allAfrica.com: Liberia: RUF Radio Operator Details Joint Fighting, Unified Command of RUF and Liberian Forces (Page 1 of 3)

Liberia: RUF Radio Operator Details Joint Fighting, Unified Command of RUF and Liberian Forces

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

RUF Radio Operator Details Joint Fighting, Unified Command of RUF and Liberian Forces

Protected prosecution witness TF1-516 testified for a second full day today, adding detail to his previous description of the relationship between the RUF and Charles Taylor, as well as relating new accounts of his experiences during the war. Under questioning from Prosecutor Mohamed Bangura, the witness again testified about communication between Revolutionary United Front (RUF) commanders and Liberian officials, including Taylor, during the January 1999 invasion of Freetown. Likewise, the prosecution sought clarification from the witness on several points raised in testimony yesterday regarding the provision of arms and ammunition from Liberia to the RUF. Much of the day was spent with the witness offering testimony of occasions on which he said RUF personnel had been summoned to fight Guinea and anti-Taylor rebels in Liberia and Guinea. The witness also described diamond mining operations in the Kono District of Sierra Leone.

Taylor’s role in the January 1999 invasion of Freetown

Prosecutor Bangura began the day by seeking clarification from the witness regarding his testimony yesterday on communication between the RUF and Liberia at the time of the January 1999 invasion of Freetown. The witness said he knew of radio contacts at that time between RUF leader Sam Bockarie and radio station “020″, located at the Executive Mansion in Monrovia, because he monitored some of the discussions from his radio set. Asked to give examples of orders given by Bockarie to commanders in the field at the time just following communication between Bockarie and 020 - as he had related yesterday - the witness said Bockarie’s instruction to Gullit (a commander in the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council) to burn government buildings in Freetown came after one such discussion. The witness also gave an example of Bockarie issuing an order to Gullit following a discussion between Bockarie and “Base 1″, the radio set of Benjamin Yeaten (the director of the Special Security Service in Taylor’s government, and Taylor’s immediate neighbor in Monrovia) to bring prisoners freed from Pademba Road Prison to Bockarie’s location in Beudu.

Bangura asked whether the witness received any reports of atrocities in Freetown following Bockarie’s order to initiate burnings. The witness replied that he received reports from an operator with the forces in Freetown, who said that the troops had gone on a rampage, capturing a large number of women and wounding civilians. The prosecution appeared eager to show that the atrocities were not only ordered by Taylor, but that he knew of them. Asked whether Bockarie reported on the situation in Freetown to any other party, the witness said that Bockarie had made numerous calls to Base 1 on the radio and satellite phone, and sometimes to 020 by satellite phone. The witness said he personally had called Base 1 a number of times at Bockarie’s instruction.

More details on the supply of arms and ammunition from Liberia

Bangura asked again about whether Bockarie ever went to Liberia for ammunition, and the witness said that Bockarie would be called by Base 1 (Yeaten) to go to Foya, Liberia to meet a helicopter with ammunition to bring back to Sierra Leone, and that another time Bockarie had returned from Monrovia with a truckload of ammunition. He said that during the period of the Freetown invasion, Bockarie brought arms in from the Foya route, which had landed there by helicopter. The witness said that upon Bockarie’s return, commanders from the frontlines were summoned to pick it up. He testified that this was the routine any time Bockarie came from Liberia with materials.

The witness described Foya as being a strategic rendezvous point for high-ranking RUF and Liberian officers. When the witness was sent to Foya, he reported to Zigzag Marzah there. He added that Issa Sesay send an RUF commander named Takpo to oversee security of the airfield in Foya.

Bangura asked how the witness knew that the station in the Executive Mansion coordinated the supply of materials to the RUF when these were requested by Bockarie. The witness explained that he was able to monitor communications between Base 1 (Yeaten’s radio) and 020 (Taylor’s radio). He said that sometimes Bockarie, through him, would call Base 1 and get a response from 020, and sometimes would call 020 and get a response Base 1. He said that he could hear those two stations transmitting the RUF request between themselves. With requests for ammunition, the witness said that Bockarie would talk directly with Benjamin Yeaten.

Asked how he knew that arms and ammunition were brought to Sierra Leone by Liberians including “Zigzag” Marzah, “Jungle” (Daniel Tamba), Dopoe Menkarzon, Sampson Weah, and Roland Duo, the witness said he used to see them at the RUF base in Beudu. When supplies were brought, he said that he saw Bockarie signing for them. The witness said that all of them were under the command of “Fifty” (the code name for Benjamin Yeaten), and ultimately, of Taylor.

The witness further testified that when he went to Liberia in June/July 1999 to work directly with Benjamin Yeaten, he received requests from Bockarie for ammunition. Yeaten would sometimes respond to Bockarie that the message had been sent to “his father”, and that Yeaten would reply later. The witness said that materials were sent to Bockarie every time he requested them, and that it was the role of the witness to radio to Bockarie about when, where and how they were to come. The witness also sent messages from Yeaten to General Issa Sesay, the new RUF leader after Bockarie left Sierra Leone for Liberia in 2000, to inform him about materials being provided and to tell him to move to Foya or Monrovia to get them.

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