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African News

Liberian Ex-Rebel Confesses to Killings

Monday, January 21, 2008 3:56:31 PM
By JONATHAN PAYE-LAYLEH

  Joshua Milton Blahyi, a former Liberian factional fighter known as "General Butt Naked", threatens a fellow combatant with a knife during an arguement outside the Barclay Training Center army barracks in Monrovia, Liberia during fighting in the city in this May 15, 1996 file photo.  Blahyi, who now lives in Ghana, returned this week to acknowledge before the country's truth and reconciliation commission that his men killed 20,000 Liberians. An estimated 250,000 people were killed in Liberia's on-and-off 14-year civil war, which ended in 2003. Its truth and reconciliation commission, modeled after the one in post-apartheid South Africa, has been airing the worst of the abuses in a war characterized by the eating of human hearts, the use of child soldiers and the colored wigs and costumes worn by intoxicated rebels. Blahyi, who is now an evangelist and a church pastor, earned his nom de guerre from his practice of storming into battle without a stitch of clothing, a move intended to terrify the enemy. He appeared before the truth commission this week and confessed to the killings because he felt that asking for forgiveness could help heal the wounds of the past, he told The Associated Press in an interview on Saturday. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder/file)MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) - One of Liberia's most notorious rebel commanders, known as Gen. Butt Naked for charging into battle wearing only boots, has returned to confess his role in terrorizing the nation, saying he is responsible for 20,000 deaths.

Joshua Milton Blahyi, who now lives in Ghana, returned last week to face his homeland's truth and reconciliation commission, this time wearing a suit and tie. His nom de guerre is derived from his platoon's practice of charging naked into battle, a technique meant to terrify the enemy.

Other former warlords, though, have refused to ask forgiveness, dismissing a commission many in Liberia see as toothless. Blahyi is urging other former killers to come forward as the country founded by freed American slaves in 1847 struggles to recover from past horrors.


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