U.S. Orders Liberian Warlord to Pay For Atrocities

A U.S. Court has ordered Colonel Moses Thomas, a former Liberian soldier who supervised the massacre of unarmed civilians at St. Peter's  Lutheran Church on July 29, 1990, to pay U.S.$84 Million to four unanimous survivors.

Thomas who headed the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit (SATU), was found guilty by a U.S. court of killing an estimated 600 worshippers- mainly of the Gio and Mano ethnicity - more than three decades ago. The court said he is liable for war crimes, crimes against humanity under the U.S. Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA) and the Alien Tort Act (ATC). the court said.
Four Liberians, known by the court as Jane W, John X, John Y, and John Z for fear of reprisal in Liberia, filed a civil lawsuit against Thomas, 67. The massacres are the single worst atrocity in the Liberian Civil War and sparked a string of retaliatory murders spanning 14 years, from 1989 to 2003.

In June 2022, U.S. authorities charged Moses Wright, one of the most important figures in the turmoil that engulfed the country in the late 1980s and 90s, with immigration fraud and perjury related to his actions during the Liberian civil war.