The Inquirer (Monrovia)
Rose M Saulwas
30 October 2008
Liberian Journalist Kwame Clement has provided a detailed account before the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) on the circumstances surrounding the death of his former colleagues Charles Gbeyon who was killed in the aftermath of the failed 1985 coup invasion.
Journalist Clement and the late Charles Gbeyon were working with the state owned Liberian Broadcasting System (LBS), when the late General Thomas Quiwonkpa and his men staged the failed invasion.
Giving account of the death of his late fallen colleagues, Journalist Clement, who is now based in the United States but arrived last week to give his testimonies before the commission said, "I was in prison when I received information that Charles and Gen. Quiwonkpa had died," he lamented yesterday.
"I think his death made it possible for me to live, because after his death there was a huge public out cry adding to the fact that I was the first to be arrested and that during that time Pres. Doe, as I learned, was asleep, he added with emotions.
However explaining their ordeal of that fateful day, Mr. Clement said, on the morning of the Quiwonkpa invasion, his friend Gbeyon and he went at their ELBC office where they met Mr. Quiwonkpa pacing the floor nervously.
According to him, upon their arrival at the office they talked to General Quiwonkpa briefly and left. He said his emotional state did not show signs that he had accomplished the task for which he had come and therefore, he later disappeared.
He said that on the morning of the invasion, he was together with Gbeyon all day and that they did not see Commissioner Emmett Hammond nor talked with him and that after gathering their news stories after that day's event, they were editing their stories when they heard gunshots firing in the air which led to their fleeing for their lives and the subsequent slipover at the late Victoria Ralphels house.
Mr. Clement said that on Wednesday of that week, Charles came to him and told him that the government was looking for them, adding that he was later arrested and taken to the executive mansion, naked, tortured and thrown into the Post Stockade prison for thirty days.
He has also explained to the TRC that no other professional group suffered at most like journalist did because they practise their profession. He then urged journalists to think big and be developmental.
Isaac Bantu, a Liberian journalist with the BBC who was accused by Senator Prince Johnson that he and his friend took his money and did not publish also stressed that the former general of the NPFL can not buy his integrity. And at the time the incident occur, he had just come down from Harvard University and had on his person US$ 14,000 as spending money.
"He is a liar, he is a liar, he lied once, twice and thrice", he said, noting that Liberia is not a private farm for people to just come and brag about all they have done.
Mr. Robin White who also testified at the TRC media hearings has said that when he interviewed former President Taylor, then it was with the intention of trying to expose the kind of man he was and getting to know as much of the truth from him.
"I do not know if what I did strengthen the National Patriotic Party. What I do know is that I was trying to expose the kind of man he was", Mr. White said. He urged the people of Liberia to fly their flag of press freedom.
Mr. William Burke also at the TRC proposed that they include a recommendation for the formation of a national communication policy which will include aspect of development, emphasizing that those who has brought the country down should be held accountable for their action.
Stephen Ellis the author of the book "Mask of Anarchy" called on Liberians to find ways of living together because the war, he said was a ruthless struggle for power.
Mr. Terence Sesay, a former President of the Press Union of Liberia is calling on Mr. Robert Lomia of the Foreign Ministry to specific about the leadership to which he gave the $1,000.00 of which he spoke at the TRC on Tuesday and the individual to whom he handed the cash and when he did it.
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