Joshua Milton Blahyi

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Joshua Milton Blahyi (born September 30, 1971 ) - better known by his nickname General Butt Naked ( German  General Splitternackt ) - is a previously unconvicted Liberian war criminal . Blahyi is one of the most obscure personalities of the First Liberian Civil War because of his multiple documented cannibalism rituals . He feels responsible for the excesses of violence committed by his combat unit.

Life

Origin and youth

Joshua Milton Blahyi is a Liberian citizen born on September 30, 1971, he belongs to the West African people of the Sarpo , a population of only about 12,000 in Grand Gedeh County and Sinoe County .

At the age of eleven, Blahyi first experienced the sacrifice and ritual eating of a person during a secret ceremony. He called this experience his religious awakening. As a member of a secret society, he was chosen and prepared by his mentors for the career of a magician for the Krahn people . At this point the Liberian civil war reached his home region and the boy had to go into battle as a child soldier .

Blahyi becomes a warlord

The cruelty and bravery demanded by his military instructors around Roosevelt Johnson , because of the exams he had already passed, was only the logical continuation of a path that allowed him to become the leader of a combat unit. The atrocities committed by Blahyi and his fighters were targeted against the civilian population. The peculiarity of going into battle wearing only sneakers earned him the nickname “General Butt Naked”. Blahyi himself claimed that for this nudity his fighters would be made invincible by the gods. The rituals also included the morning ritual eating of human flesh .

During the civil war Blahyi controlled an area in the center of Liberia that was largely deserted due to his reign of terror . In April 1996, Blahyi received a visit from Bishop John Kun Kun. In the weeks that followed, Blahyi converted to Christianity and was baptized by Kun Kun. He explained to Roosevelt Johnson that his new leader was now Jesus and laid down all arms. In 1996 he fled the country from former enemies.

Stay in the refugee camp

In 1997 Blahyi reappeared in the Buduburam refugee camp in Ghana . He now pretended that God had appeared to him during a battle as early as 1996 and had made it clear to him that he was "enslaved by Satan". He started preaching . During this phase of self-discovery, he also started a family and had at least three children.

Return to Liberia

In January 2008 Blahyi returned to Liberia from Ghana and was summoned to appear before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to document his involvement in the civil war. The war crimes he admitted between 1980 and 1996 prove the deaths of more than 20,000 people. Blahyi announced his readiness to confirm these statements before a tribunal of the International Criminal Court in The Hague .

Blahyi apologized for his behavior on the grounds that he had been obsessed with Satan since childhood. As evidence of his purification, he helped found the End Time Train Evangelistic Ministries Inc. in Liberia.

He still had a certain influence in Liberia at least until 2010, so no charges should be brought against him, as he was insane and underage at the time of the acts and he would now regret all crimes.

literature

  • Dirk van der Boom: Civil War in Liberia: Chronology - Protagonists - Forecast . In: Studies in Political Science; Department B, research reports and dissertations . tape 80 . Münster / Hamburg 1993, ISBN 3-89473-623-2 .
  • Denis Johnson: In Hell: Look into the abyss of the world . Tropenverlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-932170-90-4 , p. 186 .
  • Joshua Milton Blahyi: General Butt Naked: The Dramatic Reversal of an African Warlord . Asaph, Lüdenscheid 2013, ISBN 978-3-940188-70-0 , p. 144 .

Radio:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b A.G .: Liberia: Ex-rebel leader confesses 20,000 murders . In: The press . January 21, 2008 ( full text as digitized version).
  2. ↑ a b c d Edna Fernandes: Face to face with General Butt Naked - the most evil man in the world . In: The Daily Mail . November 28, 2010 ( full text as digitized version).
personal data
SURNAME Blahyi, Joshua Milton
ALTERNATIVE NAMES General Butt Naked; Blahyi, Joshua Milton (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Liberian war criminal in exile, former warlord
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1971