Top Aide testifies Taylor Ordered Soldiers to Eat Victims

I. Top aide testifies Taylor ordered soldiers to eat victims (author unknown)
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/03/13/warcrimes.taylor.ap/index.html

II. In 2002, a civil war in West Africa had ended. However, a new light is being shed on the events that occurred, as the former Liberian President, Charles Taylor, has been brought up on charges…of cannibalism. Joseph Marzah, Taylor’s “chief of operations and head of death squad before” Taylor’s presidency, claims that Taylor had ordered them to eat their enemies. African peacekeepers and even members of the United Nations were killed and eaten. If they hadn’t eaten their prisoners, Marzah claims that Taylor would have them executed.

III. Reactions:

A) This article related to the AP World theme of "impact of interaction among and within major societies" because it shows how a civil war in Africa reacted towards the opposing parties.

B) These horrific events took place during the Sierra Leone’s civil war, which finally ended in West Africa back in 2002. The war started for many reasons, but mainly as a battle over diamonds and other natural resources in the area.

C) The author of this article is unspecified. However, they don’t really show much sympathy or repulsion, or any real emotion for that matter, so it probably wasn’t someone too involved.

D) The author made it seem as if the soldiers taking orders from Mr. Taylor didn’t care too much about what they were doing, almost as if they had lost all their humanity. It was said that Mr. Taylor would execute them for disobeying orders, so he shouldn’t have portrayed his followers as being too heartless.

E) I would honestly like to hear what Charles Taylor, the president of Liberia, has to say about these accusations. For all we know, these “witnesses” might have something against him, and his opinion would be valuable in proving it’s authenticity.

F) I was a little freaked out by this article. The fact that this man ordered his people to eat their enemies is pretty insane. The part where the witness described how they did it especially weirded me out.