Johnny Paul Koroma

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Johnny Paul Koroma" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Major Johnny Paul Koroma (9 May 1960 – 1 June 2003/11 August 2017) was a Sierra Leonean military officer who was the head of state of Sierra Leone from May 1997 to February 1998.

A member of the

In 2003, Koroma was indicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for war crimes, crimes against humanities and other offenses for his role in the war. Koroma reportedly fled into exile in Liberia where he was murdered later that year. Another source claims that he died in Sierra Leone in 2017.

Youth and education

Koroma was born to

Koroma received military training in Nigeria and United Kingdom. He commanded government forces who were fighting against the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), a rebel army led by the warlord Foday Sankoh. In August 1996, he was arrested for alleged involvement in a coup plot against the southern civilian officials who were in control of the country. It was also alleged that there were plans to kill President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.

Koroma was freed from prison during a successful military coup on 25 May 1997, when 17 junior soldiers serving the Sierra Leone Army (SLA) broke into the central prison and made a do-or-die offer that brought him to power.^{[clarification needed]} He advocated making a peaceful settlement with Sankoh and allowing him to join the government, though this never happened.

After the coup in 1997, Koroma was named head of state and chairman of the

The AFRC coup was accompanied by an explosion of violence against civilians throughout the nation. The key strategic change was that the RUF had immediate access throughout the country, something they had failed to achieve through six years of military action. Koroma cited

Koroma's story was consistent with that of the AFRC, which cited the failure of the Abidjan Peace Accord struck between the government of Sierra Leone and the RUF on 30 November 1996.

Involvement of ECOMOG

By 2 June 1997, the RUF/AFRC found itself at odds with

On 6 February 1998, ECOMOG forces invaded key locations in the Western Area, removing the RUF/AFRC entirely by 12 February. On 1 March, ECOMOG forces commenced operations in provincial Sierra Leone, removing the RUF/AFRC from every key town except Kailahun (in the far east of the country). By December 1998, RUF/AFRC forces had reversed this position, and they entered Freetown in January 1999. Failing to hold territory, the RUF/AFRC retreated into the Northern Province of Sierra Leone.

Lomé Peace Agreement

The leadership of the RUF oversaw negotiations with the government of Sierra Leone that led to the signing of the

By 2000, Koroma no longer held significant influence over the RUF leadership, as evidenced by the involvement of ex-AFRC members (from a splinter group called the West Side Boys) in defending towns in Port Loko District against a renewed RUF offensive in May 2000. In August 2000, Koroma officially disbanded the AFRC and sought to consolidate his position by forming a political party.

Special Court for Sierra Leone

In early 2002, the government of Sierra Leone and the

These attacks served the purpose of terrorizing the population as a form of punishment for not supporting rebel activities. They included such crimes as

On 7 March 2003, the prosecutor of the Special Court issued his first indictments. For his role in the RUF/AFRC, Koroma was among them. He fled Freetown in December, reportedly to Liberia. On 1 June 2003, he was officially declared dead under mysterious circumstances, said to have been murdered. However, the prosecutor has yet to withdraw the indictment against Koroma. An October 2006 newspaper headline in Freetown read, "Johnny Paul has 1,000 armed soldiers".

According to an unconfirmed report in September 2008, Koroma's remains were found buried in Foya, a village in Liberia's Lofa County.^[2] However, Stephen Rapp, the Special Court's prosecutor, noted that DNA tests on the remains found in Lofa County did not match Koroma's DNA. As of 2010, many still believe Koroma was executed somewhere in Lofa at the hands of former President Charles Taylor of Liberia.^[3]

Three witnesses—former Vice President Moses Blah of Liberia; Joseph Zig Zag Marzah, a former member of Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) rebel group; and a protected witness^[4]—testified that while they had not witnessed Koroma's execution,^[4] Taylor had told them about it.^[4] In October 2010, Taylor's defense team filed a motion to have these testimonies removed as evidence,^[4] alleging that the prosecution had bribed the three witnesses,^[4] but this motion was rejected the following month.^[5]

Apparently Koroma in the end only died on 10 or 11 August 2017 in his home village Binkolo.^[6][7]

References