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Thursday, November 21, 2024

THE ROLE OF JOHN T. RICHARDSON-THE ‘OPERATION OCTOPUS MAN’ WHO LED MASSACRE OF HUNDREDS OF LIBERIANS

Date:

“Liberia’s machine of death, John T. Richardson”

LIBERIA – President George Weah continued to make fun of Liberians and the International Community in wake of demands for the establishment of war and economic crimes courts to try perpetrators who are named in the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) report.

Mr. George Weah who during the presidential campaign in 2017 promised to enforce the mandate of the TRC if elected president, has gone back on his promise.

The Liberian President is just not procrastinating to establish the courts but is wining and dining with major alleged perpetrators of war and economic crimes.

He appointed a notorious John T. Richardson, the head of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia’s ill-fated Operation Octopus.

In October 1992, John T. Richardson commanded an onslaught of NPFL rebels of Charles Taylor on Monrovia to seize power.

This deadly attack on the peaceful people of Monrovia killed scores of people including five American Catholic nuns who were working with the Catholic Church in Liberia.

The former NPFL rebels now turned into the National Patriotic Party (NPP) in marriage with Weah CDC and Alex Tylor’s LPDP and are now the ruling government in Liberia.

John T. Richardson an official of the NPFL and NPP, has to joint the Weah Government as chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Housing Authority.

And as if his refusal to establish the war and economic crimes courts is not sufficient, Pres. Weah appointed Richardson to that post in defiance of the will of Liberians and their International partners that are demanding justice in the destruction of lives and properties during the Liberian civil wars.

On October 15, 1992, Taylor’s NPFL forces under the command of John T. Richarson, launched “Operation Octopus,” attacking ECOMOG positions around Monrovia and even striking at the AFL, which was encamped at its Schiefflin barracks on the outskirts of the city.

For almost a month, ECOMOG the West African Peacekeepers struggled to repel what has been called “the siege of Monrovia.”

Fighting raged in and around the city, with the suburban areas of Gardnersville, Barnesville, New Georgia and Caldwell particularly hard hit.

Approximately 200,000 people displaced from these areas flooded into the central city to escape the fighting. Other civilians were pushed behind Taylor lines into the country’s interior, joining thousands of displaced persons there. Those who refused to cooperate were often executed by the NPFL.

As in the past, the NPFL often used young boys and teenagers, many of whom were intoxicated, to attack Monrovia. Some of these children belonged to the Small Boys Unit (SBU), which had become one of Taylor’s most trusted divisions. Scores, and probably hundreds, of these boys died in the swamps surrounding Monrovia.

Since the NPFL fighters were not taking pay at the time, they were promised the loot of Monrovia, often including a house. Indeed, many of the houses that were not destroyed were “claimed” by NPFL fighters, who wrote their names or units on the outside walls hoping to return to claim the homes after the fighting. It is difficult to estimate the number of people killed during the renewed fighting.

The World Health Organization estimated that up to 3,000 civilians and combatants had died since October 15.

According to the State Department, “scores of Interim Government officials and employees were summarily executed because of their affiliation with the Interim Government” during the October attack.

Under John T. Richardson’s planned onslaught, five American nuns, based in Gardnersville, were killed by the NPFL. The nuns were: Sister Barbara Ann Muttra, 69; Sister Joelle Kolmer, 58; Sister Shirley Kolmer, 61; Sister Kathleen McGuire, 54; and Sister Agnes Mueller, 62.

Reports indicate that three were killed in the convent house and two were shot on a nearby road.

Evidence of widespread killings from the fighting continues to surface.

In late December of that year, scores of human skulls and decomposed bodies were found in a common grave in Gardnersville.

Despite all of these atrocious roles played by Richardson, President George Weah still defiantly appointed him into his government; while the call for the establishment of a war and economic crimes court go on deaf ears.

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Smart News Liberia is an online news outlet and a product of Smart Media Group Inc. Our website, smartnewsliberia.com, covers a broad spectrum of news content. For inquiries or information, you can reach us at 0777425285 or 0886946925, or email us at smartnewsliberia@gmail.com or info@smartnewsliberia.com.

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1 COMMENT

  1. Are you surprised by Weah’s appointneht of that notorious killer and brain behind the terrible Octopus invasion during which innocent Liberians and Americans were mercilessly killed. John T. Richardson personally partook in the attack and was seeing by numerous witnesses with an A-K 47. Weah himself was a rebel supporter of LPC of George Dweh. One day he himself will be put on trial. He’s a very uneducated president who doesn’t understand anything about how to run a government.

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