The trial of the three Revolutionary United Force (RUF) members started over the weekend, with the second accused in the trial Morris Kallon taking the witness stand to testify in his defence.
Giving his evidence in English, the witness told the court that in 1991 he was abducted by the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) fighters at Monrovia’s Roberts International Airport as he was on his way to Abidjan.
He disclosed that among those abducted were four West African and some Lebanese men and the moment they were arrested one Ghanaian and a Senegalese were shot to death and his own hands were tightly tied together with a joint cable.
Morris Kallon further told the court that the remaining abductees were asked to take out their passports and when he took his own out the fighters told him that “we are going to kill you because you are a Sierra Leonean and your government hosted ECOMOG that has been killing the Liberian people but luckily for me one of the commanders came and asked that we be taken to Habbel Hills.”
Continuing his ordeal with the NPFL Mr Kallon said that in the evening, a man approached him and introduced himself as Pa Morlai and he later came to know him as Corporal Foday Sankoh who gave him confidence.
The witness also said that four days later Major Mike Lamin went to their camp and informed him that he was going to take him [Morris Kallon] to the Sierra Leone border and so they left and arrived at Gbarnga.
Continuing the witness said that later he was taken to camp Jackson Naama where he was given a stick and his number as 118.
At camp Jackson Naama, the witness went on, they were engaged in serious exercises which include morning parades which start around 6:30am and then they will have to jog 12 miles and at the end of the exercise they were served bare cassava.
As the training continued at camp Jackson Naama, “what I liked more was the political ideology by Mike Lamin and Foday Sankoh as they were going to change the system of government under JS Momoh. We were also given the three points of attention, the eight code of conduct, the 11 general orders guiding the armed struggle and also the 25 standing orders of the RUF.”
Answering to specific questions by defence counsel Charles Taqu, the witness denied that he was ever called Moses Kallon but that there was a certain Malosy Moses Kallon who was appointed by Foday Sankoh to collect all orphaned children connected with CARITAS.
The 47 year old husband of 9 children also refuted allegations by a certain prosecution witness who told the court that he was Moses Kallon and that he was among the people present when some civilians were put on fire in a house.
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