Liberia: Witnesses accuse Gibril Massaquoi of wreaking havoc in Lofa County

MONROVIA—During Thursday's appeal hearings for Gibril Massaquoi, the commander of Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF), on trial for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during Liberia's first civil war, the three prosecution witnesses, who came from Lofa County, in the northwestern region of Liberia, provided harrowing testimonies, claiming that he and his soldiers killed residents of a town called Kamatahum.

At the heart of the trial, prosecution witnesses told the Tampere District Court, which acquitted Mr Massaquoi because prosecutors had failed to prove his alleged crimes 'beyond a reasonable doubt' that he burned houses and burned people, including men, women, and children alive, or ordered his soldiers to do so - allegations also corroborated by Thursday's witnesses.

"I will never be able to forget this name Gabriel Massaquoi until my death", declared "Civile 43". “Because he damaged my whole life. It was his group that came to our city. They captured us and killed my mother and father, then put us on a long rope and tied our hands together."

She said that that day in Kiatahum (where they were arrested and taken to Kamatahum), Mr. Massaquoi and his troops lined them up in circles, with Mr. Massaquoi coming out in a fierce tone. Civilian 43 said that from that day his name stuck in his mind, especially because of what he allegedly did to his parents when she was a child.

Civil 43 said Mr. Massaquoi also called them his infamous name. "He said: 'I am Gibril Massaquoi, I am next to God. "

Like Civil 43, numerous prosecution witnesses testified that Mr. Massaquoi leaked the name to them before he could allegedly kill civilians or fellow soldiers or order their assassination. The name has become a key part of these taglines.

She said the chances of anyone surviving when he gave an order were next to impossible.

Most of the victims were innocent civilians who had committed no crime, she claimed.

Mr. Massaquoi, who denied the allegations, followed the district court hearings via video link. He moved there in 2008 under an asylum deal with the then UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone, where he served as a 'protected witness' in the war crimes trial. of former Liberian President Charles Taylor. His testimony is said to have been key to the convictions of Mr. Taylor and other former RUF commanders.

But Civitas Maxima, a Swiss-based justice organization that works with its Liberian partner, the Global Justice and Research Project, presented Finland's attorney general's office with what it claimed was evidence of his alleged crimes in Liberia.

They charged him with violating the special court's "safe house rules" and coming to Liberia to commit the crimes, including aggravated rape and aggravated murder, charges he was charged with. acquitted.

“The RUF soldiers were chasing us,” said “Civilian 36”. "They used to climb the palm tree and wherever they saw smoke, they would come there and capture everyone."

"Civilian 50", corroborated the testimonies of witnesses who preceded it.

He broke down in tears as he recounted his wartime experience to the three-judge panel.

"Every time you call us here to come and talk, it's like you have a wound (wound)," Civil 50 said. "And someone takes a stick and pushes it into that wound."

He claimed that on the day he and other citizens were taken captive to Kamatahum by Mr. Massaquoi's soldiers, he was the only one who survived that massacre because they realized he knew read and write, so they took him out of line to be their secretary.

"One by one, all...