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Ex Liberian Prez Defends Skull Displays

By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 17, 2009 5:30 AM CDT

(Newser) – Former Liberian President Charles Taylor defended displaying human skulls along roadways in his country to scare people into obeying soldiers' orders, reports the Times of London. “Skulls were used as symbols of death,” he told the judges at his trial at the Hague. “Enemy soldiers had been killed and their skulls were used. We did not think that symbol was anything wrong."

Taylor faces charges of murder, rape, conscripting child soldiers, enslavement and pillaging in a brutal 11-year civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone. He's the first African leader in history to go on trial at the Hague. Taylor has dismissed accusations against him as “lies, lies and more lies.”

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor, is the first African leader to be tried at the Hague.
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor, is the first African leader to be tried at the Hague.   (AP Photo/ICC)
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor testifies at the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague, Netherlands,
Former Liberian President Charles Taylor testifies at the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague, Netherlands,   (AP Photo/Robin van Lonkhuijsen, Pool)
Skull
Skull   (©Andrew Mason)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 3 comments
riffran
Jul 17, 2009 11:13 AM CDT
gee what a nice enlightened person..what do you do for an encore......mummified fetal remains?
JonmarkP
Jul 17, 2009 3:57 AM CDT
So, when does Dick Cheney join him? Oh, that's up to us. Never mind.
schmidtkoff
Jul 17, 2009 2:39 AM CDT
i hope he is found guilty for the atrocities he is alleged to have committed. if the allegations are true he should be imprisoned for life. or perhaps hung upside down on a wall, to roast in the sun as in mika walteri's the egyption.

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