In Liberia, General ‘Butt Naked’ rehabilitates former child soldiers

Former Liberian rebel General Butt Naked, known for sacrificing children and going naked in battle, is now spending his time trying to save former child soldiers from drugs.

One of the most feared figures in this West African nation’s civil wars, Joshua Blahyi, by his own admission, sacrificed children and cannibalized them.

He also fought naked, believing it imbued him with spiritual power, which earned him the nickname “General Butt Naked”.

Massacres, torture and rape characterized Liberia’s two civil wars, which raged from 1989 to 1997 and from 1999 to 2003, killing around 250,000 people.

Many of these brutal crimes were perpetrated by drugged child soldiers. When the fighting ended, many young people remained addicted to drugs and slipped into a life of delinquency.

Blahyi, for his part, became an evangelical preacher.

“We made them take up arms and use drugs,” the 49-year-old told AFP. “Now I want to fix this error.”

Cloudy past: Liberia. By Valentina BRESCHI (AFP)

Since 2006, he has been going to the slums of the capital Monrovia to try to engage with former child soldiers.

The former rebel also built a complex 25 kilometers (15 miles) north of the city in 2012, where he is conducting training sessions with the aim of reintegrating them into society.

“For me, these children are victims and not abusers,” Blahyi said, adding that getting them out of the underworld is a challenge.

“I usually explain my own story to them, and then I ask them to do the same by giving their life to Christ and giving up drugs.”

“Deep bitterness”

Blahyi’s 0.6 hectare (1.5 acre) complex is surrounded by high walls topped with barbed wire. Inside, former adult child soldiers hoe the ground and tend four brick bread ovens.

There is also a small chicken farm on site, and volunteers come to teach skills such as carpentry, plumbing and painting.

Child soldier: A boy carrying a teddy bear backpack points his gun at an AFP photographer during fighting in Monrovia in June 2003. By GEORGES GOBET (AFP)

Some 500 former child soldiers passed through the compound, according to Blahyi.

One of them, William Wilson, 38, said he robbed people with a machete for drug money before he met Blahyi.

“I chose to go to Bible school,” Wilson said. “Today I am an evangelist and married with three children to the daughter of a bishop.”

Another former child soldier, Titus Sylvester Borbor, 33, said Blahyi helped him get rid of drugs and put him on the path to becoming a college student.

“Today my parents are happy, they accepted me again,” he said.

Many children took up arms to protect their loved ones during the civil war, but found themselves rejected by their families after the fighting stopped.

“It left a deep bitterness in them,” said Blahyi, explaining that the legacy of the conflict was still keenly felt across the country.

Atrocities

During the First Civil War, Blahyi led fighters for the dreaded ULIMO – the United Liberian Liberation Movement for Democracy – which supported then-president Samuel Doe.

It was Doe’s assassination in 1990 that sparked the orgy of violence that engulfed the country for most of this decade.

In January 2008, Blahyi testified before Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), recalling the atrocities he committed to maintain his “special power”.

“Every time we captured a city, I had to make a human sacrifice. They bring me a living child that I slaughter and take my heart to eat it,” he told a stunned audience.

He didn’t know how many people they killed, he said. “But for what I did, it’s not less than twenty thousand,” he added, bursting into tears.

The turning point, he said, came in 1996, when after seeing the blood of a child on his hand, “Jesus appeared to me and asked me to stop being a slave.” .

War crimes

Despite regular calls to establish a war crimes tribunal, very few people have been tried for war crimes or crimes against humanity committed in Liberia – and none in Liberia itself.

Some former warlords also remain powerful figures in the impoverished nation of 4.8 million people.

Checkered Life: Blayhi plays checkers at his compound in Monrovia. By EMMANUEL TOBEY (AFP)

Prince Johnson – another notorious war figure who also became an evangelist – is the head of the Liberian Senate Defense and Intelligence Committee.

But Blahyi is a strong supporter of prosecuting war criminals, including himself, in order to ensure lasting peace.

“I destroyed the children of so many people,” he said.

“If I refuse to answer it … that same violence that I unleashed will come after me and my children.”

President George Weah has so far resisted the creation of a war crimes tribunal, but calls for it are growing.

The issue was raised in recent hearings by a US House of Representatives committee.

And last week, more than a dozen influential Liberian organizations called on lawmakers across the country to support such a tribunal.