Heads on sticks not a war crime, says Taylor

In an unusual war crimes defence, former Liberian president Charles Taylor told a court today he saw nothing wrong with displaying the skulls of enemy soldiers on spikes at roadblocks.

Taylor, 61, insisted he was trying to bring peace and the rule of law to Liberia as he gave evidence in his own defence on the third full day at his trial.

He is charged with 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly supporting rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone who unleashed a campaign of terror in their country’s 1991-2002 civil war.

An estimated 500,000 people were the victims of killings, systematic mutilation or other atrocities in that war.

Taylor has pleaded not guilty to all charges at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague, calling the allegations lies and rumours.

Taylor’s 1989-90 invasion of Liberia and his ascent to power in a seven-year civil war were a prelude to his involvement in the brutal Sierra Leone conflict.

Taylor is not on trial for offences in Liberia. But his lawyer, Courtenay Griffiths, told the judges that Taylor’s testimony about the campaign to oust his predecessor, Liberian President Samuel K. Doe, was meant to counter the image drawn by prosecutors of a pattern of brutality.

“This is the suggestion at the heart of the prosecution case: That Mr Taylor was from the outset a bloodthirsty warlord with no belief in the rule of law or human rights and it seems necessary to address that suggestion head on,” Mr Griffiths said.

Taylor dismissed as “nonsense” the allegation that his troops disembowelled their enemies and tied their intestines across roads. He also denied recruiting children as fighters.

Yet one of his former commanders who testified for the prosecution, Joseph “Zigzag” Marzah, said Taylor drove past such scenes. Taylor called that “a blatant, diabolical lie”.

After listening to 91 prosecution witnesses over the past 18 months, Taylor said people had referred to his forces as if they “were brutes and savages: We are not. I am not.”