Top Aide Testifies Taylor Ordered Soldiers to Eat Victims
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AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP)—Grim tales of cannibalism highlighting the brutality of West Africa’s civil wars emerged in testimony Thursday at the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor.
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor, left, sits in the International Criminal Court before testimony in January.
Joseph “Zigzag” Marzah, who described himself as Taylor’s chief of operations and head of the death squad before Taylor became president, said African peacekeepers and even United Nations personnel were killed and eaten on the battlefield by Taylor’s militiamen.
Prosecutors described Marzah as a key witness with inside knowledge of the former Liberian president’s operations in Liberia and neighboring Sierra Leone, where he is accused of responsibility for the widespread murder, rape and amputations committed by soldiers loyal to him.
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Marzah appeared in open court after lengthy negotiations involving protection for him and his family.
Prodded under cross-examination by defense lawyer Courtenay Griffith, Marzah gave a sometimes-graphic description of cannibalism that altered between the ritual taking of vengeance and the practical need for food.
He repeatedly said nothing was done without Taylor’s instructions, and that anyone who violated Taylor’s orders would be executed.
“Did Charles Taylor order you to eat people?” Griffith asked.
“Yes, to set an example for the people to be afraid,” Marzah replied.
He appeared unfazed by Griffith’s blunt queries, and responded in matter-of-fact tones to such questions as “How do you prepare a human being for the pot?”
Marzah then described the splitting, cleaning, decapitating and cooking of the corpse with salt and pepper. “We throw your head away,” he said.
He said the victims were usually from the ethnic Krahn, the tribe of former Liberian President Samuel Doe whom Taylor set out to topple in 1989. But they also included peacekeepers from the Nigerian-led ECOMOG, the African peacekeeping force sent to the area in 1990, and some U.N. people, he said.
“How many ECOMOG soldiers did you eat?” the attorney asked.
“We ate a few but not many. But many were executed, about 68,” the witness said, and several U.N. personnel also were captured. The time and location of the incident were unclear.
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Enemies, he was told, “are no longer human beings.”
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(Posted on March 13, 2008)
Comments
The one thing they left out of the movie Blood Diamond was the Cannibalism.Youtube has a great video about cannibalism featuring Charles Taylor.I have a question.Is cannibalism a belief in eaing other people.So I guess cannibals are actually cannibalist.Just like people who believe in Communism are communist.
Posted by Tony Soprano at 6:43 PM on March 13
“Marzah then described the splitting, cleaning, decapitating and cooking of the corpse with salt and pepper. “We throw your head away,” he said.”
The cultural differances in food preparation amongst the African tribes is fascinating. The Ubangis, for example prefer a rostisserie, while the Zulus prefer a pot. The Krahn, the main ingredient of the dish described in this article, usually bake their victims in a pit with various vegetables, resulting in a delicacy very much like one gets when using the familar crock-pot.
Posted by William Hendershot at 8:39 PM on March 13
Truly, the 1969 African mercenary movie “Dark off the Sun” was before it’s time.
Posted by at 9:23 PM on March 13
If it wasn’t for white colonialism and racism these people would be peace-loving geniuses with a civilization that would be the envy of the world.
Posted by w.r. at 9:43 PM on March 13
Prior to European contact cannibalism was widespread, if not normal, in sub-Saharan Africa.
Posted by at 1:10 AM on March 14
But, but, but I have heard hundreds of times how all cultures are of equal value and must be welcomed here. The people who believe the nonsense that all cultures are equal should live with people like Taytlor. I know you object because you might be eaten but all cultures are equal and must be accepted so a few bleeding heart liberals must be sacrificed in the name of cultural equality or admit that cultures are not equal.
People who are not liberal believers in the equal culture doctrine will not be eaten because they will fight and realize that all the cannibals must be destroyed or they will be eaten later.
Posted by Oldman at 7:29 AM on March 14
As we know Liberia was America’s first colony in the World, a state established by philantrophists as a means of reparations for freed black slaves - a way of saying ‘sorry’ by returning the freed slaves back to Africa to a state that was an American protege with American laws and institutions etc.
For that reason the USA was long held ‘morally responsible’ for Liberia.
What the above story shows that if total racial separation of black and White in separate geographical homelands is ever accomplished by the USA, then the prospects for the nascent black state are very grim indeed.
Posted by Kenelm Digby at 8:33 AM on March 14
What the above story shows that if total racial separation of black and White in separate geographical homelands is ever accomplished by the USA, then the prospects for the nascent black state are very grim indeed.
Anyone asking for “total racial separation” needs to check his head. Why would I want a bunch of liberal whites and WINOs (whites in name only) in my country? Let them have the “diversity” and authoritarianism they crave.
Posted by Svigor at 1:50 PM on March 14
“Anyone asking for “total racial separation” needs to check his head. Why would I want a bunch of liberal whites and WINOs (whites in name only) in my country? Let them have the “diversity” and authoritarianism they crave.”
Posted by Svigor at 1:50 PM on March 14
> I suspect that those whites would claim “blackness” in spirit and go to the black state. But this is an unrealistic fantasy anyway. It is more likely a conservative white region will emerge from a U.S. that has had a central collapse.
Posted by Whiteplight at 4:14 PM on March 14
This is exactly what US soldiers are in for if BHO is elected president, and sends troops to Africa on “peace keeping” missions.
Posted by at 1:15 AM on March 15
Isn’t it sdimply wonderful how these stories about peacful, super intelligent Aricans, I mean cannibalistic primtive people, keep surfacing. Now just imagine Obama making it to the White House. Then opening the borders to a couple million AFRICANS. Then picture some of the aforesaid Liberian “soldiers” coming here — to continue their peculiar “dietary” habits.
Sounds farfetched? Don’t bet too heavily on it. Some of the African tendency to atrocities and the primitive resulted in the mutilated body of young black children found in the Thames (London, England, to those of you challenged by geography).
Then we had that Black Texan — who cannibalized his White girlfriend, in the news less than a year ago. Plus other examples of those dusky Einsteins who would have created a magnificent civilization but for the mean-spirited interference of White Europeans over the last six centuries.
Me, I can’t wait to hear Obama’s preacher Uncle explain this story to his adoring flock.
Posted by Fed Up at 8:21 PM on March 17
I spent a year in Liberia teaching members of their new police force. Cannibalism is alive and well there and throughout west and central africa. There are peole who are called “heart men”. Heart men capture and kill children and sell their body parts for consumption. The belief is that by eating the heart of a young victim one will somehow be more powerful sexually, politically, etc.
During the year I was there only one corpse was found with the heart removed in the greater Monrovia area. I don’t have figures on the rest of the region, but the subject fascinated me so I asked most of my students about the it, and they unanimously said the belief was widespread among the people from the “bush”.
One other note on Liberia: If a black person steals even a chicken from another black person, a mob will form and if they capture the criminal they will beat him, bound him, put an old tire around him, and immolate him. I personally witnessed thison one occasion, and I’m professionally aware of numerous other cases of “mob justice” which occurred during that year.
If a black steals from a white, on the other hand, he is protected and looked upon as a hero. There was an engineer who had come to Liberia to help design a new military facility. He was eviscerated in his hotel room and robbed of $2500.00. The perpetrator was identified within a couple of hours of the discovery of the body. He was a well known thug. To this day he has not been captured despite a large reward….
Posted by Mic at 4:35 PM on March 18