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Taylor says he saw nothing wrong with displaying human skulls

by Babel-Fish | July 16, 2009 at 07:34 pm

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Displaying human skulls at roadblocks was an effective method of encouraging people to obey soldiers’ orders, Charles Taylor, the former Liberian President, said yesterday at his war crimes trial.

Mr Taylor, giving evidence in his defence, insisted that he saw nothing wrong with using the skulls of his enemies during his coup in Liberia, but insisted that testimony given earlier this year that soldiers under his command strung human entrails across the road, was a lie.

The first African leader to face trial in The Hague told the court on the third day of his testimony that he took a tough line with those who committed atrocities and had some perpetrators executed.

Such a beastly man whos morals are barbaric at the least. Scull's to create fear how nasty and he says it is aright and a rightful thing to do. He a babarian, this sort of action was stopped when man became civilized its inhuman.

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at 20:39 on July 16th, 2009

He is certainly bad but Prince Johnson was as bad or worse and he is now a Liberian senator.

Uwe Paschen

at 20:51 on July 16th, 2009

The history of Liberia is unique among African nations, notably because of its relationship with the United States. It is one of the few countries in Africa, and the only country in West Africa, without roots in the European Scramble for Africa; although Liberians had contact with European explorers and traders briefly between 16th to 18th centuries, Liberia did not exist as a nation state until it was colonized by freed slaves from the United States. These freed slaves formed an elite group in Liberian society, and, in 1847, formed a government based on that of the United States, naming their capital city after James Monroe, the fifth president of the United States. This government was overthrown by a military-led coup in 1980, which marked the beginning of a period of instability and civil war that left hundreds of thousands of people dead and devastated the country's economy.