Lawmakers Divided Over Bribery Issue

President Sirleaf seen in the middle at the opening session yesterday
As the 3rd Session of the 52nd National Legislature commences, some members of the lower house of parliament are said to be divided over the involvement of independent experts to form part of the investigation into the bribery allegation that is still hanging over that august body.

Some members of parliament have vehemently rejected the idea of inviting independent investigators to probe the bribery allegation on grounds that the involvement of outsiders is not in the best interest of the House of Representatives.
Speaking yesterday at program marking the official opening of the 3rd Session of the 52nd Legislature, the Chairman of the House Committee on Executive, Rep. Kettehkumuehn Murray said while the House of Representatives welcomes the probe into the bribery allegation and any other allegations and actions against those who may be involved, what the house is totally against is the involvement of those he described as outsiders to probe the allegation.

In strong words, Rep. Murray said members of the house will not invite any outsider to come and interfere with what he considered as the secret corridor of the House of Representatives.

The Montserrado County lawmaker further stressed, “Allegation of bribery and any other allegation must be investigated and decision must be taken by this House, but we shall not, and we will not initiate the hundred and sixty years of independence of the legislature by inviting any outsider to come and probe into the secret corridor of this House.”



But Rep. Edward Forh of District #12 has taken strong exception to the statement by Rep. Murray on the involvement of independent bodies to probe the bribery allegation. Speaking to Legislative reporters minutes following the opening ceremony, the Montserrado County District #12 lawmaker said the involvement of an external body will vindicate members of that august body.


Rep. Forh then called on members of the Press Union of Liberia, the Liberia Council of Churches and human rights organizations in the country who are concerned with the bribery allegation to organize themselves and exert pressure on the leadership of the House to speed up the investigation process.

Last year, it was alleged by former House Speaker Edwin M. Snowe that some of the colleagues in the lower house of parliament received bribes to remove him from the position. His statement was backed by two other lawmakers who claimed to have received US$5,000 each to remove the former speaker from office.

As the result of these allegations, some international organizations including the ICGL and the United States Embassy near this capital have persistently called for an independent probe into the bribery allegation to authenticate the actual fact about the issue.

At the same time, Rep. Forh has raised serious concern over the increase in the price of basic commodities in the country. Rep. Forh said prices of basic commodities continue to skyrocket without any clear explanation from the Ministries of Commerce, Finance and others concerned.

The Montserrado County lawmaker vowed to lobby with his colleagues to reduce the allotments of ministries and agencies of government that are not carrying out their statutory mandates. He said these institutions and agencies will be cited by the House to show cause why there is an astronomical increase in the prices of basic commodities on the Liberian market.

Recently, a senior Legislative staff, Mr. Darius Dillon has joined members of the international community in the call for forensic probe of the bribery allegation against Speaker Alex Tyler and others.

“It took them a week to pass the financial autonomy bill given the National Legislature autonomy to control its own budget; it also took them one day to spread US$500 each on their earnings from government coffers. Why is it taking two years to commence a probe into the bribery allegation brought against the House of Representatives?” Dillon quizzically inferred in a NEW VISION interview Sunday.

Mr. Dillion is strongly calling for the resignation of Speaker Alex Tyler who stands accused of bribery by some colleagues of the Lower House including Representatives Edwin Snowe of Montserrado County .

Mr. Dillion, a one time Chief of Staff of the office of dethroned Speaker Edwin Snowe, recalled that Representative Saah Gborlie and Bong County lawmaker Bono public confessed in a jointly signed written statement carried in the January 8 publications of some local dailies that they were offered US$5,000 bribe by the present Speaker Alex Tyler and representative Edward Forh as inducement to remove former Speaker Snowe from office.

Dillion further said he wants Speaker Tyler to resign because he is accused of bribing colleagues to perform their constitutional duties. He said the resignation of Speaker Tyler will restore the dignity and the moral integrity of the House of Representative in particular and the National Legislature in general.

“It’s an unspeakable offence for people stand accused of an offence to resist call for a credible probe intended to clear their names,”

Dillion propounded.

According to him, “the refusal by the accused to allow an independent probe sends a signal that something is at stake.”
Recently, during the turnover of keys of the newly rehabilitated and refurbished Capitol Building – the home of the National Legislature – Ambassador Booth called on the House of Representatives of the Republic of Liberia to clear itself of the bribery allegation brought against it.

The background of the Ambassador’s comments was grounded on allegation by Mr. Snowe that some members of the House were trading bribe as inducement to remove him from office.
The ICGL subsequently came up with a position statement calling for a probe but there is apparently debate of who should conduct the probe, as some lawmakers say the House will not allow itself subject to outside investigation.
Speaker Tyler is on record saying that the House’s Judicial Committee was conducting a probe of the bribery allegation, but added that the delay was caused by the absence of accusers to come forth with evidence.
“We want to send a note of caution that the people of Liberia have realized the power inherent in them in keeping with Article 1 of the Liberian Constitution”, Mr. Dillion noted.

Taylor’s Lawyers Against the Odds in Winning Hearts & Minds

Charles Taylor surrounded by his henchmen: Courtessy to the New DEMOCRAT



The trial of former President Charles Taylor is evolving into his UN-paid lawyers’ campaign to win hearts and minds here.

His new lawyers have decided to wield the nationalist weapon, endeavoring to convince Liberians, themselves victims of Taylor’s crude misrule from which recovery is proving to be difficult, that they are the losers for his meeting with international justice.

Now, if the press conference they gave last week is the key, they are far from contesting the validity of the charges against Mr. Taylor, which encompass sexual slavery, pillage and other crimes against humanity.

Their counter-charge, amongst others, is that after all, Taylor is not the only one to stand accused for committing such crimes.

On the second level, they contend that Mr. Taylor was defending Liberia’s territorial rights and sovereignty by allegedly invading Sierra Leone and training its ruthless rebels. On the third level, they injected some bizarre nationalism in the case, telling Liberians that their President was equated to Aldolf Hitler, the German Nazi leader who killed himself to avoid standing before the world for the same crimes that Taylor is accused of.

Let is examine the lawyers’ claims, as put forth by lead lawyer Courtenay Griffiths QC:
Legitimacy & He Is not the Only War Criminal Defence The lawyers contend that Taylor is unjustly held because he is not the only war criminal. This is a kind of defense popular around here in a simple question. “Who didn’t kill?” This analogy indicates that those who have brought Taylor before the world, the big powers, perhaps, such as the US and Britain, their leaders, are bigger war criminals than Taylor the little one.

It is an argument that Taylor, while in power, frequently used against Washington and London. Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic, all fell on the same argument without success. Lead lawyer Griffiths expands on this claim by telling a story linked to Alexander the Great:

“But we also have other concerns: one of our primary concerns is actually the legitimacy of this trial. By that I mean this. I am reminded of a story told by St. Augustine which was quoted favorably by (…) an American writer in a book called “Pirates and Empress” and in that book, St. Augustine is quoted as telling the story of a pirate captured by Alexander The Great.

And The Great Alexander asked the Pirate and I quote: “How dire you molest the sea?” the Pirate elegantly …you might think replied The Great Alexander, “How dare you molest the whole world, because I do it with a little ship on the sea only and I am called a thief or a war criminal. You are doing it with a whole fleet of ship with a whole army the air force, in fact you powers extends into outer space and yet you are not subject to the same stretches as I am.”

Protecting & Defending Liberian Territory Against Invading Sierra Leone

The lawyer’s statement that followed indicates a wish to whip Liberian nationalism into action, something that, he believes, would help his case.

He contends that by invading Sierra Leone, Taylor was protecting Liberia in the same manner that Apartheid South protected itself by invading South West Africa, now Namibia or, for that matter, Tanzania’s invasion of Uganda to kick out its tyrant Idi Amin. He says:

“Now, I hope you understand the message from that short story. In terms of how is it that your ex-president finds himself in that predicament and it raises the issue to us. Charles Taylor was the democratically elected president of a sovereign country.

He has been put on trial not for acts committed by him within the Republic of Liberia but rather the actions allegedly taken by him in a neighboring country which was at the time consumed by internal conflict which in fact and potentially threatened the integrity of the country of which he was then president.” Whatever the legal merits here, there is a gross twisting of history surrounding the tragedy that befell this region.

It is commonly known that Liberia was the epicenter of the sub-regional wars. Fresh from their rebel baptism in Libya, Foday Sankoh and other RUF leaders joined ranks with Taylor from December 1989 onwards, until the Sierra Leone disaster came in 1991.

The RUF, in their manifesto, made the links clear. They needed a territory from which to launch their rebellion. That territory had to be Liberia.

They fought along side Taylor’s rebels, and by 1991, they had captured enough territory in northern and western Liberia to open corridors. The first batch of rebels that landed in Sierra Leone was overwhelmingly Taylor’s, since the RUF was in its infancy. Could this be considered, and accepted as protecting Liberian territory?

After the 1997 elections, Tom Woewiyue, a leading executive of the NPFL then in the Senate, warned against cutting RUF links, saying Liberia’s security would be at risk. The statement came after numerous appeals to Mr. Taylor to end his support for the RUF, appeals he rebuffed.

But what did Woewiyue imply in his warning? He, amongst many others, could giving a helping and to the lawyers in advancing this defence.

The lawyer dwells extensively on this self-defence argument, as if, even if accepted, it encompasses chopping off limbs, stealing diamonds and waging terror on innocent people as the prosecutors charge. He claims:

“And the question is how should a sovereign head of state in such a position act in order to protect the sovereignty and integrity of his country?

Now I am not entering into the issues of whether or not the Prosecutions have proof of Mr. Taylor’s intervention in Sierra Leone that is the matter for evidence in due course.

What I am posing at the moment is a simple and general question: Do the President of your Republic have the right where he sees that such, the use of such a right is important in the protection of his people, does he have the right to intervene in the affairs of a neighboring country?

I asked that rhetorically because when we are asked to look at history, we will be aware that such intervention is a common place; America’s presence in Iraq, currently, America’s presence in many other countries around the world.

If we go back slightly in history, we will recall South Africa’s intervention in Namibia so the question is why are the actions of Mr. Taylor being single out in this particular way giving the historical way in which nations have behaved. So that’s the general concern that we have.”

No Witnesses, Security Council Indicted


Apart from nationalistic jingles, the lawyers have a more practical problem, and that is finding witnesses to disprove the prosecution’s case. They argue that many of their “potential” witnesses are on the UN travel ban and assets freeze list, but they did not name them.

The truth, however, is that the UN travel ban does not cover such travels as going on state matters, as Mr. Edwin Snowe did when he traveled to Qatar. And, of course, the lawyers know that when Taylor was about to be flown to The Hague, the ban was lifted. Both the travel ban and assets freeze were imposed to facilitate peace, not hinder it.

If the lawyers could name one witness who cannot testify because of the ban, they would have some sympathy.

That has not been done. On the other hand, instead of preparing for their case, the lawyers have selected to interfere in Liberians affairs by denouncing the assets freeze, particularly when they are paid by the UN, not the assets of Mr. Taylor nor his associates.

They should have been called to order for this glaring meddling and reminded that they should better earn their money by properly defending their client:

Griffiths: “But our concerns go beyond that (self-defence and legitimacy). Part of our reasons for arriving in Liberia is to see whether we are able to obtain witness statements, and that involves those who might assist in the defense of Mr. Taylor, in The Hague.

What we have seen so far is a great deal of fear and much of that fear is centered around two things: Firstly the fact that a number of potential witnesses have already been made subject to travel bans by the United Nations Security Council. They have also had their assets seized.

And that has had a chilling effect on their willingness to come forward and give evidence on behalf of Mr. Taylor. But it extends beyond that you see, because others might be minded to speak to are themselves afraid that if they were to come forward they too may be made subject to travel ban and their assets might likewise be seized.

And so consequently, it seems to us that our ability to properly prepare and present a defense for Charles Taylor is being directly hampered and hindered by obstacles placed in our way by the Security Council and the United Nations.

And in many cases, indeed in all cases those provisions have been put in place without there being any proof of criminal activities by any of the individuals concerned.

It is not as if evidence is being placed before a tribunal …jurisdiction that say, we know that these individuals have been engaged in witnessing intimidation, consequently it is right and appropriate that, that individual ability to move should be restricted, but there has been no such proof presented before a court of law in this country and yet you have many of your most prominent citizens subject to this ban and unable to access their assets and the knock on effect of that is we are constantly having difficulty in preparing our defense.

Pleas For Mass Pro-Taylor Action


From their statements, the lawyers indicate that one hope they have is to steer-up sentiments here against the trial.

They have unsuccessfully presented Charles Taylor as a victim of big power manipulation, an innocent man who has done just a little for what others do without punishment.

Now, they want the Liberian people who, they believe, are beneficiaries of Taylor’s enlightened rule that has seen their country out of the clutches of poverty.

“Now we were minded to inform you of these concerns in order to highlight the necessity of the people of Liberia to monitor closely the progress of the trial in The Hague, your ex-President is being tried thousands of miles away from the soil on which he was born, yet the subject matter of that indictment is a stone throw away in a neighboring country, Sierra Leone and not as if he is being tried by a jury of his peers, you are his peers, and it seems to me that as his peers you have the right to stand in judgment on the fairness of the proceedings in which he is currently involve.
It seems to me you have a duty and an obligation in that regard because the issues to be raised in that trial, although the indictment does not directly affect Liberia, nonetheless, the issues to be raised are of direct relevant to you as Liberia because the acts alleged against Mr. Taylor were allegedly committed by him whilst he was President of your country, so to that extent, it is directly relevant to you and you have a duty and obligation to monitor closely the proceedings in The Hague.

“And it also seems to me important that you are actively involve in that way in order to ensure that the statement made by David Crane last November by way of example doesn’t mean that a fair trial could not be heard by Mr. Taylor.

It seems to me that it is your vigilance, your willingness to complain if you see due process not being accorded to your ex- President, it seems to me to be your duty to ensure that your voices are heard and they are heard thousands of miles away in the Hague such that, that tribunal recognizes this obligation to ensure a fair trial on a level playing field for your ex-President.

We don’t believe in any fore gone conclusion, if we are properly and rightfully engage in a fair trial, it seems to us the out come should not be pre-determined and the only way in which we can ensure that is the case is by the active participation of people not only here in Liberia but indeed throughout West Africa.

That’s all I like to say at this stage, unless my colleagues will like to contribute, I am open up for questions.”

The legal team obviously has serious problems putting up a defence. For this, there is a search for gray areas, such as the prosecution’s statement, earlier, that they are convinced Taylor will be convicted.

Is this pre-trial publicity? Only the lawyers can decide that, but anyone entering a game with defeatist notions stands defeated.

On the other hand, one would have hoped to hear assuring statement from the lawyers that based on the prosecution’s case and the evidence available, Mr. Taylor will soon walk out to take his presidency or contest the next elections. This does not seem to be the case. Culled from the New DEMOCRAT

‘Butt Naked’ Bares Crimes: Truth Comes in Shock Doze at TRC Hearing in Liberia

Bill K. Jarkloh, FPA Staff Writer

Besides his claim of killing 20,000 persons, ‘General Butt Naked’, the man now called Evangelist Joshua Milton Blayee, has also confessed to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in Monrovia that he has planted a demonic pot at Liberia’s State House, the Executive Mansion on the Capitol Hill in Monrovia. He was telling the TRC his involvement in the gruesome Liberian war.

According to a frontpageafrica.com/ report, Blayee was a senior commander of the ULIMO-J of the late General D. Roosevelt Johnson. Although he has been preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and making startling revelations during his street corner crusades to win souls, his latest revelation made at the Centennial Pavilion stunned radio and television audience in Monrovia as well as spectators at the public hearing.

‘Juju pot at Executive Mansion’

Facing the Panel of TRC Commissioners this week, Blayee stunned the audience when he said “a wizard [juju] pot has been buried at the Executive Mansion for the providing of maximal protection to President Samuel Kanyon Doe.” Blayee said the wizard pot was planted in the state house – the Executive Mansion- in 1983 by him and some elders possessing demonic powers of Grand Gedeh County.

In 1980, the country bled when 17 enlisted men who overthrew President William R. Tolbert and took power started to eliminate each other in an intra-junta confusion. Samuel Doe, the ringleader of the Coup makers, eliminated Thomas Weh Syen, the Vice Head of State of the People’s Redemption Council (PRC) Government on charges that Weysen was plotting to overthrow Doe, the Head of State. Thereafter, several other participants in the coup of 1980 were eliminated by the military regime amidst power struggle amongst them.

Blayee, the Butt Naked man, told the TRC that in that year, 1983, he and some demonic traditional leaders, entered the Executive Mansion with Grand Gedeh’s cultural and traditional powers delegated to them by the devils of the Putu Mountain. The Putu Mountain is in the Southeastern Region of Liberia within the Proximity of Sinoe and Grand Gedeh Counties.

Butt Naked became notorious during the villainous April 6, 1996 outbreak of hostilities between forces of General D. Roosevelt Johnson and the combined forces of the NPFL of rebel-war-technocrat-and-architect Charles McArthur Ghankay Taylor and ULIMO-K of Professor Alhaji Kromah; he used to display in the streets naked as leader of a band of naked rebels loyal to General Roosevelt Johnson.

General Butt Naked explained to the TRC Tuesday that he was ‘Chief Priest” of a devil called “Ajagbehweh”, which he claimed is in the Putu Mountain. Joshua Milton “Butt Naked” Blayee maintained that the pot is still buried at the Executive Mansion. But he added, “the pot could be removed through spiritual warfare provided the TRC gives the green light for that.”

‘I killed 20,000 persons’

He did not stop there, Blayee also confessed to killing 20,000 persons during the war. It is estimated already that some 300,000 lives were sent to the great beyond during the Liberian civil imbroglio.

Interestingly, he confessed that some of those he killed were innocent, and his devilment against the innocent people started since 1983, he confessed.
According to him, it was his participation in the Liberian civil war that brought him to the seat of Government, Monrovia.

He said he was brought to Monrovia along with another notorious fighter for ULIMO, Apollo Jayswen, Jayswen’s fathers and one Oldman Taylay in 1990. Taylay was said to be an elephant hunter, who President Samuel Doe enlisted in his militia to battle against Charles Taylor during the war of the 1990s.

‘ULIMO made me combatant’ – Blayee said.

The former warlord said he and those said came along with him to Monrovia were brought in the nation’s capital city to provide spiritual protection for Samuel Doe as head of State of Liberia. They were to spiritually direct the war in the interest of the Krahn tribe, although he said he later became an active combatant upon the formation of ULIMO in 1992.

ULIMO was founded in Sierra Leone by the late Liberian Ambassador Albert Karpeh and Raleigh Seekie – a former Deputy Finance Minister for Expenditure in the Doe regime and former Governor of National Bank of Liberia (NBL) now Central Bank of Liberia in one of the transitional regimes of Liberia. Seekie was the founding Chairman of ULIMO, and General Roosevelt Johnson, a former school teacher was the first battle front commander of ULIMO.

ULIMO and the Movement for the Redemption of Muslim (MRM) of Professor Alhaji G. V. Kromah merged under the name ULIMO, but when the force entered the diamond rich Lofa County of Liberia fighting to claim Bomi from Charles Taylor’s forces, ULIMO split after Ambassador Karpeh was assassinated in Sierra Leone and Rally Seekie dethroned – leaving ULIMO in the hands of Professor Kromah as Chairman replacing Raleigh Seekie while General Johnson remained the Battlefield Commander until the split of ULIMO into ULIMO-J and ULIMO- K between the Krahn fighters headed by Johnson and the Mandingo fighters headed by Kromah.

I lost my powers

Evangelist Joshua Milton Blayee, formerly General Butt Naked, is now saving souls, not killing them. Blayee says Blayee said he lost his mysterious power eventually. “We lost power of the demonic authority in the Putu Mountain thus weakening the Krahn people prior to the death of President Samuel K. Doe. Unfortunately, however, Blayee, the Butt Naked did not tell the TRC what was the reason they lost the favor of the demonic world.

Doe, a military ruler, was elected constitutional president in a rigged election in 1986 on the ticket of his brainchild, the National Democratic party of Liberia. He was later killed during the war by a splinter rebel group from Taylor’s NPFL - the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL) led Field Marshall/Brigadier General Prince Y. Johnson. Prince Johnson is now the Senator of Nimba County in the Liberia Legislature during the regime of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first elected female President of Africa in Liberia.

Johnson captured Samuel Doe at the Freeport of Monrovia on September 9, 1990 in the presence of the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) led by Ghanaian General Quinoo.

Blayee, now appearing apologetic and sober-minded as he begged for pardon, appealed to all Liberians for forgiveness. Blayee, a preacher at present, said he has initiated efforts to deliver the Liberian flag and seal from the spirit forces at the Putu Mountain where they were demonically buried.

The Cater center massacre

Meanwhile, an NPFL former combatant who also testified to the TRC his involvement said NPFL was responsible for the massacre. Witness M. Allen Nicholas, who is known within the ranks of the Taylor forces as “Arab Devil” said the NPFL fighters that carried out the massacre were led by the late Nelson Gaye.

This is an apparent vindication of the Armed Forces of Liberia loyal to President Samuel Doe.

Allen Nicholas, the “Arab Devil”, also blamed the Duport Road Massacre on the NPFL but denied that he did not participate.

He claimed to have known about it as senior fighter of the NPFL of Charles Taylor. He too after several other confessions, appeal for forgiveness. More witnesses are expected to appear today, Wednesday as the TRC’s public hearing takes media headlines and gains momentum.

Intercourse With the Dead

Augustine Touplay, says forces of the Liberia Peace Council made him to sexually intercourse with a dead woman. Besides Butt Naked, other Liberians continue to tell their own stories of the civil war. Last week, Augustine Touplay, a Sinoean Grebo, says the forces of the Liberia Peace Council made him to sexually intercourse with a dead woman.

Touplay also said LPC; the forces of Dr. George S. Boley – a former Minister of Education in the Samuel Doe regime – also subjected him and others to force labor.
The Quiah, the brother of Liberian politician Oscar Quiah, and General Black Cat of the LPC are at the center of inhumanity meted to him. “Black Cat and his men killed my daddy, a pastor after his last prayer, and my mother our home town in Jedapoh in Sinoe County,” he said.

"After they made me to have sex with a dead woman, they kept me and others and used us to mine gold in the creeks, diving with buckets to bring from the depth minerals," he said.

The victim said they were tasked to mine a certain grams of goal a day for the LPC brass or one's live could be taken if he could not find the requested quantity of gold.

He said it was the later intervention of the West African intervention forces, ECOMOG that freed him from the hands of the LPC fighters. "At present, I suffer pneumonia for that kind of treatment," he said.

Meanwhile, a 26-year-old gild has earlier related her ordeal. “Killed my mother and raped me; I and my twin brothers were treated like sub-human in his hands to the dislike of his plenty wives. Now Special Forces Commando and frontline commander of the NPFL is demanding US$300 as compensation for him to give me my brother Paul,” the 29 –year-old victim of rape during the Liberian civil war (name withheld) last Thursday told the TRC

The victim told the TRC which says it gathered a number of statements that the frontline NPFL commander now residing in Paynesville Zinc Camp, raped her after they were captured from the 72nd Community in Paynesville and later taken inside Charles Taylor Controlled area.

The rape victim further told the TRC Panel of Commissioners and local and international observers that converged at the Centennial Pavilion, “I was 12 years old at the time when NPFL captured 72nd Community. Mango and his men took us to the Stephen Tolbert Estate in Gardnersville and kept us in a house for three days.”
In her grief, the 29-year-old victim of rape explained that Commando Mango Miller, the most senior commander of forces that captured Paynesville and Gardnersville at the suburbs of Monrovia, thereafter took her, her mommy Abba Amma Arthur and her two younger brothers afar deep into NPFL controlled territory. Her mother was a Ghanaian married to a Liberian.

According to her, it was there inside Taylor-controlled territory that Mango killed her mother Amma who agreed to be killed for her children to live. “Commander Mango Miller had already exterminated an entire family in the Stephen Tolbert Area before people of the community, so my mother was afraid that he would act on his word to kill all of us– this is how come she agreed to die for us,” the girl narrated.

Following the murder of her mommy by Commando Mango Miller, the 29-year-old said Mango took with him, she and her two younger brothers – Paul and Mark to live.
It was while in the care of Mango that the NPFL commando raped her at 12 and thirteen (for two years) and subjected him and his brothers to inhumane treatment to the utter dislike of the many wives of the rebel Mango Miller.

“I see myself confused a confused person due to the horrible experience and the trauma I suffer in the hands of Miller. I am losing hope about myself and my future,” she said, adding that her concern now is about the future of her two twin brothers who Mango took when they were three years old. She also explained that after the war, she made frantic efforts to recover her brothers.

Up to present she said he has only recovered the living body of Mark whom Mango Miller left with another family near Monrovia, while the former rebel commander has been requesting US$300 to relinquish Paul into my care. “He said Paul is somewhere in the jungle in Nimba, and the only way he can give my brother to me is when I give him US$300.00.

As for her father’s whereabouts, she said her daddy fled Monrovia at the break of the war. “When the war broke out, AFL soldiers went to our house and demanded my daddy to surrender the money and other belongings he has or they will kill him. From since that time, Mr. Arthur, my father ran away to neighboring Sierra Leone where he is at present.” Rape victim also said her father who was working with the Flamingo Logging Company as pay master was told and therefore know everything happening. “He even advised me not to appear here today so I wouldn’t be haunted, but I think I should tell my ordeal to the TRC,” she concluded.

Prior to these confessions, a popular Liberian musician, Sundaygar “Dearboy” Davis was accused at the TRC of mishandling and ill-treating several women, children and men in Grand Bassa County while fighting for Charles Taylor, an allegation Dearboy denied in the press.

‘Butt Naked’ Bares Crimes: Truth Comes in Shock Doze at TRC Hearing in Liberia

Bill K. Jarkloh, FPA Staff Writer

Besides his claim of killing 20,000 persons, ‘General Butt Naked’, the man now called Evangelist Joshua Milton Blayee, has also confessed to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in Monrovia that he has planted a demonic pot at Liberia’s State House, the Executive Mansion on the Capitol Hill in Monrovia. He was telling the TRC his involvement in the gruesome Liberian war.
According to a frontpageafrica.com/ report, Blayee was a senior commander of the ULIMO-J of the late General D. Roosevelt Johnson. Although he has been preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and making startling revelations during his street corner crusades to win souls, his latest revelation made at the Centennial Pavilion stunned radio and television audience in Monrovia as well as spectators at the public hearing.

‘Juju pot at Executive Mansion’

Facing the Panel of TRC Commissioners this week, Blayee stunned the audience when he said “a wizard [juju] pot has been buried at the Executive Mansion for the providing of maximal protection to President Samuel Kanyon Doe.” Blayee said the wizard pot was planted in the state house – the Executive Mansion- in 1983 by him and some elders possessing demonic powers of Grand Gedeh County.
In 1980, the country bled when 17 enlisted men who overthrew President William R. Tolbert and took power started to eliminate each other in an intra-junta confusion. Samuel Doe, the ringleader of the Coup makers, eliminated Thomas Weh Syen, the Vice Head of State of the People’s Redemption Council (PRC) Government on charges that Weysen was plotting to overthrow Doe, the Head of State. Thereafter, several other participants in the coup of 1980 were eliminated by the military regime amidst power struggle amongst them.
Blayee, the Butt Naked man, told the TRC that in that year, 1983, he and some demonic traditional leaders, entered the Executive Mansion with Grand Gedeh’s cultural and traditional powers delegated to them by the devils of the Putu Mountain. The Putu Mountain is in the Southeastern Region of Liberia within the Proximity of Sinoe and Grand Gedeh Counties.
Butt Naked became notorious during the villainous April 6, 1996 outbreak of hostilities between forces of General D. Roosevelt Johnson and the combined forces of the NPFL of rebel-war-technocrat-and-architect Charles McArthur Ghankay Taylor and ULIMO-K of Professor Alhaji Kromah; he used to display in the streets naked as leader of a band of naked rebels loyal to General Roosevelt Johnson.
General Butt Naked explained to the TRC Tuesday that he was ‘Chief Priest” of a devil called “Ajagbehweh”, which he claimed is in the Putu Mountain. Joshua Milton “Butt Naked” Blayee maintained that the pot is still buried at the Executive Mansion. But he added, “the pot could be removed through spiritual warfare provided the TRC gives the green light for that.”

‘I killed 20,000 persons’

He did not stop there, Blayee also confessed to killing 20,000 persons during the war. It is estimated already that some 300,000 lives were sent to the great beyond during the Liberian civil imbroglio.
Interestingly, he confessed that some of those he killed were innocent, and his devilment against the innocent people started since 1983, he confessed.
According to him, it was his participation in the Liberian civil war that brought him to the seat of Government, Monrovia. He said he was brought to Monrovia along with another notorious fighter for ULIMO, Apollo Jayswen, Jayswen’s fathers and one Oldman Taylay in 1990. Taylay was said to be an elephant hunter, who President Samuel Doe enlisted in his militia to battle against Charles Taylor during the war of the 1990s.

‘ULIMO made me combatant’ – Blayee said.

The former warlord said he and those said came along with him to Monrovia were brought in the nation’s capital city to provide spiritual protection for Samuel Doe as head of State of Liberia. They were to spiritually direct the war in the interest of the Krahn tribe, although he said he later became an active combatant upon the formation of ULIMO in 1992.
ULIMO was founded in Sierra Leone by the late Liberian Ambassador Albert Karpeh and Raleigh Seekie – a former Deputy Finance Minister for Expenditure in the Doe regime and former Governor of National Bank of Liberia (NBL) now Central Bank of Liberia in one of the transitional regimes of Liberia. Seekie was the founding Chairman of ULIMO, and General Roosevelt Johnson, a former school teacher was the first battle front commander of ULIMO.
ULIMO and the Movement for the Redemption of Muslim (MRM) of Professor Alhaji G. V. Kromah merged under the name ULIMO, but when the force entered the diamond rich Lofa County of Liberia fighting to claim Bomi from Charles Taylor’s forces, ULIMO split after Ambassador Karpeh was assassinated in Sierra Leone and Rally Seekie dethroned – leaving ULIMO in the hands of Professor Kromah as Chairman replacing Raleigh Seekie while General Johnson remained the Battlefield Commander until the split of ULIMO into ULIMO-J and ULIMO- K between the Krahn fighters headed by Johnson and the Mandingo fighters headed by Kromah.

I lost my powers

Evangelist Joshua Milton Blayee, formerly General Butt Naked, is now saving souls, not killing them. Blayee says Blayee said he lost his mysterious power eventually. “We lost power of the demonic authority in the Putu Mountain thus weakening the Krahn people prior to the death of President Samuel K. Doe. Unfortunately, however, Blayee, the Butt Naked did not tell the TRC what was the reason they lost the favor of the demonic world.
Doe, a military ruler, was elected constitutional president in a rigged election in 1986 on the ticket of his brainchild, the National Democratic party of Liberia. He was later killed during the war by a splinter rebel group from Taylor’s NPFL - the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL) led Field Marshall/Brigadier General Prince Y. Johnson.
Prince Johnson is now the Senator of Nimba County in the Liberia Legislature during the regime of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first elected female President of Africa in Liberia. Johnson captured Samuel Doe at the Freeport of Monrovia on September 9, 1990 in the presence of the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) led by Ghanaian General Quinoo.
Blayee, now appearing apologetic and sober-minded as he begged for pardon, appealed to all Liberians for forgiveness. Blayee, a preacher at present, said he has initiated efforts to deliver the Liberian flag and seal from the spirit forces at the Putu Mountain where they were demonically buried.

The Cater center massacre

Meanwhile, an NPFL former combatant who also testified to the TRC his involvement said NPFL was responsible for the massacre. Witness M. Allen Nicholas, who is known within the ranks of the Taylor forces as “Arab Devil” said the NPFL fighters that carried out the massacre were led by the late Nelson Gaye. This is an apparent vindication of the Armed Forces of Liberia loyal to President Samuel Doe.
Allen Nicholas, the “Arab Devil”, also blamed the Duport Road Massacre on the NPFL but denied that he did not participate.
He claimed to have known about it as senior fighter of the NPFL of Charles Taylor. He too after several other confessions, appeal for forgiveness. More witnesses are expected to appear today, Wednesday as the TRC’s public hearing takes media headlines and gains momentum.

Intercourse With the Dead

Augustine Touplay, says forces of the Liberia Peace Council made him to sexually intercourse with a dead woman.
Besides Butt Naked, other Liberians continue to tell their own stories of the civil war. Last week, Augustine Touplay, a Sinoean Grebo, says the forces of the Liberia Peace Council made him to sexually intercourse with a dead woman.
Touplay also said LPC; the forces of Dr. George S. Boley – a former Minister of Education in the Samuel Doe regime – also subjected him and others to force labor. The Quiah, the brother of Liberian politician Oscar Quiah, and General Black Cat of the LPC are at the center of inhumanity meted to him. “Black Cat and his men killed my daddy, a pastor after his last prayer, and my mother our home town in Jedapoh in Sinoe County,” he said.
"After they made me to have sex with a dead woman, they kept me and others and used us to mine gold in the creeks, diving with buckets to bring from the depth minerals," he said.
The victim said they were tasked to mine a certain grams of goal a day for the LPC brass or one's live could be taken if he could not find the requested quantity of gold.
He said it was the later intervention of the West African intervention forces, ECOMOG that freed him from the hands of the LPC fighters. "At present, I suffer pneumonia for that kind of treatment," he said.
Meanwhile, a 26-year-old gild has earlier related her ordeal. “Killed my mother and raped me; I and my twin brothers were treated like sub-human in his hands to the dislike of his plenty wives. Now Special Forces Commando and frontline commander of the NPFL is demanding US$300 as compensation for him to give me my brother Paul,” the 29 –year-old victim of rape during the Liberian civil war (name withheld) last Thursday told the TRC
The victim told the TRC which says it gathered a number of statements that the frontline NPFL commander now residing in Paynesville Zinc Camp, raped her after they were captured from the 72nd Community in Paynesville and later taken inside Charles Taylor Controlled area.
The rape victim further told the TRC Panel of Commissioners and local and international observers that converged at the Centennial Pavilion, “I was 12 years old at the time when NPFL captured 72nd Community. Mango and his men took us to the Stephen Tolbert Estate in Gardnersville and kept us in a house for three days.”
In her grief, the 29-year-old victim of rape explained that Commando Mango Miller, the most senior commander of forces that captured Paynesville and Gardnersville at the suburbs of Monrovia, thereafter took her, her mommy Abba Amma Arthur and her two younger brothers afar deep into NPFL controlled territory. Her mother was a Ghanaian married to a Liberian.
According to her, it was there inside Taylor-controlled territory that Mango killed her mother Amma who agreed to be killed for her children to live. “Commander Mango Miller had already exterminated an entire family in the Stephen Tolbert Area before people of the community, so my mother was afraid that he would act on his word to kill all of us– this is how come she agreed to die for us,” the girl narrated.
Following the murder of her mommy by Commando Mango Miller, the 29-year-old said Mango took with him, she and her two younger brothers – Paul and Mark to live.
It was while in the care of Mango that the NPFL commando raped her at 12 and thirteen (for two years) and subjected him and his brothers to inhumane treatment to the utter dislike of the many wives of the rebel Mango Miller.
“I see myself confused a confused person due to the horrible experience and the trauma I suffer in the hands of Miller. I am losing hope about myself and my future,” she said, adding that her concern now is about the future of her two twin brothers who Mango took when they were three years old. She also explained that after the war, she made frantic efforts to recover her brothers.
Up to present she said he has only recovered the living body of Mark whom Mango Miller left with another family near Monrovia, while the former rebel commander has been requesting US$300 to relinquish Paul into my care. “He said Paul is somewhere in the jungle in Nimba, and the only way he can give my brother to me is when I give him US$300.00.
As for her father’s whereabouts, she said her daddy fled Monrovia at the break of the war. “When the war broke out, AFL soldiers went to our house and demanded my daddy to surrender the money and other belongings he has or they will kill him. From since that time, Mr. Arthur, my father ran away to neighboring Sierra Leone where he is at present.”
Rape victim also said her father who was working with the Flamingo Logging Company as pay master was told and therefore know everything happening. “He even advised me not to appear here today so I wouldn’t be haunted, but I think I should tell my ordeal to the TRC,” she concluded.
Prior to these confessions, a popular Liberian musician, Sundaygar “Dearboy” Davis was accused at the TRC of mishandling and ill-treating several women, children and men in Grand Bassa County while fighting for Charles Taylor, an allegation Dearboy denied in the press.

Players, Victims and Events of the 14 Years Civil War

By: Josephus Moses Gray


Monrovia, Liberia: The gross human right violations including, decapitation, mutilation, massacres, rape, forced labor and abuses that occasioned the nation’s 14-year bloody and devastating war have now come under review, with victims making startling revelations and pointing accusing figures at perpetrators of the war.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), established by an act of the National Legislature in 2005 to conduct hearings in cases of human rights violation extending as far back as 1979, is to bring about national reconciliation, cure the broken wounds and enhance the reconciliation process. The commission has begun to actualize its works, with victims of the war taking the stands in public to recount their ordeals and identify the perpetrators.


The TRC in essence is meant to promote peace, security unity and reconciliation amongst the people of Liberia, and to deal with root causes of the armed conflict that engulfed the nation, resulting in gross violation of human rights between 1979 and 2003. The TRC was established by an Act of Legislature passed in June 2005 pursuant to basic provisions in the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). At present, it has received more than five thousand complaints filed to it by organizations and individuals.

To do its works, the TRC on Tuesday resume public hearing into abuses and gross human right violations with victims making their allegations and revelations, but the question that arises is can the TRC curb impunity and at the same time reconcile the people while other are wondering as to who are the victims and players and what actually happens during the 14 years of boldly war?


But journalist Gray looks beyond the horizon, it compiles bid and pieces from a group of Liberians who are advocating that truth and reconciliation as instruments for coming to terms with past massive human rights abuses offer little help when the crimes committed are that of genocide.


Some of the pieces under the title ARCHIVES OF THE WICKED, highlighted some of the heinous crimes, and other massive human rights violations perpetrated against the people of Liberia are shocking and grave, as the report identified key players and victims of the war.


Highlight of the civil war


Murder in Gbarnga, Bong County on November 28, 1997 as reported by JPC investigation/The News Newspaper, December 8-9, 1997, Vol. 8 # 103: An opposition politician and former Deputy Speaker of the TLA, Samuel Saye Doke, his wife Janet, his sister Serena and nephew Emmanuel Voker were arrested at a security checkpoint in Gbarnga while in route to Sanniquellie, Nimba County to attend a welding.


It was alleged that the SSS Director, Benjamin Yeaten ordered their arrest. Following their arrest, Mr. Dokie was brought to Monrovia for investigation and subsequently take back to Gbarnga. Three days later, the burnt bodies of the Dokies, the government said it never ordered the arrest of Mr. Dokie.


The SSS Director, Benjamin Yeaten, however, admitted ordering Mr. Dokie’s arrest, but not his murder. Yeaten was temporarily relived of his post to assist in the investigation. The court for lack of evidence acquitted two security personnel Richard Saydee and Kennday Fineboy, who had been named as prime suspects.


Massacre in Cow Field, Duport Road, Montserrado County on December 15, 1944 reported by the News Newspaper on December 19, 1994 Vol. 5 # 151: About 48 persons (civilians were massacred by Paul Vaye, Sam Lartee and other soldiers of NPFL, while they were asleep at their home. Cow Field, Duport Road in the Paynesville area. The bodies were buried in a mass grave in the Palm Grove Cemetery onCenter Street.


Massacre at Carter Camp, in Margibi County on June 6/7, 1993 as established by the Wako commission, the AFL/Black slaughtered close to 600 men, women and children in cold blood from 0100hrs to 0300hrs. . The victims are said to be buried on the outskirts of the camp.


Summary execution in Gbarnga, Bong County on May 11, 1993: Saar Gbollie allegedly executed 17 persons in the Gbarnga MP cell while serving as deputy MP Commander for the Executive Mansion Presidential Guard Force (EMPPGF). The victims were arrested in Lofa on suspicion of being ULIMO fighters.


Summary Execution at Horton’s Farm, Kakata, Margibi County in October 1992: Martina Johnson, NPFL artillery commander ordered the execution of 23 person arrested in Bong Mines as suspected fighters of ULIMO.


Massacre in firestone, Margibi County on December 26, 1992: Joseph Zackor, alias “Gen. Zack”, Nixon Gayor, Francis Duanna and men assigned with them massacred 35 persons at the Firestone Plantations, division No. 31 while escaping the ULIMO incursion in Kakata.


Massacre in Voinjama, Lofa County on January 2, 1993 18 persons were executed in Voinjama. The blood of the victims was drained in a white bucket for use best known to him.


Massacre in Ganta, Nimba County in August 1993: Matthew Cheplay, commander of “Wild Geese” and his men killed 21 persons in Ganta while in route to Sinoe and wanted to loot fuel from a trader. This incident claimed the lives of William Gensee, the wife, and three children of Samuel Luogon.


Massacre at LAC, Grand Bassa County on August 19,1993: Gen. Coo coo Dennis killed 26 persons in LAC when they were accused of being supporters of LPC.


12. Massacre in Greenville, Sinoe County in 1993 reported by Mr. David Swen (acting hospital administrator)/ The National Newspaper December 19, 1996 Vol. #62: More than 100 humans skeletons were discovered at the Francis J. Grant Hospital in Greenville, Sinoe County.


According to Mr. David Swen, the acting hospital administrator at the time, the skeletons were of people taken captive by LPC in 1993. They were discovered when the hospital staff went in to access their facilities after ECOMOG was deployed in 1996.


Massacre in Vahun, Lofa County in 1993 reported by the Media: Six Senegalese ECOMOG soldiers were murdered by Oliver Varnie, Timothy Mulbah and Joe Doe in Vahun on orders of Charles Taylor and his then defense Minister J. Thomas Wuworyu following ECOMOG’s deployment in his controlled areas.


Their bodies were dumped in a valley in Vahun and NPFL authorities refused to turn the bodies over to the ECOMOG High Command. It was based on persistent international pressure that the bodies of the six Senegalese were turned over to the ECOMOG High Command. Their bodies were flown to Senegal for proper burial.


Massacre in Neeswen Town, Rivercess County on January 15, 1994 reported by the Daily News Newspaper Vol. 3 # 24: The NPFL fighters killed 32 persons after they were accused of being supporters of the LPC. The fighters were said to have entered the town at about 3:00am and began slaughtering occupants of houses marked by the LPC.


Massacre in Kpakolokuya Town, Bong County in February 1994: Siafa Normah ordered the execution of 15 men in Kpakolokuya Town, Bong County during his term as army chief of staff of the NPFL. Abel Normah and Wogbagii implemented the order.


Massacre in Gbarnga, Bong County in May 1994: Andrew Koah, Alosius Sackie, Gaye Getteh, Saturday Tuah, J.J. Doeh, and Marcus Seebo tied 19 men in a Tarpolin and hung them over a pile of fire until they died. The culprits acted on the orders f Cassius Jacobs. Summary Execution in Zorzor, Lofa County in 1994: General Apolo J. Swen, front line commander for ULIMO, murdered 69 POWs of NPFL in Lofa.


Massacre in Moulton Corner, Brewersville, Montserrado County on June 19, 1994 as reported by Charles Bryant, Benjamin Brown, Marilyn Wright/ the Inquirer Newspaper June 23, 1994 Vol. 4 # 111: Nine persons, including an entire family, were slaughtered in the areas that was controlled by Mandingo fighters who recaptured the area from the Krahn fighters.


Massacre in Kpoloppai, Bong County in September 1994 as reported by JPC Gbarnga Coordinator: LPC massacred about 300 persons “allegedly” when they fled the fighting in Gbarnga between ULIMO – K and NPFL.


Massacre at Phebe, Bong County in September 1994 as reported by residents of the area: LPC allegedly massacred over 100 persons who were hospitalized and or seeking shelter at thePhebe Hospital after fleeing fighting between ULIMO –K and NPFL. Massacre in Duoh, Nimba County in October 1994: Chinese Japper, a then commander under Coo coo Dennis, murdered 86 persons in Duoh, while retreating from Bassa with about 1700 fighters escaping from LPC.


Murder in Beilah, Bong county in October 1994: On the orders of Saturday Tuah of the NPFL, Junior Vaye dumped the wife and children of James Glasco in the St. John River in Beilah during the fall of Gbarnga to ULIMO.


Massacre inNimba County in November 1994: A group of NPFL soldiers led by Dominic Sayeh and Bleh Vah killed 176 persons at the Send in Crossing Point in Nimba County. The victims were of the Bassa ethnic group. Massacre in Ganta Nimba County on November 11, 1994: General Liberty killed 21 unarmed boys in Ganta during the fall of Gbarnga. He accused them of being disguised ULIMO fighters.


Murder in Grand Kru County in January 1995 as reported by Isaiah Momboe Sackor, Niffu Borta Community Development Association/ The Inquirer Newspaper, January 3, 1995 Vol. 4 # 241: The Liberian Peace Council fighters killed 18 citizens. Massacre in Tappita, Nimba County on September 27, 1995 reported by JPC: Gen. Jack the Rebel acting upon the orders of Charles G. Taylor killed 105 persons in Tappita. These people were killed because they refused to give up their only sawmill in their town.


Massacre in Bokomu District, Fassama Town, Lofa County in March 1996 as reported by an escapee/Monrovia Daily News Vol. 3 # 61: Several person lost their lives in six villages and towns by fighters of ULIMO. The commanders Maj. A.C. Dorley held separate meetings in the area at which time he accused the villages of being informants for the Lofa Defense Force (LDF) and retreating remnants of NPFL.


Massacre in Zuanna Town/Bloun Town, Roycesville,Bomi County on April 18, 1996 as reported by several residents including the block leader/The News Newspaper, December 11, 1996 Vol. # 47: Twelve persons were killed when a group of fighters stormed the area and burned down the displaced camp and Karmo Town.


Mass Grave found at Barclay Training Center (BTC) Beach, Central Monrovia, Montserrado County in August 1996 as reported by Chief Pathologist, Dr. Isaac Moss/ The National Chronicle, August 29-30, 1996 Vol. 1 #31: A team of medical doctors and health practitioners involved in the exhuming and reburying of dead bodies revealed that over 500 bodies were exhumed at the BTC beach and reburied at the Center Street Cemetery. Some of the people died from bullets or blunt objects while some were beheaded.


Mass Grave at Matadi Estate, Airfield and Sinkor in August 1996 as reported by Chief Pathologist, Dr. Isaac Moss/ The National Chronicle, August 29-30, 1996 Vol. 1 #31: Mass grave were discovered in these areas by a team of medical doctors.


Massacre in Sinje, Grand Cape Mount County on March 28, 1996 as reported by UN Relief workers/ The Inquirer Vol. 5 # 75; Daily News Vol. 5 #62; and The News Vol. 7 # 17: According to a UN press release issued by the Special Representative of the Secretary General Amb. Anthony B. Nyakyi, about 17 civilians were killed and many were injured while about 1000 civilians escaped the bloodbath. But other reports put the number at 25 to 48.


More Killing in Robertsport, Grand Cape Mount County in September 1996 as reported by fleeing residents/The Inquirer Newspaper October 4, 1996 Vol. 5 # 75: Unidentified fighters reportedly killed


nine prominent citizens of Robertsport. The fighters claimed that their victims gave money to another armed group to attack their positions.


Gruesome Killings in Seyon Town Bushrod Island in October 1996 as reported by residents of Seyon Town/The News Newspaper October 18, 1996 Vol. 7 # 24: Three ex-combatants who had lured the market women from the Freeport of Monrovia where they had gone to buy rice and bulgur wheat slaughtered the two women; Doris Dekeh and Louis (surname not known). The three after they had killed the women, sprinkled kerosene on their remains, covered them with tires and set them ablaze. LD $2500 was taken from them.


Massacre in Zuanna Town Bloun, Royesville, Bomi County on December 7, 1996 as reported by the News Newspaper December 11, 1996 Vol. 7 # 47: Eight persons were killed. ULIMO-J is accused of committing the act.


Their bodies are said to be buried around a place called Barbecue Corner on the Gbarnga-Kokoy Road Murder at Freeport, Bushrod Island, Monrovia on December 16,1997 as reported by eyewitnesses: Daniel Nyankan, a businessman was found dead around the Freeport of Monrovia with bruises all over his body. His death sparked off controversy, with the police authorities accusing ECOMOG soldiers of killing Nyankan. Family sources, however, quoted eyewitnesses as saying that state security forces killed Nyankan after he had been severely flogged.


Mass Grave in Zorzor, Lofa County in April 1998 as reported by Zorzor citizen youth leader George/ The Heritage, April 28-30, 1998 Vol. 2 #53: NPFL fighters killed several people including pregnant women. The youth leader (George) claimed that the victims’ hands and legs were tied before they were buried alive in shallow, thin graves of about three to four feet deep.


Murder in Paynesville, Montserrado County on June 28, 1998: Nowai Flomo, a market woman, disappeared from her residence in Kpelle Town, Paynesville. She was allegedly abducted from her house at about 11:00am by nine officers of the SSS, led by one David Daniel, who had gone to visit Ms. Gormie Jartu, a housemate of Ms. Flomo. The SSS officers allegedly murdered her after an exchange of words over the manner in which the security personnel drove in the yard. Her corpse has not been found. The police later released all those arrested in connection with the disappearance for what the police termed “lack of evidence”.


Massacre on Camp Johnson Road, Monrovia on September 18, 1998 as reported by resident in the Camp Johnson Road Area: State Security forces attacked Gen. Roosevelt Johnson, a former warring faction leader, on Camp Johnson Road. The government within 24 hours gave three different reasons for the invasion, which eyewitness accounts say, claimed the lives of over 100 persons. The government put the casualty figures at 53.


The government first said that its security forces went to evict illegal occupants in private houses when they came under attack. Then, State Security Officials alleged that they were on patrol in the Camp Johnson Road area when they came under attack from supporters of Gen. Johnson.


Massacre at the Episcopal Church, Camp Johnson Road, Monrovia on September 19, 1998 reported by National Human Rights Commission’s Report published October 13, 1998: On September 18 th, President Taylor ordered the eviction of Mr. Roosevelt Johnson from his residence.


Several persons of the Krahn ethnic tribe ran into the Episcopal Church. SSU allegedly executed about 1500 persons, mostly young men at dawn of September 19, 1998. Col. Junior Fania, Leo Jebo, Saa Gbollie, Joe Tuah, General Eric Sway, and Arthur saah, Benedict Mentee, spearheaded this operation.


Massacre on Schiefflin Highway on September 19, 1998: Mark Guahn murdered 13 persons of the Krahn ethnic group on Schiefflin Highway. They were arrested in Monrovia on charges of being supporters of Gen. Roosevelt Johnson. Massacre in Nekebozu, Lofa County on August 10, 1999 as reported by UL student hailing from Quardu-Gboni Mandingo Chiefdom/ the New Democrat Newspaper: Militia men in Nekabozu killed about 25 members of Quardu-Gboni citizens


Massacre in Nikagabozu, Lofa County on September 2, 1999 as reported by UL student hailing from Quardu-Gboni Mandingo Chiefdom/ the New democrat Newspaper, Vol. 4 # 104/ The Inquirer Newspaper Vol. 8 # 156: Members of the AFL allegedly massacred about 100 persons in Nikagabozu. This was believed to be a reprisal of a recent massacre of elders and Chiefs of Liewalzo by dissident forces (LURD), when they entered Liberia on August 11, 1999. The students blamed the massacre squarely at the feet of Defense Minister, Daniel Chea as a result of an interview he granted the BBC Journalist Robin White.


Murder at ELWA junction, Paynesville on September 28, 1999 Eyewitness accounts: Henrique Cassell, Deputy Commissioner of Immigration and brother-in-law of President Taylor shot and killed Papa George, a taxi driver, at the Golf Filling station at the ELWA junction in Paynesville. Cassell accused Papa George of overtaking his car. The defenseless taxi driver went on his knees and pleaded for mercy but to no avail. Cassell then pulled out his pistol and fired at George while he was begging for mercy. Cassell was charged with murder, found guilty and sentence to imprisonment. President Taylor granted him general amnesty last year.


Massacre in Swen, Bomi County on October 10, 1999: Siafa Norman massacred about 20 civilians who were accused of being LURD supporters in Swen Mechan District, Bomi County.


Massacre in Bawon Town, Zorzor District, Lofa County in January 2000 as reported by UL students from Quardu-Gboni Mandingo Chiefdom/New Democrat Newspaper, February 4-7, 2000 Vol. 6 #145: Armed militiamen massacred 18 persons of the Mandingo ethnic group in Lofa County. Government announced an investigation into the extra-judicial killings, but nothing was heard beyond the announcement.


Massacre in Gbarnga, Bong County in January 2000: Melvin Sobani ordered the execution of 26 unarmed civilians in Gbar, Bomi County. They were accused of being supporters of LURD.


Summary Execution in gbatala Base, Bong County in 2000: Chucky Taylor murdered more than 100 persons at the Gbatala ATU Training Base. Some of the victims were trainees charged with failure to follow instruction (FFI)


Summary Execution in Voinjama, Lofa County in May 2000: Mr. Joe Gbala ordered the execution of 42 captives in Voinjama. They were considered GOL soldiers who had surrender in a battle between John Town and Zorzor. Others were brought from Foyah


Summary Execution in Kornia, Lofa County in March 2001: Momo Jibba ordered the execution of 14 persons in Kornia, Lofa County when GOL recaptured the town from LURD. He also planned and executed the death of François Massaquoi, the then Youth and Sports Minister.


Massacre in Saclepea, Nimba County in May 2001: Daniel Gweh, Tony Gonyor, etc. murdered 7 Mandingos and burnt down their houses. Massacre in Bopolu, Gbarpolu County on June 9, 2002: Ofourie Jay alias “Iron Jacket” massacred 110 young men and women in Bopolu, Gbarpolu county. They were accused of being sympathizers of Government of Liberia.


Massacre in Marhair River Bridge, Tubmanburg, Bomi County on July 20, 2002 as reported by two of the survivors: About 175 persons were massacred allegedly on the orders of Gen. Benjamin Yeaten. They claimed that the people were sympathizers of LURD.


Summary Execution in Congo Town Monrovia on September 18, 2002: Isaac Gono of the ATU, Chief Driver of Charles Taylor, Jr. “Chucky”, was beaten to death on the morning of September 18, 2002 for allegedly hitting a dog with Chucky’s car.


Incursion into Ivory Coast on October 21, 2002: Charles Taylor mandated Benjamin Yeaten Joe Tuah, Liaison officer, Edward T. Zamay, Training Officer, Walloe, death squad commander, Osebo Demain, logistics officer, and Matthew Karn, artillery commander to cross into Ivory Coast to assist felix Doe, leader of the Western Rebel, as mercenaries


Massacre in Toe’s Town, Grand Gedeh County on February 28, 2003 as reported by JPC Monitor/The Inquirer Newspaper, March 17, 2003 Vol. 13 #39/ The News Newspaper, March 17, 2003 Vol. 14 #222: General Gbor Vaye of the GOL slaughtered three employees of the Adventist Development Relief Agency (ADRA) namely: Kara Lund, a Norwegian, Arty. Emmanuel Sharply, a Liberian and Country Director, and driver Muse Keita, another Liberian were massacred while in route to Maryland County to pay their employees. The perpetrators were never brought to justice


Murder in Paynesville, Montserrado County on June 4, 2003 as reported by the deceased wives and relatives: The Deputy Ministers for National Security and Public Works, John Yormie and Isaac Vaye were arrested on the night of June 4, 2003 by a group of armed men under the command of one “Bababa” of the SSS which it was alleged he was acting on the orders of Gen. Benjamin Yeaten. They were allegedly brought to Monrovia, interrogated and later driven back on the Gbarnga-Ganta highway (CNC Logging Company area) and later killed. Their bodies were allegedly dropped on the train track by a container in the Ganta area. Their wives are demanding their bodies to give them a befitting burial


.Massacre in Gbarn, Nimba County on May 26, 2003: Adolphus Sampson, special bodyguard to Gen. Benjamin Yeaten murdered a family of five at the railroad bridge near Gbarn, Nimba County upon seeing then with $75,000LD, and two pieces of diamonds


Massacre in Nimba County on May 6, 2003: Adolphus Sampson, Gola Red, Alphonso, Nyanay, Marcus and High-grade on the orders of Gen. Yeaten massacred Samuel Bokarie, his wife, mother and two children in Nimba County. Francis Menwon and Peter Sakpeideh witnessed it.


Summary Execution at Lofa Bridge on May 2003: General Sekou Kromah and his men murdered 24 persons on Lofa Bridge. The victims were arrested in the Tubmanburg area and charged with reconnoitering. Summary Execution in Monrovia on June 9, 2003: Charles Taylor, Jr. “Chucky” murdered 18 persons at the Stockton Creek Bridge. Gen. Roland Duo men arrested these people as POW of LURD.


Summary execution in Monrovia in June-July 2003: Lomax, artillery crew commander of Wild Geese, Marcus High Grade, bodyguard to Yeaten and Nyan murdered 42 persons on the Johnson Street Bridge for looting. The victims were accused but never tried.


Massacre in Combat Camp in July 2003: Marcus High Grade and Gola-Red acting on instruction of Gen. Yeaten transported 78 wounded soldiers from Monrovia to Combat Camp, under pretense of going to pay them and killed them. The victims were demanding to be paid by Charles Taylor. Summary Execution in Klay, Bomi County in July 2003: General Abbas of LURD murdered 26 persons in Klay. The victims were arrested on Bushrod Island as POW of GOL.


Massacre at Tubman Farm, Bong County on September 8-20, 2003: Zeezah Mazah, special bodyguard to Benjamin Yeaten fed Mr. Charles Taylor’s lions with 26 living persons on his farm in Maleki, Bong County. This was a prescribed punishment for those who committed crimes.


Summary Execution Po-River, Bomi County on October 11-26, 2003: General Wasue Donzo of the LURD ordered the execution of over 26 persons on the Po-River Bridge, Tubmanburg Highway and dumped some of their bodies in the Po-River. 1994 Sasstown massacre: in 1994, NPFL rebels commandeered by General Paul Doe and William Toe ,led armed fighters to kill more than 1,000 innocent civilians Bomi County.


1994, September 12 massacre at Gedebo Wateka. On that date and place, General Possey Garteh and others killed Professor Samuel B. Martins and several other in cold blood. 1n 1993, ULIMO J rebels under its high command massacred over 100 persons in Gbesseh, Grand Cape mount County.


In 1993, , Sengalese carried out the following massacres: more than 30 innocent civilians in Jenneh Wenay; more than 50 persons were killed in Tewor district and most hearts dugged and eaten; more than 75 innocent persons were in Sanjanamalor, Grand Cape mount; killed more than 64 innocent persons in Meekor,Grand cape mount County. In 2003, more than 500 innocent persons were slaughtered by H Dan Morias and others in Glawlo, River Gee County.


Meanwhile, the first of three witnesses who took the stand accused the renowned Liberian musical vocalist, Michael David, alias “Sundaygar Dearboy” of committing untold atrocities leading to the death of his sister in his home town, Gardour, Grand Bassa County.


The first witness, David Saiware, to the astonishment of all in the Pavilion, revealed that singer Sundaygar Dearboy was one of the commanders of the now defunct National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NDPL) rebel groups that ordered 25 men to gang rape his 16-year old sister Rita who later died.


Witness Saiware, who was 10 years old at the time, said the incident took place in late December 1994, following the recapture of the area from forces of the defunct Liberia Peace Council (LPC).He said because of the incident, he had to abandon school. He later moved to another relative.


He alleged that Sundaygar Dearboy was an NPFL Commander who hated odd numbers. “When ever he counts a group and there is an odd number, he will kill one person to make the number even. For example, if he counts a group and the last person is an odd number, that person will die whether a woman or man,” little David told the public hearing.


He admitted that he feared coming to testify because of the popularity of the singer Sundaygar Dearboy because as a little boy, Sundaygar Dearboy could do anything to him. “I can say the man is a singer now and is popular. I didn’t want to give this statement but the death of my sister was hurting me; that’s why I made the statement,” David said; adding, “When the people came last night I refused to come today because the man who I will be testifying against is in Monrovia and it’s where you all are carrying me. He’s well known.


Two other witnesses of the town, Emmanuel Jimmy and Paul Flomo accused Sundaygar Dearboy wanton destruction and rape during the period of the war.


Emmanuel Jimmy accused the musician of even raping his daughter Beamondyu, who at the time was 13 years old, and now resides in Harbel, Firestone; while Paul Flomo accused Sundaygar Dearboy of being the man behind the burning down of some 14 huts in Gardour Town, Grand Bassa County.


Mr. Flomo accused Sundaygar Dearboy as being responsible for the beating of his father, Alfred in 1994. His father later died on 8th February 1998. When questioned whether the beating was responsible for his father’s death, Paul could not really say, but did blame the death of his father on Sundaygar Dearboy.


The second witness, Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Walker, a Baptist prelate and head of the Lott Carey Baptist Mission, took the stand and gave a chronological history of the events from 1979 to 2003.


He accused the leader of the defunct rebel group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), Sekou Damate Konneh for burning down educational facilities of the mission that he says has greatly affected the smooth operation of the institution.


Rev. Dr. Walker accused the defunct rebel group of using the campus of Lott Carey Baptist Mission as launching pad in its bid to capture Monrovia. He’s claiming reparation of over US$100,000. For him, it’s his own sense of reconciliation.


The third witness, Michael Biddle said his family lost their father, the late Cllr. Patrick Biddle, for an interview he granted the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in defense of soldiers loyal to the late President Samuel Doe. He refused to disclose the names of those who killed his father and chose to give them to the TRC in confidence.


Meanwhile, many Liberians doubt the ability of the TRC to cure the broken wounds and enhance the reconciliation process, while several persons are not convene that the TRC is bring about any change. Today, many see the TRC as more a problem, than a reconciliation instrument, as espoused by prominent partisans in the war.

TRC Has Over 49,000 Statements

Monrovia, Liberia :The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) says it has collected more than 49,000 statements from victim of the 14 years civil war. TRC Chairman Jerome Vedier indicated that the commission might not call some victims for public hearing to recounts their ordeals due to the severity of their horrific statements owing security reason.

In his remark during a one day ‘Reporting on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ workshop for News Editor and Senior Reporters held last Saturday at the Carina Hotel in Monrovia, TRC Chairman Vedier said the TRC will convene 88 times in Montserrado County while the commission intends to convene 30 sessions in each county.

According to Chairman Vedier, the Commission will invite perpetrators and other individuals to the hearing at the appropriate time.

The Chief of Public Information at the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), George Summerwill welcoming participants to the workshop, said the process of the TRC is at a critical time. He indicated that it is time for Liberians to put aside their differences to move the country forward if the nation should not slip back into conflict. Mr. Summerwill furthered that Liberians doubt if the TRC process would work, and if so, they are wondering as to what difference will it make.

However, he told journalists that the TRC process has worked in other countries, and it should work in Liberia . “The TRC is not a process that will happen over night but it will take time,” he noted.

Calling on journalists to report the true happenings at the TRC hearing, Summerwill urged the media to put aside personal views in their reportage, be objective, fair and balance. He said the role of journalist in the TRC process is very important, stressing that it is not the job of a journalist to pass judgment.

“Report what is said at the TRC hearing,” the Secretary General of the Press Union of Liberia, Peter Quaqua told the participants. “Journalists,” he said, “should be careful in giving information from the TRC hearing to the public.” He warned that it should not be journalists fault if the TRC process should failed.

The information Consultant of the TRC, Richmond Anderson, applauds the media saying, “Journalists are on course when it comes to reporting issues of the TRC since the hearing started. Urging journalists to ensure that Liberia remains stable, Mr. Anderson urged journalists to report what is said and what they see at the hearing.

Facilitating the workshop, Dr. Audrey Gadzekpo said the role of the media is to create awareness and public support for the TRC processes. Dr. Gadzekpo, a professor at the University of Ghana , told the participants that while it is necessary to cross check information provided at the hearing, journalists should bear in mind that the processes of the TRC are not legal issues.

Discussing the topics “The Importance of the Media in the TRC and Experiences of Coverage of the TRC”, she said it is essential to monitor media coverage from time to time during process.

Meanwhile, more than 20 journalists from both the print and electronic media from various media institutions attended the one day workshop.

“Speaker Tyler Must Resign”

Monrovia, Liberia: As the National Legislature returns from break and resumes business today, a senior Legislative staff, Mr. Darius Dillon has joined members of the international community in the call for forensic probe of the bribery allegation against Speaker Alex Tyler and others.
“It took them a week to pass the financial autonomy bill given the National Legislature autonomy to control its own budget; it also took them one day to spread US$500 each on their earnings from government coffers. Why is it taking two years to commence a probe into the bribery allegation brought against the House of Representatives?” Dillon quizzically inferred in a NEW VISION interview Sunday.
Mr. Dillion is strongly calling for the resignation of Speaker Alex Tyler who stands accused of bribery by some colleagues of the Lower House including Representatives Edwin Snowe of Montserrado County .
Mr. Dillion, a one time Chief of Staff of the office of dethroned Speaker Edwin Snowe, recalled that Representative Saah Gborlie and Bong County lawmaker Bono public confessed in a jointly signed written statement carried in the January 8 publications of some local dailies that they were offered US$5,000 bribe by the present Speaker Alex Tyler and representative Edward Forh as inducement to remove former Speaker Snowe from office.
Dillion further said he wants Speaker Tyler to resign because he is accused of bribing colleagues to perform their constitutional duties. He said the resignation of Speaker Tyler will restore the dignity and the moral integrity of the House of Representative in particular and the National Legislature in general.
“It’s an unspeakable offence for people stand accused of an offence to resist call for a credible probe intended to clear their names,” Dillion propounded.
According to him, “the refusal by the accused to allow an independent probe sends a signal that something is at stake.”
Recently, during the turnover of keys of the newly rehabilitated and refurbished Capitol Building – the home of the National Legislature – Ambassador Booth called on the House of Representatives of the Republic of Liberia to clear itself of the bribery allegation brought against it.
The background of the Ambassador’s comments was grounded on allegation by Mr. Snowe that some members of the House were trading bribe as inducement to remove him from office.
The ICGL subsequently came up with a position statement calling for a probe but there is apparently debate of who should conduct the probe, as some lawmakers say the House will not allow itself subject to outside investigation.
Speaker Tyler is on record saying that the House’s Judicial Committee was conducting a probe of the bribery allegation, but added that the delay was caused by the absence of accusers to come forth with evidence.
“We want to send a note of caution that the people of Liberia have realized the power inherent in them in keeping with Article 1 of the Liberian Constitution”, Mr. Dillion noted.

Hans Williams Barred From Leaving Liberia

Hans Williams, Guardian of Late Angel Togba, 13, Stopped From Leaving Liberia
01/10/08 - FPA Staff Report
Hans Williams, Guardian of Late Angel Togba, 13, Stopped From Leaving Liberia
01/10/08 - FPA Staff Report
The Ministry of Justice has ordered all security agencies at the various borders to prevent the guardian of the late Angel Togba, Mr. Hans Williams from leaving the country.

Thirteen year old Meidea Angel Togba reportedly hanged herself in the bathroom at Mr. Williams’ house on 30 November 2007.

Hans Williams
The Solicitor General, Cllr. Tiawan Gongloe in announcing the autopsy findings ruled out foul play in the girl’s death, but their were loud outcries from the human rights and child rights organizations including the child’s parents that the report was flawed.

Making the disclosure today, Justice Minister, Cllr. Philip A.Z. Banks, III say he has also instructed the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization to avoid Mr. Williams from leaving the country.

The mother of the late Angel raised the alarm to Justice Ministry authorities of plans by Mr. Williams to leave the country this Saturday, 12 January 2008 on a Kenya Airways flight.

The mother of the late Angel, Sue Togba said, “We got information three days ago, first from reliable source who told us that they heard it at the police station that Mr. Williams was about to leave the country; but we took it for granted. We didn’t bother ourselves because we didn’t believe knowing that he had told us that he didn’t do anything so I don’t see any reason why he would have left the country.”

She said surprisingly the day after she got additional information including the ticket number from the Kenyan Airlines stating that he had already purchased a ticket to leave the country on Saturday.

“No we raised the alarm because we know that Mr. Williams is innocent and he cannot leave this country because investigation continues into the death of my daughter,” Sue said.

The late Angel Tokpa,13, (also known as Meideh)
However, Justice Minister said investigation into the death of the 13-year old Catholic School student is on-going and it was not practical for Mr. Williams to leave the country.

“We learned of the intent of Mr. Williams to leave the country, therefore we have directed the security agencies and other appropriate bodies including the Immigration to take the necessary action to ensure that the gentleman remains on the ground with us until the investigations are concluded,” Cllr. Banks said.

Cllr. Banks disclosed that the Government is expected to bring in a pathologist either from the Republic of Ghana or from the United States of America to perform the second autopsy on Angel Togba to determine the cause of death. “We’ve asked for the identification of another pathologist and as soon as that is concluded, we will have him flown in immediately.

He called on the parents of the late Angel not to worry as government will do everything necessary to establish the cause of death.

The Ministry of Justice has ordered all security agencies at the various borders to prevent the guardian of the late Angel Togba, Mr. Hans Williams from leaving the country.

Thirteen year old Meidea Angel Togba reportedly hanged herself in the bathroom at Mr. Williams’ house on 30 November 2007.

The Solicitor General, Cllr. Tiawan Gongloe in announcing the autopsy findings ruled out foul play in the girl’s death, but their were loud outcries from the human rights and child rights organizations including the child’s parents that the report was flawed.

Making the disclosure today, Justice Minister, Cllr. Philip A.Z. Banks, III say he has also instructed the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization to avoid Mr. Williams from leaving the country.

The mother of the late Angel raised the alarm to Justice Ministry authorities of plans by Mr. Williams to leave the country this Saturday, 12 January 2008 on a Kenya Airways flight.

The mother of the late Angel, Sue Togba said, “We got information three days ago, first from reliable source who told us that they heard it at the police station that Mr. Williams was about to leave the country; but we took it for granted. We didn’t bother ourselves because we didn’t believe knowing that he had told us that he didn’t do anything so I don’t see any reason why he would have left the country.”

She said surprisingly the day after she got additional information including the ticket number from the Kenyan Airlines stating that he had already purchased a ticket to leave the country on Saturday.

“No we raised the alarm because we know that Mr. Williams is innocent and he cannot leave this country because investigation continues into the death of my daughter,” Sue said.

However, Justice Minister said investigation into the death of the 13-year old Catholic School student is on-going and it was not practical for Mr. Williams to leave the country.

“We learned of the intent of Mr. Williams to leave the country, therefore we have directed the security agencies and other appropriate bodies including the Immigration to take the necessary action to ensure that the gentleman remains on the ground with us until the investigations are concluded,” Cllr. Banks said.

Cllr. Banks disclosed that the Government is expected to bring in a pathologist either from the Republic of Ghana or from the United States of America to perform the second autopsy on Angel Togba to determine the cause of death. “We’ve asked for the identification of another pathologist and as soon as that is concluded, we will have him flown in immediately.

He called on the parents of the late Angel not to worry as government will do everything necessary to establish the cause of death.

Ellen celebrates 2nd Anniversary In Office

The President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, on Wednesday January 16, 2008, will be celebrating its 2nd administration. On this occasion, President Sirleaf has congratulated all Liberians and partners who have contributed thus far, towards the success of the administration.

The President particularly extends thanks and appreciation to all women groups in the country who continue to demonstrate their support for the programs and policies of government. She acknowledges the many challenges facing the country and holds the view that with a united front as a people, committed towards the national objective, the country will overcome the challenges.

Meanwhile, the President has called on those indebted to media institution to pay. “It has come to our attention that a number of ministries and public corporations are indebted to media houses and are making little or no effort to settle their indebtedness to these institutions,” Presidential Press Secretary Cyrus Badio told reporters yesterday

Mr. Badio said the President is concerned over this trend and is urging the institutions concerned to settle their indebtedness to the media, to enable them meet their obligations. We all have an obligation to settle our indebtedness to institutions we are indebted to.

“Finally, we want to congratulate the Management of the New Era Publications – publishers of the Inquirer newspaper, on the occasion of their 17th anniversary of the paper. Let me assure the management of the paper of our support and cooperation as they inform our people,” he noted

In a related development, the Contracts and Concessions Review Commission (CCRC) has completed its task of reviewing all the contracts made and concessions given under the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL). This review was in keeping with the Government’s commitment to strengthen all economic governance as envisaged under the Governance and Economic Management Program (GEMAP).

An Executive Mansion release says the next step is for the Government to formulate a strategic plan to address the problems identified with the process of making contracts and giving concessions.

“Additionally, the Government continues to improve controls over the making of contracts and giving of concessions, implementing a basic procurement system through the establishment of the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission (PPCC), and joining the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)”, the release said.

The release also said the Ministry of Justice will now take over the process to follow up on the next steps and implement the recommendations. Any questions or concerns related to the CCRC Review Process may be directed to the Ministry of Justice.

The Speaker of Parliament of Burkina Faso, Kabore Christian has paid a courtesy call on President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Monrovia.

During Sunday discussions, Speaker Christian and President Sirleaf lauded the partnership existing between Burkina Faso and Liberia and promised to work towards enhancing the cordial relations between the two countries.

According to an Executive Mansion release, President Johnson Sirleaf spoke of the new partnership between Liberia and Burkina Faso, which has resulted in the exchange of visits between law-makers of the two countries.

The President also lauded the support Liberia continues to receive from the President of Burkina Faso, Mr. Blasé Campoare, toward the country’s development programs. President Campoare is the current Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The Burkinabe Parliamentary speaker renewed his government’s commitment toward further strengthening the already cordial ties between Burkina Faso and Liberia.

Speaker Christian is in Liberia to participate in the opening of the formal session of the national legislature which takes place Monday.

Also gracing Monday’s opening session are parliamentary delegations from the Gambia and Ghana. The visits are a follow-up to recent visits by House Speaker, Alex Tyler to a number of West African capitals, aimed at establishing partnership among law-makers in the sub-region.

Ellen Names Several Persons to High Posting

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has made a number of appointments in Government, subject to confirmation by the Liberian Senate.

According to an Executive Mansion release, those appointed are: Dr. Elizabeth Davis Russell, President, William V.S Tubman College of Technology; Mr. Winsley Nanka, Deputy Director, Audits, General Auditing Commission; Ms. Elizabeth Tubman, Deputy Director Administration, General Auditing Commission and Ms. Laurine Johnson, Deputy Minister for Administration, Ministry of Public Works

Others appointed are: Ms. Angelique Weeks, Deputy Commissioner, Bureau of Maritime Affairs; Dr. S. Jabaru Carlon, Commissioner, Governance Commission; Mr. Yar Suo Weh Dorliae, Commissioner, Governance Commission; and Her Honor, Comfort Natt, Judge, Debt Court.

In separate letters of appointment, the President expressed the hope that those appointed will justify the confidence reposed in them.

In a related development, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, has made appointments in Government, subject, where applicable, to confirmation by the Liberian Senate:

According to an Executive Mansion release, those appointed are: Dr. Elizabeth Davis Russell, President, William V.S Tubman College of Technology; Mr. Winsley Nanka, Deputy Director, Audits, General Auditing Commission; Ms. Elizabeth Tubman, Deputy Director Administration, General Auditing Commission and Ms. Laurine Johnson, Deputy Minister for Administration, Ministry of Public Works

Others appointed are: Ms. Angelique Weeks, Deputy Commissioner, Bureau of Maritime Affairs; Dr. S. Jabaru Carlon, Commissioner, Governance Commission; and Mr. Yar Suo Weh Dorliae, Commissioner, Governance Commission

In separate letters of appointment, the President expressed the hope that those appointed will justify the confidence reposed in them.