A frightened widow told commissioners of Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that a fighter of Alhaji Kromah’s defunct ULIMOD-K faction who massacred her entire family is still after her life.

Klubo Taitweewu said the fighter, she only identified as Dolley killed 15 of her relatives including her three brothers during the groups occupation to Lofa County at the height of the civil conflict.

She said her brothers were arrested in Konyammah, neighboring Guinea where they sought refuge along with other members of the family and was later brought to Liberia and executed. Taiwteewu, 45, was testifying Thursday at the Voinjama City Hall during the TRC rural public hearings in Lofa County.

“We were in Zorzor when the war started. When it started, my brothers and I decided to run to the border in Guinea. While we were going, we managed to cross and when we got in Guinea in one village, we saw the ULIMO soldiers coming.

When they came, they arrested all my brothers and took them back to Liberia and killed them,” Kubo explained. Following her returned to Voinjama, Lofa County, she said, the fighters threatened to kill her if she disclosed information about her brother’s death.

Klubo: “When the war ceased, I came back to Voinjama but the rebels started saying that if they hear me say anything concerning the death of my brothers, they will kill me. That one-man call Dorley who was fighting for ULIMO was the main person who killed my brothers and right now, he still wants to kill me.

“Most of the time since this war ended, he has always being abusing me and nothing can come out of it because I do not have anybody to talk for me.” She said the fighters decided to exterminate her family because they said their family name: Taiwteewu means “strong and brave people.”

“Right now I am afraid because the way I finished explaining, he will start to hunt for me again. I am too scared, so your please help me. I do not want him to harm me. Dorley and his group say why we have the “Taiwteewu”, which means strong or brave people. So your please help me,” the terrified witness told the hearings.

Klubo said following her testimony, she will be scare to return to Zorzor because Dolley who she claimed presently serves as Mandingo Chief still resides there. “I want the TRC to help me because the Dorley man keep abusing me and threatening to kill me so I want to leave from Zorzor because I do not have anybody to talk for me.

“All of my brothers are dead. One time, Dorley insulted me, I went to the human rights office in Zorzor, and nothing was done. So right now, I am very afraid. I actually want the TRC to help me so this man cannot harm me,” she said.

The TRC is an independent body set up to investigate the root causes of the Liberian crisis, document human rights violations, review the history of Liberia, and put all human rights abuses that occurred during the period from 1979 to 2003 on record.

The TRC mandate is to also identify victims and perpetrators and make recommendations on amnesty, prosecution and reparation. The hearings are being held under the theme: “Confronting Our Difficult Past, For A Better Future.”  Meanwhile, public hearing in Gbarpolu County will open today in the provincial capitol of Bopulu.

Kpoto: From Grave To Grave - Remains Reburied In Home Town

The body of former President Pro Tempore of the Liberian Senate, Kerkula Kpoto, was over the weekend exhumed from its official grave in Paynesville and reburied in Kolba, Kolahun District, Lofa County. Kpoto, a former citizen of Lofa head the Senate during the regime of former President Charles Taylor.

A funeral service to mark the reburial of the late lawmaker took place at the St. Stephen Episcopal Church on 10th Street and was attended by Vice President Joseph Boakai, the Lofa County Legislative Caucus, family members and friends.

Delivering the funeral discourse of the late Kpoto, was the retired Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Monrovia, Bishop Edward Neufville. He described the former lawmaker as a great man who contributed to the growth and development of the country.

He said his contributions worth emulating. The Episcopal Bishop reminded Liberians that the late Kpoto lived his life to the service of his country and people. He urged Liberians both at home and away to follow his footsteps in bringing about transformation in Liberia.

Several diplomats including Liberia’s Vice President Joseph Boakai and the Lofa Legislative Caucus paid tributes to the late statesman. According to the widow of the deceased, Mother Mary Kpoto, the reburial of her late husband was in fulfillment of his will that he should be buried in his home town.

Kpoto was buried in Paynesville by the then government because of the war that raged in the county. She said it is good that her husband was exhumed and reburied in Lofa because it is his will, the guns are silent and that there is free movement of people.

“The family has decided to close the final chapter of the earthly pilgrimage of the late Kpoto be exhuming his remains and given a final burial in his home town in Lofa County,” she said.

She lamented that since the death of her husband about six years ago, successive governments have not given the family his salaries and other benefits that were given to members of the 51st legislature in keeping with law.

“My husband died while serving the country, and by constitutional requirement the family is entitled to receive his benefits,” she said.

She said the family has written President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf appealing to her to help the family get the benefits of the deceased but that there are no words of commitment from her. The late Kpoto was born on September 14, 1943 in Lofa County. He died on Tuesday, August 20, 2002 at the Phebe Hospital in Bong County.