Former RUF Fighter Implicates Ex Rebel Leader Gibril Massaquoi
Fayia Junior Moseray A former Revolutionary United Front (RUF) fighter, has implicated former rebel leader, Gibril Massaquoi in the Finish Appeal Court in Monrovia, Liberia. The ex-rebel in his testimony before the Court in Monrovia said that, Gibril Massaquoi was part of the ‘Waterside’ massacre which happened during the civil war in Liberia.
The witness, fondly called “Soldier 2”, told the Court that Massaquoi was at the Waterside killing, which experts have dated July or August 2003, because he admitted, he came to Liberia with Massaquoi.
He added that, in 2001, when the LURD rebels began to fight Charles Taylor, he [Charles Taylor] ordered Roland Duo, the Chief Staff at the time, to supply him with some troops to fight the LURD rebels.
He said that Charles Taylor sent his trusted and loyal soldiers, which he was part of, to Kotohun to bring Massaquoi and his men to Monrovia.
In trying to ease his guilty conscience, Soldier 2 told the Court that the reason that led to the killing at Waterside was that, Massaquoi was told that some of his strong Revolutionary United Front (RUF) members had been killed. He said that Massaquoi thought that it was the civilians at the store shop in Waterside that had exposed his friends to the enemies.
He said that Massaquoi eventually ordered all the civilians at the store shop to be killed and “they were all cleared, including my brother whose dead body I saw after the massacre.”
He further said that the second time he met Massaquoi was in Lofa when they met three consecutive times, and thus added that the third time he saw him, at that time, he was with Sam Bockarie and Issa Sesay who were his bosom friends.
“They were the three main leaders of the RUF,” he asserted. “In Monrovia, the RUF rebels were mixed among the Liberian soldiers,” he added.