Ten victims front up TRC chairman Fr Sam Ata and Fiji’s Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi to tell their stories.
Alice Tepuke from Renbel said she had lived with Malaitans for eight years at White River in West Honiara and was surprised to see militants turned against her family.
“I thought the ethnic tension is between the people of Guadalcanal and Malaita,” ms Tepuke said.
“However, during the tension, militants smashed my cars plus other properties, shot at my husband and our grand-daughter and threatened my sister with a knife while they pointed a gun at her,” she said.
She said her sorrow worsen when her grand-daughter died later in Renbel.
“We are innocent people and I had stayed with Malaitans for 8 years,” she said.
However, Ms Tepuke said she has now forgiven the perpetrators who caused fear to her family during the tension.
She also appeals to the Government to give them some form of compensation for their lost properties.
Another victim Benjamin Kunu revealed the horrors caused by Guadalcanal Revolutionary Force to villagers in the Weathercoast of Guadalcanal.
Mr Kunu said he saw people shot dead by the militants and others burnt to death.
He was a novice in the Anglican Church Brotherhood (Tasiu) and was on practical experience in the Weathecoast at that time.
He told the hearing the GRF also took him and other brothers and held them as prisoners for two months.
He was released three days before RAMSI came here.
“For one month I ate with both of my hands tied behind me,” he said.
“I was also forced by the militants to follow their orders like weeding and doing other things,” he said.
Mr Kunu had also told his story in a book written by the Anglican brothers.
A total of 17 victims will give their testimonies in the hearing, which ends today.
By EDDIE OSIFELO
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