A former deputy director of the National Security Agency (NSA) has vindicated former President Samuel Doe of involvement and knowledge of the 1990 Lutheran Church massacre carried on allegedly by “His Death Squad”.

It was widely rumored and believed that the former president was fully aware and supportive of the massacre to get even with, and send a signal to his enemies that he was in control of situations in Monrovia.

Mr. Youlo furthered that the late president was equally prepared equally to eliminate those who were directly and indirectly supportive of the Charles Taylor-led rebellion against his rule.

Testifying to his role in the past Liberian civil conflict at the ongoing Thematic and Institutional Public Hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) at the historic Centennial Pavilion, Armah Youlu said he can bet his neck for the late president, though he is dead and gone, that he had no knowledge of the massacre and that he was embarrassed by it and even threatened to eliminate the perpetrator (s) if he had caught any of them.

“Even though he is dead and gone, but I can put my neck on the chopping board that Samuel Doe didn’t know until it happened, because he said one thing. He said if I find the person who did it, I will execute him; and he did not only say it to my one.

“ The place was packed.” he rehearsed in response to Commissioner Gerald Coleman’s inquiry.

According to him, other officials of government at the time, including former Minister of State Wesseh McClain, Charles Breeze, Maxwell Kaba and one Stanley, a citizen of Nimba who was working at the Mansion as nurse, were present on the grounds of the Executive Mansion when he (former President Doe) made the statement, threatening to execute the perpetrator (s) of the massacre which claimed national and international attention and even shaped the focus of the rebellion to been more retaliatory and repulsive than thought.

Youlu, a kinsman of the late President, told the TRC he was informed of the massacre in his hospital bed at the St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital by former State Minister Wesseh McClain and decided to go the Executive Mansion, hiding from the doctors to ascertain the veracity of the massacre and who was responsible.

He added that when he got on the grounds of the Mansion, the President was at the back dressed in sporting attire.

“Dad (this is how Doe then called him) I am finished. The people who did this killed me because it is intended to damage me and give the impression that I orchestrated and operationalized it,” he quoted the slain President as telling him and those in the audience.

He tried to paint a picture of Doe’s posture after the incident, indicating “Doe was upset by the incident; he felt he was the one they were fighting; he felt it was about sabotaging his efforts to bring the war to a close.”

In his testimony, he confirmed seeing countless number of bodies on the street, some hanging in the roof of the church building en route to and from the Executive Mansion.

In July of 1990, over 600 Liberians, most of who were believed to be citizens of Nimba County and who were seeking refuge at the compound of the Lutheran Church on Tubman Boulevard, were massacred indiscriminately allegedly by men loyal to the government.

When asked as to whether he was knowledgeable of anything that might have triggered the loathing and acrimony that developed between former President Doe and the late Commanding General Thomas Quiwonkpa, Youlu said the late president told him Quiwonkpa, as a person, did not have a problem but that he was misled by his people.

He quoted the late President Doe as saying that when he (Doe) decided to transfer Quiwonkpa from his position as Commanding General, on allegations that he wanted to overthrow him (Doe), he (Quiwonkpa) accepted it but later changed his mind after his people influenced him not to do so.

In other developments, Youlu has confirmed there were series of massacres carried out on ULIMO, based on what he was told by fighters and others.

“Yes, I heard about massacres in Lofa, I was not there; I was not in the country but when I came, everybody came to me and said that. I was hearing this, I was hearing that; so, I will not say he did not hear it,” he recollected.

On the issue of who should bear the greatest burden of responsibility for the massacres committed by the fighters, he cleared his faction ULIMO and gave a clean sheet as having committed no atrocities, classifying it as an organization that had a cardinal objective of not been interested in the presidency or any position for that matter.

“I had two enemies, Prince Johnson and Charles Taylor. So the LUDF was there to pressurize Taylor and not to kill anybody. So we did not play the game,” he said.

The former LUDF commander told the TRC that up to the time they changed the name to ULIMO in 1992, no one in Liberia and Sierra Leone can say that they committed atrocities, claiming that he set free even those who caused havoc for his kinsmen and women.

“Then there was another face, the ULIMO factor when the K and J were created. The leadership, those who headed the group, should bear greatest responsibility for the action of their men,” he said.

The former ULIMO-J General is the first former head of a warring faction to support calls that those who headed defunct factions should bear responsibility for actions carried on by their men during the course of the civil war.