Charles Taylor Trial
Weekly Summary of the Taylor Trial- Week of July 14-18, 2008
By SLCMP
Jul 21, 2008 - 4:23:11 PM

Prosecution counsel, Mr. Bangura, continued direct examination of Witness TF1-388.

The witness returned to his testimony regarding the killing of Sam Bockarie in 2003.   The witness testified that while he was being held in jail in Monrovia, he overheard a BBC radio broadcast, reporting that Sam Bockarie had been killed.   Later Jungle and Sylvester (colleague of Benjamin Yeaten) came to the witness and confirmed that they had killed Sam Bockarie, and had been given an order to kill any soldier who had accompanied Bockarie from Ivory Coast. The witness was told that that order came from Charles Taylor, in order to make sure Bockaire could not testify against him and also because of rumors that Bockaire planned to overthrow Taylor’s regime. The witness was told that between 100 and 200 people were killed pursuant to this order.   The killings occurred between May and June 2003.

Defense Counsel, Terry Munyard, conducts his cross-examination of the witness.

The Defense Counsel had the witness reiterate the time frame regarding his service in the RUF. The witness was captured by the RUF in March 1991. After training for three months in his village of Mendekema, he was sent to a training base in Pendembu where he was trained for another three months before being sent to the front lines.   In October or November 1991 he was transferred to the administrative section, to serve as a G2 agent.  The witness then revisited his testimony regarding the Top 20, Top 40 and Top Final missions, when Special Forces came to kill prominent RUF commandos. The witness testified that Charles Taylor did not withdraw all Liberians from Sierra Leone at this time, despite Foday Sankoh’s demands.

Jaward then discussed his contact with the prosecution counsel. He received 190,000 Leones and more than 1,500US Dollars for his testimony. Between April 2007 and June 2008 he received 32,685,000 Leones from the Victims Unit of the Special Court for the protection of himself and his family.  The witness insisted that these payments were in no way meant to “buy his testimony.”

Defense counsel sought to establish inconsistencies between the witness’ oral testimony and the written statement he had given previously. Defense counsel pointed out that the witness’ testimony did not match up regarding the time of his capture and training. The witness explained that whoever took his written statement had misquoted him, and that he had already made efforts to correct many portions of his written statement that had been taken wrongly down.   Defense counsel then noted that the witness testified that ULIMO-K fighters held the Sierra Leonean border in 1993, but that Vamunya Sheriff had previously testified to the Court that the ULIMO had only fought there in 1994 and 1995. The witness replied that to the best of his recollection, his statements were true, although the exact dates were not clear in his mind.  Defense counsel questioned a number of the witness’ other statements, and eventually asked him whether he was telling lies. The witness emphatically denied this claim.

Defense counsel asked the witness to describe what he knew about the arms trade between ULIMO-K forces and the RUF. The witness replied that it was usually a barter system, in which the RUF gave ULIMO forces looted goods in return for arms. The Defense counsel pressed the issue, suggesting that all factions, including ULIMO, NPFL and the Liberian Peace Council, sold arms directly to RUF fighters. The witness said he did not know of such instances, and that the only source of weapons he knew of was Charles Taylor.

Defense counsel asked the witness how many Sierra Leoneans had been recruited into the ATU (Anti-Terrorist Unit). The witness said that he did not know how many they were total, but that in his own group of trainees there were about 120.   The witness said they joined because they were told it was the only way they would be allowed to continue living in Liberia.   Defense counsel attempted to establish inconsistencies between these statements and the witness’ earlier testimony that some 200 Sierra Leoneans were killed in Liberia per Charles Taylor’s order. The witness maintained that there were more Sierra Leonean ATU’s than just those in his group, and that the two accounts were not inconsistent. Defense counsel asked why the witness never tried to escape from the ATU. The witness replied that he did, indeed, think about escape but that it would have been too risky, and he would have had nowhere to escape to except a refugee camp.

Defense counsel asked the witness whether he had heard rumors that Bockarie had tried to overthrow Taylor. The witness said that Bockarie has said that others had asked him to help overthrow Taylor, but that he refused. When Bockarie was arrested, he agreed to cooperate with his captors until Taylor bid for him to return to Liberia. Upon his return, the witness testified, he was killed on Taylor’s instruction.

When proceedings resumed on Thursday morning, the 17^th of July, Defense counsel Courtney Griffiths made an application for the court to move into private session. When open session resumed, the Trial Chamber granted the Defense counsel’s application for adjournment of proceedings.

When proceedings resumed on Friday morning, Defense Counsel continued his cross-examination of Jabati Jaward.

The Defense counsel suggested that the witness’ testimony might have been influenced by his contact with the trial proceedings. He asked the witness whether he met with other witnesses in 2007, whether he followed the trial in the media, and whether he was encouraged to add things to his testimony. He witness stated that no, he did not have contact with other witness and he was not encouraged to supplement his testimony. He stated that he did hear general things about the trial in the media, but he did not follow it closely.

The witness admitted that he knew a soldier called High Command, and that he spoke with him often after he had been rescued by Sylvester. The Defense asked if the witness was aware that High Commander acted as an investigator to Bockarie, and was later among the group of men who went to Nimba to kill him.   The witness said that he did not know this. The Defense then presented three handwritten lists of ATU soldiers, all dated March 10, 2002.   The witness testified that he did not know which of the soldiers on the lists was still alive.   The Defense then presented another document – a typed list of Sierra Leonean ATU soldiers, including their ranks, salaries and family members. The soldiers had signed the document to indicate that they received their pay.   The witness, Captain Jabati Jaward, is included on the list with a rate of 80 US Dollars, not the 225 US Dollars the witness claimed.   The Defense counsel reminds the witness that he testified that these lists were destroyed at the order of Chucky Taylor. The Defense accuses the witness of telling the court lies, which the witness denies.

Prosecution Counsel, Mr. Bangura, re-examines the witness.

Prosecution counsel attempted to restore credibility to the witness regarding issues that the Defense had contested. He asked the witness to reiterate his testimony regarding the arms and diamond trade between the RUF and Charles Taylor, and asserted that this testimony was consistent with both the transcript of the witness’ previous oral testimony, as well as the witness’ written statements.

The witness is dismissed and the Court is recessed until August 18^th, 2008.