Continuing his evidence at the Special Court trial in The Hague the witness, a former victim of the rebel war Reverend Alex Tamba Teh, revealed how a boy’s hands and feet were chopped off and later thrown in a pit in Kono, eastern Sierra Leone.
In his evidence the witness said one of the RUF commanders Major Rocky, after the 101 men had been killed at the ‘Igbaleh’ at Kamachenda Street, later asked him to return to Sunna Mosque.
On their way, he went on, he saw some of the boys of the Small Boys Unit (SBU) holding a boy and that later these SBUs “laid the boy’s left hand on a tree stump and chopped it off followed by hacking off the left.
He continued, “the boy was crying and the SBUs started swinging the boy and then threw him in a pit.”
Rev. Teh narrated that after this incident they were later taken to the Sunna Mosque where Major Rocky reported to Rambo who was the Brigade Commander.
“In his report the Major said he had killed the rest of the men and that I was the only one spared because I am a pastor. Rambo grew very angry because Major Rocky had disobeyed his orders by not killing me. Rambo then went to the other commanders and informed them that they were going to vote whether or not to kill me. But my life was spared because the vote was 15-16,” he revealed.
He added: “I was then handed over to Rocky by Rambo that he should be my guide till Mosquito comes. Since Rocky was deployed at Wondedu we went there together and I used to pray for them before parade.”
Rocky, Alex Teh went on, was transferred to another area and was replaced by Captain Banya who also used the captured civilians for food searching.
The witness said one day he felt pity for the civilians as they went food searching but did not eat the food, and told of how he advised them to go to the bush early in the morning and rest for a while.
“Later in the day, Captain Banya enquired of the civilians and I told him I did not know where they went. At about 6pm two of these guys returned and when they were asked by Captain Banya where they had been they told him what I had told them.
“Another set of men came again and they told Banya the same thing and so Banya sent for me and said I had lied to him and that he was going to kill me. [But] the moment he took out his gun to shoot me a rebel shouted that he should not. Captain Banya said that he was not going to kill me but that he would do things to me that I would not forget.
“So Captain Banya then took a ruler and put it in my mouth and used the butt of his gun and hit my gum and the entire front teeth fell out,” he concluded.
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