Charles Taylor Trial
Weekly Summary of the Taylor Trial – Week of June 23- June 27 2008
By SLCMP
Jul 4, 2008 - 7:46:54 AM

Defense Concludes Cross-examination of Witness TF1-584, Ms. Alice Pyne

On Monday morning, Defense Counsel Morris Anya concluded the cross-examination of Prosecution Witness TF1-584, Ms. Alice Pyne, a.k.a. ‘Apple of Action.’   Mr. Anya began where he left off Friday, asking the witness if she agreed with previous testimony given by Alimamy Bobson Sesay in April 2008 that the Red Lion Battalion was formed in Colonel Eddie Town.    Ms. Pyne disagreed, submitting that it was actually formed by Gullit in Koinadugu.  

The Defense then questioned Ms. Pyne about the three times Issa Sesay and Morris Kallon attempted to arrest Superman, first in December 1998 and two more times prior to the 6 January 1999 invasion of Freetown. The witness also testified to infighting between Sam Bockarie and Superman, and that Superman would often refuse to follow Bockarie’s orders.   The Defense might have focused on this evidence in order to undermine the perception of a strong chain of command within the RUF itself.

Mr. Anya next pursued a line of questioning intended to undermine the witness’s credibility by establishing that she had contact with a witness, Foday Lansana, who had testified in the Taylor Trial in February 2008.   Foday Lansana is the father of Ms. Pyne’s two children.   Lansana had visited his two children in June 2008, right before Ms. Pyne left Sierra Leone to testify in the Taylor Trial in the Netherlands.   Ms. Pyne indicated that she had been present during this visit, though she denied discussing with Lansana either his own testimony or the experience of testifying.   

Finally, the Defense questioned the witness about payments she had received from the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP), separating out these payments from additional payments provided by Witness and Victims Services.   Mr. Anya established that the OTP had spent almost one million Leones on the witness’s behalf over a two and one half month period, which allegedly covered emergency food, medication and other expenses.

 
Prosecution Calls Protected Witness TF1-375

The Prosecution called protected witness TF1-375, who testified with voice and facial distortion in Liberian English. Prosecution Counsel Nicholas Koumjian conducted direct examination.   He began by informing the Court that the witness wanted the entire testimony to be conducted in closed session, though there had been no written motion put forth to this effect by either Witness and Victim Services or the Prosecution. Defense Counsel Terry Munyard objected to this.   In addition, Mr. Munyard noted that he was becoming very concerned with the fair trial rights of Charles Taylor, because the Friday before the Defense had just received an entire new set of preparatory notes and a photograph from the Prosecution.  Mr. Munyard referred to jurisprudence in other ad hoc tribunals, specifically the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, that it was improper for one party to provide so much material to another party this close to the evidence or testimony being given, such that the receiving party does not have adequate time to prepare its cross-examination.   The Court took note of this concern, but deferred consideration of the issue until the completion of the witness’s direct examination.

The Court then refused to conduct the entire testimony in closed session, but it did provide that certain information, which might risk the security of the witness, would only be heard in private session.   In open session, the witness indicated that in 1991, at the age of 11 years, he was captured by the RUF and taken to a training base in Pendembu, Sierra Leone.   After he completed his training there, he was assigned to guard Superman’s wife, and later became one of Superman’s own bodyguards.   By 1995, the witness had been promoted to lieutenant commander of an SBU battalion, with around 62 people under his command.

The witness testified about orders he received from Superman concerning the 1996 elections for a mission called Peace Before Election.   The orders directed that anybody seen with ink on their finger (indicating that they had voted) should have that finger removed. The witness then described an incident in 1997 when he went, on Sam Bockarie’s instruction, to meet with Jungle, one of Taylor’s bodyguards, and Senagalese, one of the Special Forces for Taylor, to pick up some ammunition. After this first trip, the ammunition was taken to Superman in Freetown to fight against ECOMOG.

The witness indicated this was his first time meeting Jungle, also known as Daniel Timba, but that Jungle eventually became a close personal friend of the witness. Jungle later told the witness that the ammunition in question had come from Liberia, and that Taylor would sometimes send Jungle to take ammunition from Taylor’s mansion in Monrovia to Sam Bockarie in Sierra Leone.   Jungle allegedly told the witness that he had served as the liaison between Charles Taylor and Bockarie, and that he took diamonds to Taylor to exchange for ammunition to take to Sierra Leone.  In addition, Jungle told the witness that he was having personal problems with Sam Bockarie in 2001.

The witness then described a number of operations – including Operation Pay Yourself – and attacks – such as an attack on Koidu town led by Superman – that involved atrocities.   For instance, during Operation Pay Yourself, the rebel forces took civilian property and killed anyone if they resisted. During the attack on Koidu, the RUF captured a number of young girls and also burned houses in which Kamajors, or supporters of the Kamajors, were based.   The RUF would sometimes burn these houses with people still inside. Sam Bockarie later gave the order to burn down Koidu Town as they were retreating, so that Nigerian ECOMOG forces could not use it as a base.   The witness also testified about an RUF saying, that “civilians do not have blood,” which he thought meant that civilians were not as important as RUF soldiers, so the RUF could treat them however they wanted. He indicated that he had observed no difference in how the RUF and AFRC treated civilians during these attacks.

The witness testified about traveling with Eddie Kanneh to Foya, Liberia to pick up some ammunition.   In Foya, ZigZag Marzah, a colonel in Taylor’s SSS, took the witness to President Taylor’s farm in Gbarnga. At the farm in Gbarnga, the witness met Benjamin Yeaten, the director of Taylor’s SSS. The witness then indicated that he brought the ammunition back to Sam Bockarie in Buedu, and also took some of the ammunition to Superman in Kono District and some to Komba Gbundema in Wordu.

The witness next described Superman and Issa Sesay joining forces and capturing Makeni in December 1998.   During this attack, there was looting of civilian property and capturing of girls for soldiers’ wives. Issa Sesay allegedly ordered a cessation of looting, because Makeni was his hometown, and Sesay punished some soldiers who continued looting civilian property. The witness then described their advance on Freetown, including the movements of troops and respective commanders, and their subsequent retreat from Freetown in January 1999.

The witness testified to being sent with some other RUF and AFRC fighters to Foya by Sam Bockarie to help the Liberian government fight against a group called Mosquito Spray. In Foya, Benjamin Yeaten said they should fight to push Mosquito Spray back to the Guinean border because they were all fighting for the same goal, though the witness could not say what this goal was. Sam Bockarie later arrived in Liberia, and Benjamin Yeaten indicated that Bockarie was to be part of the SSS as an advisor to Yeaten.

In 2000, Benjamin Yeaten told the witness to go to Sierra Leone to find out what had happened with the captured peacekeepers. When he arrived in Makeni, the witness allegedly saw the captured Zambian peacekeepers.   He radioed Yeaten and Yeaten indicated that he would call Issa Sesay, who at the time was in charge of the RUF in Sierra Leone. Yeaten had also requested some of the captured weapons from Issa Sesay, indicating he needed the weapons to use against LURD.   Morris Kallon’s and Issa Sesay’s bodyguards allegedly brought the weapons to Liberia.

The witness then described the first time he was directed to go to Sierra Leone from Liberia in early 2000 to take arms and ammunition from President Taylor’s residence, White Flower, to Koindu, to give to Issa Sesay’s bodyguard.   He testified that he had carried arms and ammunition from Liberia to Sierra Leone a total of four times from 2000-2001.  

The witness also indicated that Superman had crossed over from Sierra Leone to Liberia in 2001 to help fight with Benjamin Yeaten against LURD. Yeaten later told the witness that Superman was killed in an ambush, though others who were also present told the witness that it was actually Yeaten and his men who killed Superman. Later, between 2002 and 2003, Yeaten confessed to the witness that he had been ‘misled’ into killing Superman, because he had been told that people saw Superman at the U.S. Embassy.

The witness described an incident when Benjamin Yeaten gave him a large envelope of money - $85,000 – to take to Issa Sesay while Sesay was in Liberia. Sesay allegedly became angry and said he was expecting $500,000 for the diamonds he had brought, to get cars and other supplies for the RUF campaign to run political parties in Sierra Leone.   Sesay had also told Yeaten that the RUF were disarming in Sierra Leone, and apparently Yeaten told Sesay that Taylor strongly advised them not to disarm, because it wouldn’t be good for Liberia.   Sesay only indicated that he would discuss this with other senior leaders when he returned to Sierra Leone.

Lastly, the witness testified about various satellite and cell phones he saw in both Sierra Leone and Liberia.   He indicated that at the time he had both Taylor’s cell and satellite phone numbers, and was able to recall the cell number. The witness testified about meetings with President Taylor he attended while in Liberia. He described meeting President Taylor for the first time in Liberia in 1999, when he was brought to the White Flower by Benjamin Yeaten.   The witness last saw Taylor in 2003 both at his residence and at the Executive Mansion before he left the country.   Taylor allegedly told the witness personally “Son, I know that people are now feeling bad that I am leaving, but that things will be fine.”

Prosecution conducted the remainder of direct examination in private session, in order to protect the identity of the witness.   The Defense then submitted an application for a four-week adjournment of the witness before conducting cross-examination, due to the fact that important evidence had just been disclosed to the Defense by the Prosecution the previous Friday.   The Defense submitted that it required a period of time to investigate this new evidence in order to protect the rights of the accused to effectively cross-examine witnesses called by the Prosecution.   The Court granted the Defense’s application, and cross-examination of Witness TF1-375 is expected to begin in August, after the Court returns from its break.  

The Prosecution requested deferral of its next witness, as it did not have a witness available for Thursday, 26 June 2008, and one member of the Prosecution team was out sick.   The Court decided that it will not sit on 26 or 27 June 2008, and the Prosecution will call its next witness on Monday, 30 June 2008.   Next week, the Court will not be in session on Tuesday, 1 July 2008 due to a Dutch public holiday, and it will not be in session on Thursday, 3 July 2008, due to the 10^th Anniversary of the ICC Day proceedings that the judges must attend.