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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - A Sierra Leone clergyman brought the horrors of his country's civil war to a courtroom Tuesday, becoming the first survivor of the carnage to testify at the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor.
Alex Tamba Teh, a soft-spoken pastor and teacher, recounted watching young boys methodically hack off the hands and feet of another teenager, hearing the terrorized screams of women being raped, stepping over corpses too many to count and being forced to help unload weapons for Sierra Leone rebels from a Liberian helicopter.
Prosecutors accuse Taylor, 59, of orchestrating the atrocities in Sierra Leone from his presidential palace in Liberia's capital, Monrovia. Taylor has pleaded not guilty to all 11 charges.
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