Former Liberian President Charles Taylor told the war crimes court in the THE HAGUE, Thursday he saw nothing wrong with displaying human skulls and heads at roadblocks as his rebel forces swept into the country from neighboring Ivory coast and began a revolution in Liberia.
Displaying human skulls at roadblocks was an effective method of encouraging people to obey soldiers’ orders, he said at his war crimes trial.
it was a known fact among many of us Liberians who lived in the country during those terrible times, that atrocities against innocent people were being committed on a daily basis by those drugged up savages calling themselves freedom fighters. stories of these barbarians using human entrails across their roadblocks and displaying human heads on poles to strike fear into the local civilians population and soldiers of the Liberian army, were common.
On one occasion, at the number seven check point in Firestone, my family and i while fleeing the fightings in Monrovia, witness one of the most gruesome killings ever. a guy was picked out of the line and accused of being Mandingo, a member of the enemy tribe, and before he could say anything to defend himself, he was hack to death with knifes and cutlasses in front of thousands of people waiting to cross the check point. i have never forgotten that scene, and as long as i live i will never forget it, it is just one of those things that stays with you for the reat of your life.
It is quite incredible, and i must admit, i was very amaze that he would sit among civilize people and say there is noting wrong with putting dead peoples head on a pole.
Earlier in the week also, Mr Taylor also portrayed himself as an anti-corruption fighter, a humanitarian and a peacemaker. He said it is incredible that he is being charged with crimes against humanity.
He also denied claims that he sent children into combat during the Liberian invasion, saying that some youngsters accompanied their older brothers into military camps because they had nowhere else to go. The use of child soldiers equipped with automatic weapons they were barely able to carry became a grim feature of the Sierra Leone civil war.
“They were not trained for combat and did not engage in combat. They were used to cook food and to wash clothes, to man the gates and to search vehicles,” said Mr Taylor.
“When you hear reports there were some young men seen in Liberia carrying rifles, these reports are true. What the reports did not say is that the young men were carrying rifles walking with their families but never entered combat.
“All I was interested in . . . is trying to solve our little internal problem in Liberia, to build an environment in which our people would have a little peace, democracy and rule of law.”
Charles Taylor is the Devil himself, that man should never ever see the light of day again, he is a murderer, and he must pay for the thousands of innocent people he killed.
The invasion of Liberia and his ascent to power was a prelude to Taylor’s involvement in the brutal 1991-2002 civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone, for which he is accused of 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.