recommended him for signal radio training because he could read and write. He received three months of training in Kangary Hills before jet attacks forced an evacuation. RUF leader Foday Sankoh ordered the group to come to him at Zagoda, Kenema District. Sankoh continued the training of the witness and his colleagues himself, and it took a further six months.

The witness described the radio training, saying it had covered procedures, "pro signs", codes, and operation of the radio device. The prosecution showed a notebook, which the witness confirmed was a hand-copy of his notes from the training, made by another recruit after his original copy had become too worn.

The court heard detailed, at times technical descriptions from the witness about how the RUF radio network functioned, including an example of how messages were encoded and decoded. The witness described how the codes were developed, why they were periodically replaced, and how this was done.

Assignments in Sierra Leone and Liberia

The witness completed his training in late 1995 or early 1996 and was then assigned to stay at the RUF headquarters station at Zagoda together with the station sergeant (and previous prosecution witness) Sah James ("Zedman"), working directly under Sankoh. There, he received situation reports from RUF field commanders for Sankoh. In November or December 1996, Kamajors overran Zagoda, and the RUF, including the witness, went to Giema. The witness was arrested upon his arrival there because during the retreat he had not managed to rescue a satellite phone and fax machine that Zedman had brought back from Ivory Coast, where he had accompanied Sankoh to peace negotiations. The witness was then posted to Beudu, where he stayed from 1996 until 1997 when the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) took power in Freetown. In Beudu, the witness worked for Sam Bockarie ("Mosquito"). The witness described Bockarie's initial radio call sign, and said that in 1999, two looted NGO vehicles were brought from Voinjama, Liberia, and each was converted into a mobile radio unit and assigned a separate call sign - both for Bockarie.

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