The Forum for the Establishment of a War Crimes Court in Liberia wishes to express its deepest regrets over the disastrous March 7 Paynesville-Town Hall shooting incident, planned and managed by the Justice Ministry, and executed by elements identified as members of the Liberian National Police, specifically the Police Special Unit, PSU.

As scores of innocent victims languish in their hideouts, nursing bruises and wounds perpetrated by a merciless Police Special Unit, the War Crimes Court advocacy group is flabbergasted over self-embarrassing propaganda of government functionaries presenting a completely distorted and intentionally fabricated scenario of the March 7 episode. Evidence of such unwise falsification as is being pamphleteered by government sources is not only contained in self-contradictory media releases, but can be easily traced to a manufactured charged sheet, which for public scrutiny is made available inter-alia:

“…with wicked and criminal intent, Mulbah K. Morlu and supporters connived and conspired, and in the absence of clearance from the Ministry of Justice, illegally staged a demonstration. And that defendants obstructed normal flow of traffic and pedestrian movements thereby causing chaos and disruption of normal businesses. That the said defendants in furtherance to the criminal behavior also disrupted the movement of guests en route to the colloquium on women empowerment which put the citizens and foreigners in fear contrary to law. The alleged act of the defendants being unlawful, criminal and illegal is violation of section 10.4 of the New Penal Law of Liberia, there and then the crime of Criminal Conspiracy, the defendants did do and commit”
Besides the fact that the government’s fictitious charged-sheet lacks the minimal scintilla of truth, said obvious machination is an attempted cover-up for the wanton brutality visited upon innocent and peaceful civilians whose only desire is to ensure accountability for past abuses. Hence, to grant the public an opportunity to a full-factual knowledge of the march 7th Police brutality in the Paynesville Town Hall vicinity, the victimized advocacy organization and its people would like to provide the following details, contrary to Police details, which are a reflection of the Liberian government’s unrepentant deception with its citizens.


Facts Check:
1. GOL; “and in the absence of clearance from the Ministry of Justice, illegally staged a demonstration…” (Lie)
Factual account;
An official letter was written to Minister of Justice, Cllr. Phillip A.Z. Banks and copies published in several local dailies (The Public Agenda Newspaper et al). Moreover, the constitution of the Republic guarantees freedom of assembly at any time for the common good, and to petition policy makers for the good of the state. This provision automatically negates any need for permit to engage in peaceful rallies. Even so, we still wrote the Ministry, not seeking permit, but giving them details of our exercise, its peaceful and law-abiding nature; the assemblage point, momentum hour, and expected turn-out. This procedure is a regular routine for us, and the Liberian intelligentsia, which has been tracking our activities, will attest.
2. GOL; “…and the defendants obstructed normal flow of traffic and pedestrian movements thereby causing chaos and disruption of normal businesses. That the said defendants in furtherance of their behaviors also disrupted the movement of guests en route to the colloquium on women empowerment which put the citizens and foreigners in fear contrary to law.” (Lie)

Factual account;
The Justice Ministry did not allow the holding and commencement of the planned peaceful rally. In fact, the more than eight-hundred peaceful civilians that had gathered for the event at the Paynesville Town Hall vicinity were all seated and quietly standing, listening to various speakers whilst the Police started the unleashed brutality. Mr. Morlu, before going to make a call a few yards away, was personally helping to print posters with justice slogans not far from the speakers’ podium just before the arrival of the more than three-truck load of members of the Police Special Unit, the group that executed the banditry. It is further important to note that we carefully instructed our people to refrain from occupying the main drive-way. 

Besides, the distance from the Town Hall to the main drive (Paynesville road) is around five to ten minutes on foot; and the march had not started, and we did not leave the Town Hall area when the Police encroached upon our people and started a five minutes suppressive shooting, followed by beatings and mass arrests. This plot was well calculated due to the supporting fact that Police presence was already around the gathering point as early as 6 A.M. Finally on this count, we still had about an hour to starting time as most of our participants were walking from long distances, and access to traffic from Monrovia to Paynesville was heavily restricted to GOL and designated vehicles only. So it was absurd and irresponsible to suggest that a peaceful rally that was confined and quarantined within several miles from ELWA junction “disrupted the movement of guests en route to the colloquium on women empowerment which put the citizens and foreigners in fear contrary to law.”

3. GOL; “Morlu and ex-AFL Soldiers were arrested…” (Lie)
Factual account:
Contrary to the GOL’s Information Ministry propaganda, the March 7th event was never an ex-AFL soldiers gathering. In fact, most of the participants were women and students. However, government in its propaganda strategy, did not detain any of the women that they brutalized, letting them go in their pains, perhaps seeking to avoid the public sentiments that would follow. The ratio of women to men in the group was around 2 to 1. More to this revelation, there is absolutely no record that members of the dissolved AFL were a part of the aborted rally. And a food for thought is, the Information Ministry claimed in its propaganda that deactivated soldiers were involved; why did the Justice Ministry failed to include this grave development in its charge sheet against Morlu and others? Instead, the charge sheet indicts only civilians! This decision should not have been difficult because, Cllr. Phillip Banks was on the spot at around 10:33 A.M when the
shootings, beatings and mass arrests began.

4. GOL; “Within named defendants there and then with wicked and criminal intent, connived and conspired…” (Lie)

Factual account:
It seems to us the only “Wicked and criminal intent” as is being alleged by the GOL is to announced the holding of a mass peaceful action to seek the resignation of President Sirleaf, an alleged war criminal. This is so because, there is nothing criminal about our actions, which will never be abated until those bearing the greatest responsibility for war crimes in Liberia are prosecuted. And we will continue to mobilize mass peaceful actions that will shake the immoral foundations of our country until all war criminals in government resign and submit to the rule of law and court proceedings. In this direction, death to any of us, as is being allegedly planned by higher-ups, is great gain! After all, the lost of a few lives in the quest of justice for a quarter million, sounds worthy. We must begin to hold these kinds of conversations because, besides government-leaked plans on other methods to silence critics, a police source revealed that the Police
Special Unit on that day was acting on orders to “Shoot and Kill”!

5. The GOL charged sheet; “Criminal Conspiracy” (fabricated)

Factual account:

Besides the fact that one of the participants was admitted at the JFK Hospital with a broken leg and his well-about remains unknown, while Mr. Morlu sustained varying wounds in his right eye and other body parts, the GOL’s propaganda alleging members of the Police sustained wounds is farfetched. If so, why did the charge sheet leave such serious allegations out? On the other hand, no one was charged by the Police during and after the arrest of March 7. The charge sheet presented by the Police was hurriedly fabricated on Monday afternoon after forensic and finger prints were taken. Mr. Morlu protested all of these discrepancies; a comprehensive video of most of these illegalities was documented by Power TV and played to the public repeatedly between March 7 and 10, 2009. Furthermore, when sent to the Monrovia Central Prison, the Justice Minister communicated to the Superintendent of the Prisons (his alleged Fiancée) to separate Mr. Mulbah K. Morlu from
the rest of the 32 detainees. 

Mr. Morlu was ordered detained in prison cell D, the most notorious detention facility at South Beach, and the head of the inmates was instructed to inflict punishment. It is here convicted and alleged armed robbers are kept. Upon the acquisition of a valid bond on March 10, the Monrovia City Court ordered the release of the 33 persons. Surprisingly, Cllr. Phillip Banks, at about 6 P.M called the prison Superintendent and instructed her to ignore the court order. This situation produced huge protests at the entrance of the prison compound, the intervention of the United Nations Mission in Liberia’s Human Rights Section was what saved the day, and the detainees were released around 7:30 P.M. Lastly, some of the persons accused on the charge sheet were not available in court. The charge sheet indicted 36 persons, but only 33 were produced in court. This may be due to the fact that some of the detainees were unable to walk, been so severely whipped and brutalized and confined to unknown hospitals. Up till now, we do not know their well-about, nor can we attest to their fate.

6. The Col. Wolo Nagbe saga:
We have credible information that there was an attempted arrest of Col. Wolo Nagbe on the morning of the planned march. The arrest was attempted while he was at his Home, a stone-throw from the Paynesville Town Hall. He was seriously wounded in a stand-off that ensued, and he escaped to a destination that is unknown. Col. Nagbe was therefore not amongst the peaceful assemblage.

The Chairman of this organization, Mulbah K. Morlu, Jr. is an eye witness to all of these facts; Mr. Morlu, who (by providence) had briefly step away to make a mobile phone call from his vehicle just before the shootings, saw everything from a vantage point before being flown away. Minutes after, he returned to ascertain the degree of casualty and was arrested and brutalized in the process. Most of these revelations can be confirmed with UNMIL’s Human Rights Section.

These are the details of the March 7 planned peaceful march, which was arbitrarily and violently cut-off by the Ministry of Justice, the perpetrator of massive bloodletting on law-abiding civilians.

Nevertheless, despite these orchestrated government-sanctioned brutalities, we remain unyielding and will next month host a much bigger peaceful rally that will compel the resignation of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a war crimes suspect!


Mulbah Morlu Jr., is Chairman, Alliance of Rights Group for the promotion of Peace and Democracy in Liberia. He can be reached at godsprince2001@yahoo.com.  Cell: 00231-6626209. He resides in Monrovia and Accra.