The Hague

September 26, 2008

Prosecutor Christopher Santora began with asking if the witness was feeling all right, which witness TF1-459 confirmed. Santora took about ten minutes to finish his examination in chief. During the cross-examination of the witness by Lead Defense Counsel Courtenay Griffiths the broadcast of the proceedings was interrupted several times in order to protect the identity of victims and preventing confidential information to become public.

Surrender to ECOMOG

Prosecutor Santora had the witness confirm that he surrendered to ECOMOG. Then the map was shown to the witness and he marked the routes of the operations he had been involved in. Witness TF1-459 dated and signed the map. The map is marked for identification as MFI-2.

Cross-examination

Lead Defense Counsel began his cross-examination.

The witness confirmed having shared his experiences with his family members, as they shared their experiences with him, but does not accept that his testimony is corrupted by hearing the experiences of the others.

When asked how he first got in touch with the prosecutors of the Special Court, the witness explained that he was put in touch with the Court by a friend, Louise Taylor, who worked at the University of Freetown at the time.

Griffiths established that when the war started the witness was about twelve years old, living in Freetown and going to school. He heard experiences that affected him, but was not physically confronted with the war, it was remote. The witness lived in Freetown under the junta for five months. Witness TF1-459  testified there was a lot of looting, men with guns going around, armed robberies going on and schools were closed. It was decided by his family that he should go to Motema, for security reasons and to help out his father as he was not going to school anyway. Thw witness confirmed that the situation in Motema was relatively calm, though there had been incidents meeting rebels on the road stealing items from them.

Diamond mining

Griffiths put before the witness an earlier statement of witness TF1-459 to the investigators of the OTP (Office of the Prosecutor): the rebels would mine in certain places, civilians in other places, and the miners, or diggers as they were called in the statement, would have to make two piles, one for the rebels and one for themselves. The AFRC/RUC rebels would always take the large diamonds for themselves. The witness confirmed this. The witness also confirmed that no one was forced to mine, if people wanted to leave they could. The witness confirmed that diamond merchants in Matema bought diamonds from the AFRC/RUF rebels, especially the medium rated ones, but never was present at this trading. Bull’s father sold diamond to Senegalese traders in Koidu Town. This relatively calm situation in Kono changed when the intervention from the Kamajors and the Donso’s took place. Although the Kamajors were welcomed by some people in Kono, they did some bad things. They killed AFRC/RUF men. The Kamajors looted cars. They put up a checkpoint in front of the witness’s house, taking property from people. The Kamajors were doing some of the things the AFRC/RUF rebels were doing, but not all, according to the witness.

Kamajor family member

Griffiths put before the witness that his elder brother Samuel testified before this Court that a member of his family called Turntome was a Kamajor. Witness TF1-459 stated that he knows no family member by that name nor has any knowledge of other family members being Kamajors.

Rape of A and B and their relationship to the witness

During the cross-examination of this subject the broadcast was interrupted so many times that it is no use relating the small parts that were broadcasted.

At 1.15 p.m. Court was adjourned until Monday 9.30 a.m. when a new witness will take the stand.