Taylor Trial Transcript
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Case No. SCSL-2003-01-T THE PROSECUTOR OF THE SPECIAL COURT V. CHARLES GHANKAY TAYLOR TUESDAY, 5 FEBRUARY 2008 9.30 A.M. TRIAL TRIAL CHAMBER II Before the Judges: Justice Teresa Doherty, Presiding Justice Richard Lussick Justice Julia Sebutinde Justice Al Hadji Malick Sow, Alternate For Chambers: Mr Simon Meisenberg Ms Doreen Kiggundu For the Registry: Ms Rachel Irura For the Prosecution: Ms Brenda J Hollis Mr Mohamed A Bangura Mr Christopher Santora Ms Maja Dimitrova Ms Kirsten Keith For the accused Charles Ghankay Mr Terry Munyard Taylor: Mr Andrew Cayley CHARLES TAYLOR Page 3066 05 FEBRUARY 2008 OPEN SESSION 1 Tuesday, 5 February 2008 2 [Open session] 3 [The accused present] 4 [Upon commencing at 9.30 a.m.] 09:28:45 5 PRESIDING JUDGE: Good morning. I notice a change of 6 appearance on your side, Mr Bangura. 7 MR BANGURA: Yes, your Honour. Appearing for the 8 Prosecution this morning, your Honour, Brenda J Hollis, myself 9 Mohamed A Bangura, Chris Santora and Maja Dimitrova. 09:29:08 10 PRESIDING JUDGE: I think the Defence bench remains the 11 same. 12 MR CAYLEY: Yes, your Honour, we're the same as yesterday, 13 Mr Munyard and myself Mr Cayley. Thank you. 14 PRESIDING JUDGE: If there are no other matters I will 09:29:18 15 remind the witness of his oath. 16 Mr Witness, you recall that yesterday you took the oath and 17 swore to tell the truth. That oath is still binding on you and 18 you must continue to answer questions truthfully. Do you 19 understand? 09:29:31 20 THE WITNESS: [Microphone not activated] 21 THE INTERPRETER: Your Honours, the witness's mic is not 22 activated. 23 WITNESS: TF1-360 [On former oath] 24 PRESIDING JUDGE: Mr Bangura, please proceed. 09:29:51 25 MR BANGURA: Thank you, your Honour. 26 EXAMINATION-IN-CHIEF BY MR BANGURA: [Continued] 27 Q. Good morning, Mr Witness. 28 A. Good morning. 29 Q. We will continue with your evidence-in-chief this morning. SCSL - TRIAL CHAMBER II CHARLES TAYLOR Page 3067 05 FEBRUARY 2008 OPEN SESSION 1 Now yesterday before we broke off you were discussing the system 2 of communication, radio communication, that the RUF operated. Is 3 that correct? 4 A. Yes. 09:30:20 5 Q. And at the particular time that we broke off you were - you 6 had just explained how a message was sent from one radio station 7 to another. Is that correct? 8 A. Yes. 9 Q. Now my last question was what happened at the other end 09:30:46 10 where the message was received? You had explained how the 11 message was composed and dispatched from one end. What normally 12 happened at the other end where the message was received? This 13 is a situation where one commander is sending a message to 14 another commander? 09:31:09 15 A. Well, when one commander sent a message to another 16 commander, yesterday I began by saying that the person who is 17 sending the message, that is the commander, would write the 18 message and sign that he had written that message. Similarly the 19 receiving commander would have to read. But before that the 09:31:43 20 radio operator who would have to receive the message would write 21 that he received it, he will sign under it, date it and sign 22 against it again indicating that he was the operator receiving 23 the message. Then after that the commander himself that received 24 the message from the operator would write the word received, he 09:32:17 25 will date it and write the time against it and sign. 26 Q. Where was this message recorded? 27 A. These messages, after receiving them through the radio you 28 will first write it in the rough book after decoding the message 29 and that is when you would enter it into the log book. We had no SCSL - TRIAL CHAMBER II CHARLES TAYLOR Page 3068 05 FEBRUARY 2008 OPEN SESSION 1 other where else to write the message but in the log book. 2 Q. Now you have mentioned a notebook and a log book. Which of 3 these does the commander sign to indicate that he has received 4 the message from the operator? 09:33:17 5 MR CAYLEY: Madam President, excuse me, I'm sorry to 6 interrupt my learned friend, but the witness said first of all 7 you would write it in the rough book after decoding and that's 8 when you would enter it into the log book. Now to me did he mean 9 RUF as in R-U-F or rough as in R-O-U-G-H? 09:33:37 10 PRESIDING JUDGE: I was going to ask that question myself, 11 Mr Cayley. Could we clarify that point, Mr Bangura? 12 MR BANGURA: Thank you, your Honour, I will get the witness 13 to clarify it. 14 Q. Mr Witness, you mentioned that when the message is received 09:33:48 15 it is first noted, it is first written down in the rough book and 16 when you say rough book what do you mean? 17 A. Well, when I said rough book, it's on the paper or an 18 exercise book when you get an encoded message. That book we will 19 even burn it at any time. But when we transfer it from the rough 09:34:16 20 book, the book into which it is transferred is what we called log 21 book. That is a document we will keep forever. 22 Q. My question was which of these does the commander sign to 23 indicate that he had received the message? 24 A. It's in the log book. 09:34:43 25 Q. You have mentioned that the message is received and 26 decoded. In what form is the message transmitted from one 27 station to another station? 28 A. Fine. When a commander would write a message it will be in 29 a correct form, but when it would be handed over to the radio SCSL - TRIAL CHAMBER II CHARLES TAYLOR Page 3069 05 FEBRUARY 2008 OPEN SESSION 1 operator he will encode all those messages. 2 Q. Mr Witness, what do you mean by correct form? You say when 3 the commander gives a message it is in the correct form, what do 4 you mean? 09:35:29 5 A. What I mean is the commander will write the message in 6 English, but we would encode it. 7 Q. And it is transmitted in the coded form; is that what 8 you're saying? 9 A. Yes. 09:35:59 10 Q. Thank you. Now the log book that you have just mentioned, 11 can you indicate how many log books there were - how many log 12 books did you have? 13 A. Well, any station would have one log book. When it is 14 finished we would pack it where we would normally pack our 09:36:32 15 documents and we would take another new one and create a log 16 book. So all stations had log books. Some stations would 17 complete five or six log books even, but these were documents we 18 kept throughout the movement. 19 Q. Was the log book kept by any operator personally? 09:36:58 20 A. Yes, all the log books, the book and the radio were in the 21 custody of the operator, including the code. 22 Q. Now you have explained how one operator can transmit a 23 message to another operator. Now what happened where a message 24 was being transmitted from one operator to another operator? 09:37:32 25 What happened - what did the other operators do who were not 26 addressed - who were not the addressees of that message, what 27 would happen? 28 A. In the first place we had a law in our guerilla army, the 29 RUF, that all messages transmitted on the net should be monitored SCSL - TRIAL CHAMBER II CHARLES TAYLOR Page 3070 05 FEBRUARY 2008 OPEN SESSION 1 by the operator and be written down, even if it was not addressed 2 to his commander. But as far as it was our military operation 3 messages it was the operator's responsibility to write down that 4 message and inform the other commanders. 09:38:30 5 Q. Now you have mentioned that one radio operator calling 6 another radio operator would operate within a frequency. Did 7 another operator have access to that frequency who was not - to 8 whom the message was not addressed? 9 A. Please repeat the question. 09:38:57 10 Q. An operator to whom a message is not addressed, did he have 11 access or could he have access to the message from his radio set? 12 A. Yes, even if I was on a station and I was not even there 13 when the message came, as soon as I would resume transmission 14 again I would call any station and if there was any message so 09:39:34 15 that I would get a copy of that particular message. Therefore 16 all operators in the RUF had access to all messages relating to 17 military operations. 18 Q. In that situation what sort of messages would you listen to 19 sometimes? 09:40:01 20 A. Well, in that circumstance we would listen to all messages.