The Defense Team of indicted former Liberian President Charles Taylor has told the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone that Liberian journalist Hassan Bility(photo) was a member two Liberian rebel groups, ULIMO-K and LURD, that fought against Taylor’s government. The Defense team indicated to the Court that Bility has a personal hatred for the former President Taylor. The Defense also declared that Mr. Bility was a spy for several international groups during the presidency of Mr. Taylor. The BBC World Service Trust Mariama Khai Fornah now reports from The Hague.
FORNAH: Charles Taylor’s lead Defense lawyer has told the Special Court that Liberian journalist Hassan Bility’s desire to testify against Charles Taylor was motivated by ethnic animosity and political affiliation with leaders of two Liberian former rebel groups.
Defense Lawyer Courtenay Griffiths said Prosecution witness Bility was related to ULIMO-K leader Alhaji Kromah and LURD Leader, Sekou Damatee Konneh. The Defense Lawyer told the court that Mr. Bility was a member of defunct rebel group, ULIMO.
GRIFFITHS: The reason why ECOMOG chose you to go to Sierra Leone was precisely because of your ULIMO-K connections. That’s why you were an attractive proposition for them. That’s the truth, isn’t it?
BILITY: Counsel, that is not the truth.
GRIFFITHS: Because it would have been easy for someone like you, Mandingo, connected to Konneh and other people, Kromah, high up in ULIMO-K, to gain access to places in Sierra Leone because there was a force of former ULIMO-K working in the junta government. That’s the truth, isn’t it Mr. Bility?
BILITY: Counsel, that is far from the truth. That is not the truth. My being Mandingo shouldn’t be an issue here. [I said] because if I’m a Mandingo then I was generally report against a particular group who aren’t Mandingo - no, I was doing my duty.
FORNAH: Mr. Griffiths also accused Mr. Bility of making a secret trip to Sierra Leone in August 1997, not in his capacity as a journalist, but as a spy.
Legal arguments ensued between the Prosecution and the Defense about who facilitated Mr. Bility’s trip to Sierra Leone at the time.
Bility disclosed that it was Nigerian ECOMOG soldiers who took him to Sierra Leone, but the Defense was interested in the names of the soldiers.
The Prosecution went to the Defence of the witness and said the witness as a journalist was protected by several international laws not to disclose his source.
Having listened to arguments from both sides, the Court said the matter was a serious legal issue, so the Defense should make a written submission to the Court on Friday January 23.
Mr. Griffiths insisted that Hassan’s trip to Sierra Leone was a secret operation organized by ECOMOG.
GRIFFITHS: You were sneaked into Sierra Leone with the assistance of ECOMOG soldiers. They sneak you across the border between their control zone and the junta control, and insert you in Freetown. Why did they go to all that trouble unless you were a spy?
BILITY: Counsel, nobody sneaked me. I made a conscious decision to go into Sierra Leone, and I also want to remind the counsel journalist going into areas where they are forbidden to report is not anything subversive. For example, you have BBC journalists sneaking from South Africa into Zimbabwe even though they are barred. I was doing my professional and ethical duty I thought was necessary. So ECOMOG had absolutely no stake in it at all.
FORNAH: Mr. Griffiths said Bility’s hatred for Charles Taylor was based on his affiliation with the All Liberian Coalition Party (ALCOP), which has Mr. Alhaji Kromah as its standard bearer. Hassan admitted he did some professional writings for ALCOP and was paid, but denied membership with the party. Mr. Griffiths pushed the witness on his association with ALCOP.
GRIFFITHS: And it’s right, isn’t it, that ALCOP was the political wing of the former ULIMO-K.
BILITY: That’s correct.
GRIFFITHS: So you were a paid writer for the political wing of ULIMO-K.
BILITY: I was hired by them to write.
GRIFFITHS: And did you sympathise with their politics?
BILITY: Well, that was a matter of personal decision.
GRIFFITHS: That’s why I’m asking you.
BILITY: I did appreciate all the politics in Liberia.
GRIFFITHS: Did you support them?
BILITY: What do you mean “support”? Support in what sense, counsel?
GRIFFITHS: In the sense that they were the party you would have preferred to vote for.
BILITY: I would have preferred to vote for the All Liberian Coalition Party. I would have preferred to vote for the Unity Party.
GRIFFITHS: So you would have voted for any of those three?
BILITY: Yes sir. Personally I did not have a preference as such.
FORNAH: The cross-examination of Hassan Bility who is testifying as a torture victim of Charles Taylor’s administration continues here in The Hague on Thursday.
For the BBC WST this is Mariama Khai Fornah reporting from The Hague.
Photo credit: BBC.
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