Special Court says Liberia killed Bockarie's family

The chief of investigations at the Special Court for Sierra Leone Alan White said on Thursday he had credible information that the family of indicted war criminal Sam Bockarie had been killed in Liberia. Another court offical said the family may have been eliminated to avoid possible DNA profiling. "We have credible information that Bockarie's family has been murdered at the direction of [President Charles] Taylor," Alan White, the chief of investigations, said in a statement issued by the court. "This latest development casts serious doubts about his claims regarding the circumstances of Sam Bockarie's death. Taylor continues to obstruct our efforts. He is a roadblock to international justice," White was quoted as saying. David Crane, the prosecutor of the UN-backed Special Court, told IRIN that Bockarie's mother, wife and two children had been killed in Monrovia by Taylor's forces. The Liberian government said last week that Bockarie was killed in a shoot out with government forces as he was attempting to enter the country with a band of armed men from Cote d'Ivoire on May 6. But diplomatic sources in the Liberian capital Monrovia told IRIN shortly afterwards that Bockarie, who had fought on behalf of Taylor in Liberia's civil war since 1999, was actually killed by Taylor's security forces in Monrovia after a violent argument with the president. Crane, the Special Court's prosecutor, told the Washington Post in a recent interview that Bockarie had been executed by Taylor's chief of security Gen Benjamin Yeaten. The court has repeatedly called on Taylor to cooperate with its work, but Thursday's statement said these appeals had been to no avail. For the past 10 days Monrovia had refused to transfer the body to the Court in Freetown for an independent forensic examination in order to provide positive identification, it noted. "Taylor's time is running out. We want the body," said deputy prosecutor Desmond de Silva, expressing frustration with the present stand-off. "If Liberians claim it is Bockarie's body, there is no justification for holding it, as he was a Sierra Leonean national," he said. "We are extremely concerned that if the information regarding the murder of his family is true, it was carried out in order to avoid possible DNA profiling." Crane repeated his demand that the Liberian government take all steps to deliver alive another fugitive from the Special Court, Johnny Paul Koroma, who it believes to be in northern Liberia. Koroma came to power in a 1997 military coup, but was deposed by a West African military intervention force sent to restore democracy in Sierra Leone a year later. Bockarie and Koroma were among the eight people indicted by the Special Court for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international humanitarian law. The other six are already in custody awaiting trial. Diplomats told IRIN last week that Bockarie met Taylor in Monrovia the day before he was killed and threatened to "spill the beans" if he were handed over to the Special Court. Angered, Taylor ordered his arrest. But Bockarie and his guards resisted. "Indications are that Bockarie was killed in a shoot-out in Monrovia, probably to destroy evidence," one diplomat in Monrovia said.