Liberia: Examination in Chief of Witness TF1-388 Jabati Jaward Concludes
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GUEST BLOG
14 July 2008
Posted to the web 15 July 2008
The monitors of former President Charles Taylor's trial report for www.charlestaylortrial.org
Examination in Chief of Witness TF1-388 Jabati Jaward Concludes; Cross-Examination Commences
During the examination in chief by Prosecutor Mohamed Bangura witness Jabati Jaward testified to the following:
Death of Sam Bockarie
In December 1999 the Witness was arrested to be executed. His rescuers, Sylvester and Jungle, confirmed that they had killed Sam Bockarie, his wife and all troops that went with him. Charles Taylor issued a general execution of all soldiers aligned to Sam Bockarie as Jungle made clear. Jungle, general supervisor of the front line, was killed in an attack. It was said that 100-200 killings occurred when he came back to Monrovia in 2003.
Lists of people killed
The Prosecution presented to the Court several lists with names of persons present in the 80U Base. The Defence objected to these lists presented by the Prosecution, but the Witness was allowed to mark the Sierra Leoneans who were killed during the time of the execution of Sam Bockarie on a copy of the lists. On the first list Jaward marked 40 of 120 names as persons having been killed. On the second list he identified 1 officer as being killed. On the third list Jaward marked 4 of 11 names of persons of the mechanics group as having been killed. All people on the lists were Sierra Leoneans, except for one person on list one, Deday Koney, who was Liberian. The name of the witness is mentioned under number 2 on list 1. Jaward stated that he was protected by Doctor Makuna (sp?) against the search and kill order from the authorities. This order was from Charles Taylor. After it was possible to leave Monrovia safely he left for his family. The Witness came back to Monrovia after Charles Taylor had left for Nigeria.
All three lists are marked for identification.
Problems during disarmament
Jaward explained that he wished to comply with the UN's request for disarmament when the war was over. General Wennie confirmed to him that Chuckie Taylor (son of Charles Taylor and head of the ATU = Anti Terrorism Unit) had asked that all names (including the name of the witness) be removed from the ATU list. General Wennie later instructed Jaward that he should go to the disarmament camp using a different name. Nathaniel S. George was the name given to the witness with which he went through the process of disarmament.
Identification of persons in photographs
Three photographs were shown to the witness for identification. He confirmed that he had not seen any of the photographs before, nor knew who took them.
1st photograph: Jaward identified 4 persons as being Pa Sheku, S.Y.B. Rogers, Sam Bockarie and Eddie Kanneh.
2nd photograph: Jaward identified 2 persons as being Issa Sesay and Colonel Jungle. Colonel Jungle was the coordinator between Sam Bockarie and Charles Taylor and became later a member of the SSS. Jungle was later killed.
3rd photograph: Jaward identified 3 persons as being Abu Keita, Colonel Jungle and Zigzag Marzah. Jaward remembers having known Zigzag Marzah in Buedu in 1998: he came along with Sam Bockarie from Liberia. At that same time he also came to know Abu Keita in Buedu.
The photographs were marked for identification.
Cross-examination begins
Defense Counsel Terry Munyard began cross-examination of witness Jabati Jaward and established the following:
- Jaward was born in 1973, was educated until 5th form level, was captured by the RUF in early 1991 at age 17 in his home village of Mendekema in Sierra Leone, received brief military training by the RUF, but his main military training later at the ATU; he still lives in Liberia.
- Timeframe: captured by the RUF in March 1991; RUF training for 3 months in Mendekema, his village, then sent to the military training base in Pendembu where he stayed and was trained for a further 3 months; a week at the front line (not on attack missions, only defending), spending some time in the hospital; October/November 1991 transferred to the administration section in Pendembu where he became a G2 agent.
- Responsibilities as a G2 agent: registering complaints of civilians and arresting those who were found guilty of charges. Possible charges: harassment, stealing and rape. Jaward was not responsible for investigating the complaints and knew not of any punishments given to the ones found guilty of these charges other than detention.
- Operation Top 20 and Top 40 = Top Final. Jaward had personal experience with the operation Top 20. Special forces came to kill strong RUF Vanguards, civilian heads and junior commandos in the RUF. This actually happened. Foday Sankoh protested and demanded all Liberians should leave Sierra Leone. Jaward testified that Charles Taylor did not withdraw all or most Liberians from Sierra Leone by mid 1992, but that only the most notorious left.
- Contact with the OTP: Jaward came in contact with the Office for The Proscution through a friend of his, Tarawalli. Jaward said to have grievances in connection with the war in Sierra Leone: he personally did not favour the war, he and others only did these things to protect their lives until the war ended. Jaward received amounts of 190,000 SL Leones and more than 1,500 US dollars. Between 2 april 2007 and 26 June 2008 he received 32,685,000 SL Leones from the Victims Unit of the Court for the protection of himself and his family.
Court is adjourned until tomorrow 9.30 a.m.
Relevant Links
Copyright (c) 2003 Open Society Institute. Reprinted with the permission of the Open Society Institute, 400 West 59th Street, New York, NY 10019 USA, www.justiceinitiative.org. or www.soros.org.
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