LIBERIA: LAWMAKER CAUSES STIR AT TRC HEARING, COMMISSIONER

UNCLAS MONROVIA 000964

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O.12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL SOCI CVIS LI
SUBJECT: LIBERIA: LAWMAKER CAUSES STIR AT TRC HEARING, COMMISSIONER
WALKS OUT

REF: STATE 112101


1. (U) SUMMARY: Margibi County lawmaker Saah R. Gbollie accused TRC
Commissioner John H.T. Stewart of being a cause of the Liberian
crisis at the ongoing Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)
hearing. Representative Gbollie, testifying before the TRC, denied
that he had committed any atrocities while he was a senior commander
in Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) during the
Liberian crisis and commander of the police Special Operations
Division (SOD) during Taylor's Presidency. The Commissioner walked
out during the testimony. END SUMMARY.


2. (U) Representative Saah R. Gbollie was invited by the TRC as part
of the ongoing Thematic Hearings of the TRC which began in August

2008. Representative Gbollie denied all allegations levied against
him at the TRC. Other TRC witnesses have accused him of ordering
the execution of 17 ULIMO-K prisoners of war captured by NPFL in
Lofa County in 1993. He denied any knowledge of the Phebe Hospital
Massacre in 1994 when scores of civilians were allegedly killed by
NPFL fighters under his control. Gbollie also denied throwing a
street seller into the Mesurado River to his death in Monrovia when
he served as commander of the Special Operations Division of the
Liberia National Police (LNP) in 2001. He also denied personal
involvement in the beating of university students in March 2001
during a demonstration but stated the "best appropriate means" were
used to arrest the student leadership. Gbollie instead called on
TRC commissioners to ask leaders of the NPFL and the LNP to answer
to the allegations because according to him "he was only a small boy
who did nothing wrong" and a "mere gun toter" who was not a
commander in the war and "never ordered the execution of people".



3. (U) Gbollie blamed the Liberian crisis on members of the
Progressive Alliance of Liberia (PAL) and Movement for Justice in
Africa (MOJA). He said that they were wholly and solely responsible
for the Liberian civil war. Representative Gbollie directly accused
TRC Commissioner Stewart of being a part of PAL/MOJA. He said that
"Stewart's hands are equally dirty just as everyone else." Gbollie
warned that the TRC was not a tribunal and as such should not be
used by men like Stewart to get at their perceived enemies. He
threatened to disrupt the October 20 hearing if Commissioner Stewart
continued his "intransigence he displayed against previous witnesses
who testified before the TRC." Commissioner Stewart walked out of
the Hall despite efforts by Chairman Verdier and other commissioners
to calm him down.


4. (U) The hearings continued after the Commissioner walked out.
Gbollie then apologized to Chairman Verdier and other commissioners
on the panel but continued his vilification of Stewart. Gbollie
said that he joined the NPFL to help bring about positive change in
Liberia. Gbollie denied doing any wrong during the Liberian crisis
and challenged anyone who had any case against him to take him to a
court of competent jurisdiction.


5. (SBU) COMMENT: Representative Gbollie's show of disrespect for
the TRC is one of the strongest examples of contempt so far by
witnesses appearing before it. Previous witnesses have also accused
TRC Commissioners of playing active roles during the civil war in an
attempt to absolve themselves of any wrong-doing, but no testimony
has ever escalated to the accusatory level this interchange did.
TRC Chairman Jerome Verdier's failure to reprimand Gbollie and
control the situation before it led to the walkout of Commissioner
Stewart raises concerns about the management of the public hearings.
The International Contact Group on Liberia's TRC working group has
privately counseled Verdier on his repeated failure to control
witnesses because allowing former rebels to pontificate for hours
from the TRC stage is undermining the public perception of the
effectiveness of the TRC hearings. Saah Gbollie was recently
refused entry to the U.S. after his visa was prudentially revoked by
the Department on September 26 (reftel).

THOMAS-GREENFIELD