Liberia: Joe Wylie Identifies November 12 Plotters
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The Inquirer (Monrovia)
26 August 2008
Posted to the web 26 August 2008
C. Winnie Saywah & Rose M. Saulwas
An active participant in the failed November 12, 1985 Quiwonkpa Coup invasion has identified several individuals who he said assisted and facilitated the coup.
Mr. Joe Wylie, who claimed he is a revolutionary democrat, told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that the point-members of the failed coup were Roberts Philips, Harry Greaves, James Holder and now President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Mr. Wylie who vowed never to get involved in any armed conflict in Liberia in his two day of deliberation on his involvement in the conflicts of the country told the audience that those four persons worked overtime to ensure that the coup was successful.
He said that the Quiwonkpa coup was the first that he got involved in after being recruited by Dr. H. Boima Fahnbullah and trained by the very Quiwonkpa due to his quest for freedom.
Mr. Wylie said that inspite of all that was done in terms of preparation and funding, one of the prime reasons the coup failed was because of the mixture of suspicion among members of the TWP and those who considered themselves as progressives.
He told the TRC that the coup was decided and formulated in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where the members of the True Whig Party (TWP), the Progressive Alliance Party (PAL) and the Movement of Justice in Africa (MOJA) had to pretend as though they had put away their disagreements yet they did not trust each other to allow Boima Fahnbulleh come across to Liberia to execute the coup plot.
Mr. Wylie said that it was in their thinking that if they had allowed Fahnbulleh to enter Liberia, he was going to overshadow Quiwonkpa by stealing the show so they did not allow him to come to Monrovia.
Mr. Wylie, who had earlier presented a 79- page document to the commission, admitted before the Commissioners that it was due to poor planning that served as a major contributor to the failure of the coup though they had Madam Johnson-Sirleaf, Phillips, Holders, and Greaves working twenty four-seven for the coming of the Quiwonkpa coup plot to Monrovia.
Wylie also stated that another contributing factor that made the coup to fail was the limited force of 33 men which was too small to overthrow a government that had the country's armed forces at its disposal pointing out that the external intervention, the lack of cooperation from members of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) and the breakdown of communication were added disadvantages.
Explaining the details of how they carried out such operations in Monrovia, Mr. Wylie said that on the morning of the plot, the late Robert Phillips took a truck to the Guinean border and they loaded it with their arms and headed for Medina.
He said prior to their coming to Monrovia, they went under four months of intensive military training along the borders of Guinea where he saw Tom Kamara, Tonia King, Harry Yuah and Fahnbulleh.
He stated further that after they had entered Monrovia and he proceeded with his plan of attacking the Mansion from the back and his subsequent encounter with members of the AFL, he went in search of General Quiwonkpa but he saw him in conversation with General Henry Dubah at the Barclay Training Center (BTC).
"After I met with the General, I told him to leave the company he was in because he was not safe there. Moments after we had left the BTC; we were attacked and I left the General on Benson Street and never saw him again."
After the failed coup, Wylie said that he went back to Freetown where he was told by a woman to leave the house he resided in because the government had sent spies to look for them; he said he then left Freetown for Ghana with some money provided him by Fahnbulleh.
Still explaining about his involvement in the crisis, Wylie said that he met Augustus Nyensuah in Ghana who introduced him to some Libyans who offered him money to recruit some men to send to Libya to be trained by the Libyan government.
He narrated that after he had arranged and sent twelve men to Libya, he received a message from there that the Libyans wanted those men to join Charles Taylor to be trained so as to return in Liberia for war, something which he objected to because it was said that Taylor and his men had rituals in which they killed chickens and goats and ate them raw using the exercise as the method they would perform when they attacked Liberia.
He told the commissioners that he was recruited during the 1985 invasion because he just wanted to be trained adding, "Archie Williams provided us the communication sets that failed us during the coup because they couldn't work and Fahnbulleh provided the bullet prove jackets."
"The United States government did not support Quiwonkpa coup; it was the Americo-Liberians who supported us including Ellen Sirleaf," he reiterated when questioned by the commissioners.
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Giving reasons to the commissioners why he did not join former President Taylor in his revolution, Mr. Wylie said he could not have done that because it became clear to him that Mr. Taylor's target became the Krahns and Mandingoes, who he (Wylie) described as his own people.
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Read comments. Write your own.
Joe is lier, He needs to tell us who were those 25 foreigners that made them 30 for the coup.Where did they come from.
Congratulations Mr. Wylie. This is a true testimony of your involvement in the crisis of Liberia. What a true son of the land, Liberia. It is really sadden that the people who pepertrated crimes against the Liberian people and are now are the arbital of power are lying and boasting that they will never apologize. What a bizzar! I would hope the men and women who played this game will come forward and tell the true story like you. The Liberian people will now know the real color of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
WOH! What a STORY! AS we Liberians say," There are three(3) sides to every story, Your side, My side, and The Truth." Which side is this? I'm still pondering!
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Hmm What a story huh? Thank you Joe.. God will forgive you for your honesty...I just wish others will follow your example and spill the beans.