LPC Fighters Are Being Recruited for Witnesses

…To Prosecute George Boley in Minnesota
Reports gathered in Monrovia have indicated that a the prosecutor of a Liberian warlord, George S. Boley, are finding it difficult to recruit Liberian witnesses as some members of the first batch of witnesses taken to Ghana destined for the United States have on already absconded with US$30,000.

According to the reports, the services of a U. S. based a Liberian journalist, who has been frequenting Monrovia to recruiting the witnesses for the successful the prosecution of the former warlord, but Boley’s son, George Boley Jr. contended via mobile phone that his father is totally innocent of charges brought against him, but was being pursued innocently.

George Junior however said modalities have been put place for legal defenses, adding that Dr. Boley is still in detention as he was not entitled to bail.

Dr. Boley was arrested by the Homeland Security for allegedly lying to enter to United States and extrajudicial killings during the Liberian civil war. He has been arraigned before the United States District Court B, in the District of Minnesota and detained pending prosecution.

Accordingly, prosecutors have embarked on proving their charges against Dr. Boley, and have been trying to rally former LPC fighters in Liberia to serve as witnesses.

As the story goes, Journalist Hassan Bility in 2009 travelled to Monrovia with two white Americans and contacted one Blama Monger, an influential LPC fighter who was also used to contact additional former LPC fighters.

It was disclosed that Monger and Mr. Bility has successfully listed some six men including Monger himself, who were taken to the Royal Hotel in Sinkor where the two Americans were reportedly lodging, and where the recruits for witness were interviewed as to their certain knowledge of any the atrocious acts by Dr. Boley during the LPC belligerence against the National patriotic front of Liberia.

Some of the fighters disclosed that they were asked at the Hotel on 15th Street Royal Sinkor questions like: Isn’t it true that Mr. Boley killed personally? The answer, accordingly by the fighters who wanted to snatch a US$30,000 each as was reportedly promised them was “Yes”.

“The two white man and Hassan Bility talked in my presence when he took me to them, but I didn’t know what the talk,” Monger explained to an insider and associate of Dr. Boley, who played the tape of the conversation on a mobile phone.

“I don’t get money at the time; but when it cause for me to go they will give me some money,” Monger said. HASSAN Bility along with Monger, it was indicated, came alone; “we went to the hotel, the interview us one by one. Ask us to testify against Boley,” Monger furthered said.

He claimed that they him their phone numbers to stay in touch. “They give me there phone number and all,” added, noting that for a second time, the other group of white five Americans came and lodge at the Mamba Point Hotel; hired a conference room in Cape Hotel where they called Monger and his colleagues to interview them further on their witness status in the case against Dr. Boley.

“This time they were five; the people from the states wanted to know the character of Dr. Boley. I told them I joined the LPC 1992. I told them Boley killed; he took his own gun and fire at people,” Monger explained. He was head saying that that they would call him when the wanted him.

However, our sources said the recruits were flown to Ghana. In furtherance of the deal, from where they were expected to have undergone their final interview before taking off for the Minnesota. But it appears that the plan is not materializing to expectation as three of the recruits intended for witness against Boley reportedly absconded with US$10.000, each.

The alarm from this has obviously alerted Ghanaian security, as suspicion abounds of some foul play that could be a threatening. s was created suspicion in the minds of those who recruited them; alerted Ghanaian security forces are now keeping surveillance on the rest including Monger who are now on the Bumdurum Refugees camps in Ghana.

Monger’s wife was contacted on the mobile phone by our reporter, and she confirmed that Monger was still in Ghana and is contemplating to return. She was suspicious and could not further answer to basic questions regarding how Blama Monger left Liberia for what.

Liberian Affidavit before US Court

An Affidavit filed before the UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT B in DISTRICT OF MINNESOTA by Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner John H. T. Stewart in the case: George Boley, Plaintiff versus Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, a/k/a The Advocates for Human Rights and Jennifer Prestholdt, individually and in Her Official Capacity as Deputy Director of Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, Defendants and Counterclaimants quoted Mr. Stewart as saying, There is no question in my mind that George Boley has widespread public reputation in Liberia and amongst Liberians in the diaspora as a perpetrator of horrendous human rights abuses. He had this reputation well before 2006 and regardless of any radio interview given by Jennifer Prestholdt.

Page 5 count 6 of the Affidavit indicated, “In 1994, I was a reporter working for the New Democrat newspaper in Monrovia. I received a telephone from a lady (name withheld)-withhold name, whom I knew to be a girlfriend of George Boley and someone who worked under him on behalf of the Liberian Peace Council (LPC).

Stewart said, “ At the time, negotiations were under way to form a coalition government including representatives of the major warring factions controlling portions of Liberia. Charles Taylor, whose National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) controlled much of Liberia, disputed the right of George Boley to participate in a coalition government as he disputed Boley’s claim that that he controlled significant territory. The lady, withhold name, asked me, as an independent observer, to travel to Bong County and confirm that it was under the control of the LPC, headed by George Boley. She said one of Boley’s soldiers would pick me up and take me to Bong County.

“ Subsequently, I was picked up by a group by a group of soldiers led by someone known to me under the war name of jack the Rebel. This group drove me through ECOMOG lines to the town of Buchanan, and we then turned towards Bong County. On the way we evaded two land mines that I understood to have been set by the NPFL under the overall command of Charles Taylor. We were also set upon by the NPFL troops and there was a firefight. While several of four of our company were killed, the rest of us made it into Gbarnga, Bong County, Mr. Stewart told the Court .

According to him, “We joined a fighting force that were introduced to me by Jack the Rebel as fighter for the LPC, intended to demonstrate to me that the LPC was in charged of territory in Bong County and so George Boley would qualify to participate in coalition government. Many of the fighters to whom I was so introduced were children. They were obviously 12 or younger, and they were carrying guns. One boy, approximately of age -(Page-6) – 12, was wounded on the arm. I asked him how he had injured the arm and he told me he was hit by a shell from an anti-aircraft, gun that was being used by the NPFL as a combat weapon. I came to know this boy and know him now, as an adult who lives in Grand Gedeh County in Liberia.

Initial Report

It may be recalled that a foreign journalist who covered the Liberian civil war in the mid-90s, Jeffrey Goldberg, has reported in his blog that former warlord, George Boley, was arrested January 15th by U.S. Immigration and Customs and is now sitting in a jail cell in upstate Batavia.

So far, according to Goldberg, Boley is being charged administratively with lying in order to gain entry into the U.S., and with committing extra-judicial killings while in another country.

Other branches of government such as the Department of Homeland Security are looking at charging Boley with actual war crimes. When the Daily Observer contacted the Liberian Consulate in New York on January 29, more than two weeks after Boley’s arrest, officials said they had not been informed by local authorities as protocol would dictate. Liberian Ambassador to the United States, M. Nathaniel Barnes, said he had not been contacted by authorities either, but said that the Boley’s family had reached out to him.

Goldberg, in his online publication, said he first met Boley in the 90s while covering the civil war in Liberia. “I’ve been involved with Boley’s case for a little while. I was subpoenaed by a human rights group in Minnesota, the Advocates for Human Rights, to testify against Boley in a defamation lawsuit that he himself filed against the group... I eventually provided a sworn affidavit in the case, in which I detailed what I knew of Boley’s activities in the civil war...

“I knew, from firsthand observation, that his organization, the grossly misnamed ‘Liberian Peace Council’, recruited and armed child soldiers, fed them drugs and ordered them to rape and kill for starters. The lawsuit, unsurprisingly, was dismissed earlier this month,” Goldberg writes.

Boley, who holds a Ph.D. from the University of Akron, received his undergraduate degree at the State University of New York (SUNY) in Brockport and kept his family in upstate New York for the duration of the civil war.

“I’ve been speaking to him on and off now for a year,” Goldberg notes, “and his excuse-making had become increasingly ridiculous. The last time we spoke, he told me that there had been two organizations in Liberia during the civil war named the Liberian Peace Council – his, which was “peaceful”, and someone else’s which was a fighting faction. This was an absurd line of argument, especially to someone like me, who had seen him actually in command of child soldiers in the war zone.”

A Liberian web publication, Bushchicken.com, observes that “With this latest arrest, warlords and other perpetrators of the Liberian civil war will seriously contemplate their travels from the comfort of Liberia. [Charles] Taylor and George Boley are two of the many that have been arrested by the long arm of the US criminal system;” Bill K. Jarkloh writes this article