And his second in command? Major A$$hole.
Posted on 01/21/2008 8:53:32 AM PST by 300magnum
MONROVIA, Liberia - 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.
"I could be electrocuted. I could be hanged. I could be given any other punishment," the 37-year-old Blahyi said in a weekend interview following his truth commission appearance last week. "But I think forgiveness and reconciliation is the right way to go.
"I have been looking for an opportunity to tell the true story about my life — and every time I tell people my story, I feel relieved."
The civil war, which killed an estimated 250,000 people in this nation of 3 million, was characterized by the eating of human hearts and soccer matches played with human skulls. Drugged fighters waltzed into battle wearing women's wigs, flowing gowns and carrying dainty purses stolen from civilians.
Before he led his fighters into battle, wearing only a pair of lace-up boots, Blahyi said he made a human sacrifice to the devil.
The sacrifice was typically "the killing of an innocent child and plucking out the heart which was divided into pieces for us to eat," he told The Associated Press on Saturday. He appeared before the commission Jan. 15 — and put a figure to his killing spree for the first time.
"More than 20,000 people fell victim (to me and my men). They were killed," said Blahyi, who dated the beginning of his murders to 1982, when he was ordained as a ritual priest responsible for making human sacrifices before battle. He said when he later led his fighters against the insurgency launched by Charles Taylor, he commanded them to embrace this tradition.
Some say Blahyi's confession is proof Liberia needs a war crimes court, not a commission.
The commission, modeled on the one in post-apartheid South Africa, has been taking testimony from victims and former rebels for two years, urging a full accounting of wartime atrocities. While the commission cannot charge killers with a crime, it can recommend charges be brought.
Meanwhile, several notorious killers have refashioned themselves as influential politicians in Liberia.
"If you have an individual admitting that he and his group killed over 20,000 people, certainly there should be a mechanism put in place for such people to face justice," said Mulbah Morlue, who heads the Forum for the Establishment of a War Crimes Court in Liberia.
Yet some praise Blahyi.
"You can't have true reconciliation without knowing the truth," said Johnny Lamine, a Monrovia resident. "Blahyi's story is alarming, but ... let's know who did what in Liberia during the war."
Others in a country where some feel everyone is tainted said they would rather not dig up the past. Because the violence was so widespread it's not uncommon to find Liberian families that have both victim and perpetrator under the same roof — a daughter who was raped and a son who took up a gun and went on to rape the daughters of other families.
"Liberians have tried to forget these stories," Mary Kollie said Sunday as she waited for a taxi home from church.
In the interview, Blahyi told the AP: "Some people see me and congratulate me. Others see me and say I should not be walking down the streets of Monrovia posing proud. But I continue to tell such people I am not proud, I am ashamed."
In 1996, he said in a 1997 interview with the AP, God appeared to him as he charged naked into a battle and told him he was a slave to Satan, not the hero he considered himself to be.
He became a born-again Christian and for a while, traversed the war-wracked streets of Monrovia selling cassettes of his sermons.
Liberia's violence began in 1979 when security forces killed dozens of people during massive riots. The following year, President William Tolbert was ousted in a coup by Samuel K. Doe, an illiterate master sergeant, who ordered Tolbert's Cabinet members tied to poles on a beach and executed.
Rebels led by Taylor invaded in 1989, plunging the country into another civil war. The war went into a momentary lull after 1997 when Taylor was elected president and again surged, ending only when Taylor was forced into exile in Nigeria in 2003. He is now facing charges of crimes against humanity at a tribunal in the Hague for atrocities committed by a rebel movement he allegedly supported in neighboring Sierra Leone.
___
Associated Press writer Rukmini Callimachi contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal.
So it would appear.
No idea.
I seem to recall that in Caesar’s time, the Gauls went into battle naked with nothing but their weapons.
Going into battle, does he chant “this is my rifle, this is my gun”? LOL
Let me introduce you to my leetle friend!!
He now lives in Ghana. I can imagine his neighbors are Boutros-Boutros Ghali and Kofi Annan. They’re doing cocktails and busting his chops because he’s responsible for only 20,000 deaths.
Not likely as there is a distinct lack of absorbent material as shown in the earlier picture. Soggy feet perhaps on the instance of poor aim.
There's an outrageous Atlanta punk/metal band name Impotent Sea Snakes, and their guitarist is Buck Futt. Among his bandmates: Snatch Nasty on bass and Craven Morehead on drums. Crazy stuff.
And his second in command? Major A$$hole.
I can't believe they had the Gaul to do that!
Bad, bad, bad! Funny, but bad.
“*sigh* That was Buck Naked (Of Buck Naked and the Bare Bottom Boys):
Any kin of the Soggy Bottom Boys?”
Perhaps they are part of the “Foggy Bottom Boys”?
Is he related to “Buck Naked?”
But WE did not write this stuff:
Matthew 12:31
And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
Mark 3:28
I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them.
Matthew 18:21-22
21. Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"
22. Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
Luke 17:3-6
3. So watch yourselves. "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.
4. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, `I repent,' forgive him."
5. The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"
1 Timothy 1:12-16
12. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service.
13. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.
14. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
15. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst.
16. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.
HE also said that ADULTERS were to die; and yet, David was not killed.
“Keep firing, a$$holes!!”
So I guess “Gen.” Butt Naked ought to be turned loose to walk the same ground as his maimed and traumatized victims and breathe the same free air of those who became buzzard bait through his handiwork. Afterall, he’s forgiven. Now there’s justice for you! Mayhaps you’d have felt the same way for Bundy or any of the other serial murderers who made a similar profession of faith? I’ll bet you’d even take’em in to your own digs, wouldn’t you?
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