A child soldier of the former Charles Taylor government has explained stories of how he was conscripted as a combatant in 2003 and used as an executioner.

Now 14 years old, the ex child combatant, name withheld explained that at age 9 he was recruited along with other children by former government militia commander Roland Duo around their 72nd, Somalia Drive residence to become bodyguards.

He said they were used by Duo and other commanders to execute captives and to loot stores in and around the Monrovia. 
 
The child soldier was testifying Friday at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Liberia Thematic Hearing for Children in the south eastern city of Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County.

He recounted stories of how during one of their looting spree, another unit of government militiamen engaged them into a firefight at a store in downtown Monrovia resulting into the killing of his friend.

The ex-child combatant recalled in 2003 how Mr. Duo cut off the private part in his presence of an alleged rebel LURD combatant who was brought from the frontline in Lofa County.
 
He said they were given narcotic drugs by the government commander and he regularly maltreated them when he thought they were not following instructions.

In collecting children’s experiences of the war and during the hearing, special mechanisms were used to ensure the protection of children throughout the process, one of which was concealing their identities.

Another child witness, now 17 explained how in 2003 his father was mutilated and beheaded in his presence when he refused to be recruited into Taylor government militia in Greenville, Sinoe County.

He recounted that after his father was beheaded he was disembowel and his intestines used as string to mount a gate by the fighters.

With blood streaming from his father’s lifeless head, he said, he was threatened by the fighters with death and commanded to carry the head around the town.

“They chop; chop my father all over his body and then they cut off his head. I was crying and crying and then the man said I should take the head. Blood was coming from the head, but I took it because I was scared before they killed me.

"Then they opened his stomach and took off his intestine and they used it to make their gate,” he said.

A female witness now 18 explained how in 2003 following the capture of Pleebo, Maryland County, a commander of the defunct MODEL rebel group forcibly took her from the abode of her parents at the age 13 and made her his wife.

She said the commander only identified as “Bullet Dancer” singled her out from a crowd of local inhabitants ordered to come out of their homes following the captured of the town and he carried her to his residence where he regularly had sexual intercourse with her. She explained that attempts by her parents to reclaim her from the commander led to threats on their lives.

The hearing under theme: “Children and the Conflict in Liberia: What Does The Future Hold?” is aimed at understanding the impact of the conflict and transitional justice mechanisms on the development of Liberian children and their future.

Already the commission has conducted three regional public hearings for children and three panel discussions between the commissioners and children in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County, Tubmanburg, Bomi County and Friday in Zwedru.

During the hearing in Zwedru several children who were direct victims of the Liberian conflict testified followed by a panel discussion with commissioners of the TRC. The hearing brought together hundreds of students, local residents and child protection agencies.

Witnesses testifying were drawn from Maryland, Grand Kru, Sinoe, River Gee and Grand Gedeh Counties.

To conform to international standards and to achieve its objectives the commission has been organizing and holding the children hearings in collaboration with UNICEF and the National Child Protection Network (NCPN), a consortium of Child Protection Agencies (CPA).

TRC Children Hearing Opens In Monrovia

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia will Monday begin Thematic Hearing for Children in Monrovia.

The hearing under theme: “Children and the Conflict in Liberia: What Does The Future Hold?” is aimed at understanding the impact of the conflict and transitional justice mechanisms on the development of Liberian children and their future.

Already the commission has conducted three regional public hearings for children and three panel discussions between the commissioners and children in three regions of the country.

During the three days hearing in Monrovia several children who were direct victims of the Liberian conflict will testify followed by panel discussions with commissioners of the TRC.

In collecting children’s experiences of the war, special mechanisms were used to ensure the protection of children throughout the process. These included statement taking, public hearings in camera and public debates between children and the commissioners.

To conform to international standards and to achieve its objectives the commission has been organizing and holding the children hearings in collaboration with UNICEF and the National Child Protection Network (NCPN), a consortium of Child Protection Agencies (CPA).

As part of its mandate, the TRC is required to collect views from different sections of the populace, including children. The TRC Committee on Children is chaired by Commissioner Omu Sylla.

The hearings are focused on events between 1979 and 2003 and the national and external actors that helped to shape those events. The TRC was agreed upon in the August 2003 peace agreement and created by the TRC Act of 2005.

The TRC was established to “promote national peace, security, unity and reconciliation,” and at the same time make it possible to hold perpetrators accountable for gross human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law that occurred in Liberia between January 1979 and October 2003.