Liberia: Atrocities of Mahel Massacre are revealed at TRC public hearing
By Macdonald Metzger of UNMIL radio
Photo© Ahmed Jallanzo
Monrovia, May 21, 2008 -- The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has heard testimony from a survivor of the Mahel River Massacre.
At the start of Public Hearings in Tubmanburg, Bomi County, Moses Bridge, 77, testified to the atrocities that were committed at the Mahel Bridge along the Monrovia Tumbanburg highway in 2003.
Moses Bridge told the commission how former President Charles Taylor’s government militiamen under the command of General Benjamin Yeaten, smashed the heads of scores of babies and disembowelled pregnant women during the killings. Moses told the commission that the fighters mutilated the dead, before dumping their bodies in the Mahel River.
He said those massacred were transported from Tubmanburg City under the pretence of evacuating them to Monrovia for relief supplies and safety. According to his testimony, three trucks loaded with innocent civilians who had feared the fighting in Tumbanburg and wanted to escaped and seek refuge in Monrovia, were transported one after another to the Mahel Bridge, where Yeaten and his men were waiting to slaughter them.
“After the empty truck returned to Tubmanburg after carrying the first batch of people I saw blood stains all over the vehicle and suspected that our people had been killed by General Yeaten and his men” he said.
Following the returned of the truck, Bridge explained that dozens of others including him and his wife boarded the truck that was heading for the Mahel bridge. In his testimony, the witness explained that the fighters first singled out his wife to disembark from the truck. He told how his wife bided him farewell saying, “I know I am going to die so goodbye. Remember we promised each other that only death will do us apart.”
Photo © IRIN
Bridge explained that after saying those words, the fighter carrying out the killings then shot his wife in his presence before mutilating her body. He said the fighter then asked him: “you see what happened to that woman,” and he responded in tears: “that is my wife you have just killed.”
Following the verbal exchanges with the fighter, Bridge said he requested that he wanted to say his last prayer, but the fighter responded with the words “we are not here for God business.”
He said he was then asked to sit on the rails of the bridge and was pushed by another fighter into the river accompanied by hails of gunfire. He said he successfully evaded the bullets and swam to the fringes of the river where he witnessed the execution of hundreds of people all night. The witness said the heads of dozens of babies were smashed on the bridge while the guts of the pregnant women were opened by the fighters.
Bridge said: “The next day after the killings, when I came from my hiding place, the entire surface of the water and bridge were covered with blood.”
The TRC is an independent body which has been set up to investigate the root causes of the Liberian crisis, review the history of Liberia, and record all human rights abuses that occurred between 1979 and 2003.
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