Samay Village, Bong County – Bendu Siakor, Borbor Flomo, Flomo Pee-see are just a few of the citizens of Samay who were raped and had their throats slit with cutlasses during the Liberian civil war in 1994 according to villagers here.
Report by Mae Azango, [email protected]
“If it is time for warlords to be arrested for crimes against humanity, by the international community, then George Boley should be arrested and charged as well.”
“I feel that if it is time for all those who perpetrated evil against the Liberian people as warlords to be judged, they should be judged, even if they are in the House of Legislature, they should be judged as well.”
Twenty-three years later, their families still mourn and cry out for justice.
Altogether there are 27 victims of this massacre but there were more than 3000 people here who say they had their lives ripped from them and it is hard to come to grips with what has been lost.
For many here it is hard to believe or accept that Mr. George Boley, a former warlord of the Liberia Peace Council (LPC), recently won the representative seat for District #2 in Grand Gedeh County, in Southeastern Liberia.
Boley was deported from the US after having been found to have lied on his US immigration documentation claiming he had not partaken in war crimes.
Unlike Mohammed Jabateh, who was last week convicted in a federal court of the same offense and faces 30 years in a US prison, Boley was simply deported.
His victims here say they would rather he faced justice there and was not left to walk free in Liberia, and now to obtain elected office.
“Samay Village will be very happy if George Boley was to have his day in court and be prosecuted as Jungle Jabbah was,” says Alanso Kumahn, Elder of Samay.
“What his group LPC did to the people of Samay, still leaves sad memories with us.”
Through his special assistant Tee-mahn Poah, George Boley said he was presently too sick to respond to this reporter about the allegations made by Samay Village people and would respond at a later date.
Later this week the village will gather for a memorial to remember the massacre on October 27th.
“We all dress in black to mourn our loved ones,” said Kumahn.
“On that day, it is so sorrowful, because family members of the dead would be crying bitterly and rolling all on the ground in mourning the death of their loved ones.”
Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) held in Liberia in 2008, heard witnesses from every part of Liberia testify of atrocities committed by Mr. Boley’s rebel group LPC. The LPC was alleged to have burned dozens of captives alive whom his group accused of witchcraft in 1994.
Witnesses told the TRC that in 1994 Liberian Peace Council fighters massacred 27 villagers “ordering them to lie down. They slit their throats with cutlasses and raped the women before they killed them.”
“In 1994 a serious massacre was done here by NPFL and LPC. LPC entered the town through Grand Bassa County and massacred many of our people because they said the town was supporters of NPFL that had already carried on massacre here,” says Kumahn.
In its final report the TRC recommended that Mr. Boley, along with other former warlords, be prosecuted as it said they all bore responsibility for the worst atrocities of the conflict.
The Village that is comprised of five quarters has the population of approximately 3,500. There is a memorial held every year at a monument built in remembrance of the day.
“If it is time for warlords to be arrested for crimes against humanity, by the international community, then George Boley should be arrested and charged as well.”
“I feel that if it is time for all those who perpetrated evil against the Liberian people as warlords to be judged, they should be judged, even if they are in the House of Legislature, they should be judged as well.”
Pointing to the Memorial monument Elder Kumahn said Liberians should discourage war, because it is not good, and it suffers people and makes them homeless, so anything that brings war should not be encouraged in Liberia.
“Living in peace is good. We should also look at things which bring about war like corruption, marginalization or unjust treatment to other people.”
“So we do not want war, we should stay away from these factors that will bring war,” he concluded.
Kpolokpala Town, in Bong County also suffered the brutal massacre of more than four hundred people by LPC in 1994.
According to a 2012 BBC report, various organizations also reported that the LPC was engaged in serious human rights abuses against the civilian population.
In the 1995 United States Department of State report on Human Rights Practices in Liberia, documented credible reports that Boley authorized the extrajudicial executions of seven of his soldiers on 14 November 1995.
The report also revealed that Mr. Boley’s son, George Boley Jr, told the Associated Press News Agency that the judge had ignored important evidence presented on his father’s behalf and said none of the specific allegations brought against him were corroborated by credible evidence.
However, Mr. Boley testified before the TRC in 2009 and maintained, there must have been two groups calling themselves the LPC.
“I failed to see how initiatives of the LPC translate to human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian laws. “
“The LPC that I know was a focused and respected body,” a TRC statement at the time quoted him as saying.
Back in Samay Village, Youth leader Exodus Klemee Jr, who had walked to the monument, said the first group to stage a massacre in their village was the NPFL of Charles Taylor and the second group was LPC of George Boley.
He furthered said the law should prevail and the law should take its course by prosecuting those who perpetrated violence in Liberia.
His family also lost their grandfather and Town Chief who used to be helpful in educating the youth of Samay and their deaths had thrown the youth backwards and brought a major setback to Samay.
“If not for the massacre, many of us would have had master degree by now, so if a war crimes court was to be set up in Liberia in order to bring perpetrators like George Boley and other warlords face justice, it would be good for the Liberian people, because it will serve as a deterrent to would-be perpetrators. Just as we are governed by rules and regulations in Samay, so do the citizens of Samay want justice for what was done to her people,” says Youth leader Klemee.
“We believe in justice. If I had my own way those who killed should not be elected as lawmakers because what laws are they capable of making when they are perpetrators of violence?” he asked.
“So if it is left with me, a man like Prince Johnson and now George Boley should be removed from the house and prosecuted as warlords,” he said.
Next week will be a hard one in Samay. Friends and relatives will again gather at the memorial to openly weep for their Elders. Once again, they will cry out for justice. Perhaps this time their voices will be heard.
