Former Liberian President Charles Taylor ordered his militias to eat the flesh of captured enemies and UN soldiers, a former close aide testified today at his war crimes trial.
"He ( Taylor ) said we should eat them. Even the UN white people - he said we could use them as pork to eat," Joseph "ZigZag" Marzah, who described himself as Mr Taylor's former death squad commander, told the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone.
Former Liberian death squad commander Joseph "ZigZag" Marzah
Mr Taylor (60) once one of Africa's most feared warlords, faces charges of rape, murder, mutilation and recruitment of child soldiers during a 1991-2002 conflict. He has pleaded not guilty.
Mr Marzah, on his second day as witness in his former leader's trial, gave graphic details of atrocities in Liberia and Sierra Leone and of an ingrained culture of violence and brutality.
Yesterday he described how he had killed so many men, women and children he had lost count, and he had also slit open the stomachs of pregnant women on Mr Taylor 's order.
More than 250,000 people died in intertwined wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Prosecutors say Taylor wanted to plunder neighbouring Sierra Leone's diamonds and destabilise its government by controlling and arming rebels.
Mr Taylor's defence counsel challenged Mr Marzah's testimony, saying he was lying and asked him whether he had approached prosecutors in order to escape punishment himself.
When asked how he prepared humans to eat Mr Marzah said: "We slit your throat, butcher you ... throw away the head, take the flesh and put it in a pot ... Charles Taylor knows that."
Mr Marzah (49), is the twentieth witness for the prosecution since Mr Taylor's trial began in earnest at the start of January.
The wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone were particularly brutal. Thousands of civilians had their limbs hacked off by drug-crazed rebels, many of them children.
Mr Taylor went into exile in Nigeria after he was overthrown in 2003 and was handed over to the court after international pressure was put on the Nigerian authorities. His trial was moved to The Hague because of fears it could reignite instability if held in Sierra Leone.