The transcripts of the trial of Charles Taylor, former President of Liberia. More…
Thank you. God bless you all.
By telephone numbers that they gave us to contact Charles Taylor and even when we went into the jungle, the arms and ammunition that were coming, we took diamonds to Liberia. It was from that that I knew that Charles Taylor was the godfather of the RUF.
They read them in English and they were interpreted into Krio, so there was an interpreter who was interpreting in Krio.
Political party by then, thank you.
Yes, my Lord.
Well, when we joined the RUF I was made to understand that Charles Taylor was the godfather of the RUF by the things that the RUF were doing without the consent of Charles Taylor and they gave us the contact, we the AFRC and the RUF. They established a contact ...
Yes, the accord. Exactly, ma'am.
No, I was out of the army before 25 May when we came in. Then the AFRC reinstated all of us who the SLPP had dismissed, from 25 May.
The Lome Accord stated that after 1996 all the SLAs whom the SLPP government then had had problem with and had dismissed should be reinstated from 1996 to 7 July when they signed the accord in 1999. So that brought me back into the army before I retired.
After the Lome Accord, through the accord. The Lome Accord stipulated that all those whom the SLPP had had problem with from --
The RUF.
Every friend has a best friend. Maybe he will reveal it, I don't know. For my security I only plan to sacrifice myself.
My Lord, with your Honour, I only plan to make - to sacrifice myself. As to any member of my family, I have decided to let them stay away from this issue. Thank you, my Lord.
For security reasons I do not want to disclose wherever she is, my Lord.
Yes.
No, no, no.
No, it's only when I came here that I spoke to the lawyers.
No.
No, it was only when I came to Holland that my wife has started receiving allowances on my behalf from an instruction I gave.
Yes, sir. Yes, to Freetown.
I am paying until I get again.
Before now I used to pay with the assistance of my wife.
The school that they normally attended is the school they are still attending.
Recently, when I am here in Holland.
Yes, it's when I'm here now.
Presently in fact I don't even know the house. It's my family that is staying there.
Yes, like transportation normally when I went there.
From what you have told me now, because since I joined them they have never given me money that I will say will take care of me and my family. They were giving me incentives in the form of transportation, but it was not enough to take care of my ...
Well, maybe now that you have told me I will have it, I will know now, but I didn't know that they would give me anything.
Correct.
Five. I have five.
No, I don't have three children.
My relatives were assisting me and the good people who knew me, they were assisting me and my wife.
Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin, Nigeria.
La Cote d'Ivoire? Ivory Coast?
That is correct.
I hadn't a job by then.