There are many reports of  summary executions in Liberia before and after the Rice Riots of 1979 in the literature ( http://www.theperspective.org/coups.html ) and elsewhere. There also exist the numerous cases of Heartmen taking parts of human bodies for ritual purposes with a classic example being the Allen Yancy and others case in Harper, Maryland County in 1978. My major focus in this paper is to reflect on amputations and cannibalism over the past 25 years so as to correct the false information being put across especially by writers from the New Liberia Newspaper and published on the allaboutliberia.com website that the idea of amputation comes from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone.

The New Liberia published an article in April 2002 entitled '200 Ex-RUF Fighters Join LURD' and it read 'Terrorism is uncommon to Liberia, but since the inception of the Liberia United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) military campaign launched against Liberians about three years ago, this nation has witnessed a Sea Change in this regard. From December 24, 1989 until the end of the seven-year civil war in 1997 and the subsequent holding of elections in July of the same year, the amputation of limbs was a practice associated with combatants of the Sierra Leone civil war.'

 My first encounter of seeing a human being in pain and agony was a man dieing during the April 14, 1979 Rice Riot in Monrovia.  He apparently thought he was in Hollywood movies as he attempted to smash the glass window of the Sangai Farm Chicken Depot on Camp Johnson Road opposite the St. Thomas Episcopal Church. He ripped his entire stomach open and severed his arm. Police officers quelling the uprising shot him dead in our presence. There were few other skirmishes between the police and soldiers that led to some death on that day but I didnt witness any. The Soldiers were supportive of the Rice Riots and most of them were using their M1- Rifles to burst stores and shopping centres open for civilians to loot while the police was supporting the Tolbert Government in putting the unrest under control.

 I recalled the announcement on ELBC radio that Edward Slanger had killed General Thomas G. Quiwonkpa, the leader of the November 12,1985 abortive invasion against the military ruler and President-elect, Samuel K. Doe somewhere in Paynesville, Duport Road. Some friends and I went to the Executive Mansion on Capitol Hill to view the body because many Liberians believed that Quiwonkpa was immortal and powerful. We could not see the body there and we were later told that the body had been taken to the Barclay Training Centre (BTC). By the time we approached the Buzzi Quarters Gas station, we saw the penis of Quiwonkpa with some soldiers hand. Shocked as I was, we proceeded towards the BTC on United Nations Drive and saw more jubilant soldiers brandishing the different parts of his body. We saw soldiers eating the flesh of the late Quiwonkpa in the streets of Monrovia.

Next came the so called Popular Peoples Uprising on December 24,1989 led by Charles Taylor that led to the death of over 250,000 people. Many Liberians including myself were supportive of the rebellion in the beginning because president S.K. Doe was then unpopular and many wanted a change. During the early months of 1990, the dreaded Special Anti-Terrorist Unit (SATU) and death squad units of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) executed many Liberians that were seen as being sympathetic to the rebellion and we saw human being heads severed from their bodies at different places within the city of Monrovia.

Nobody knew of the atrocities being perpetrated by the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) and Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL) rebels in the countryside until food shortage hit Monrovia and citizens and foreign residents started walking out of the embattled city. Many got ears chopped off, limbs chopped off and summary executions were common for some of the most absurd reasons imaginable. For example, being from the Krahn or Madingo ethnic groups was a crime punishable by death for the males and females were usually raped; being healthy or 'fat' meant you were a government employee and you had all the money; some died because of their Identification Cards; being unable to speak a Liberian dialect led to the death of many people; material things such as clothes, shoes, jewellery and money were seized at checkpoints and owners bear the scars of treatments received from rebels. Most of these checkpoints had a dead man head at the gates. Also, many commanders had human heads hanging off their vehicles like licence plates. President Samuel Doe got his ears chopped off and fingers and toes hacked off by INPFL rebels in September 1990. There was a NPFL commander in Cape Mount Town of Gbah called Gbah Ray. He was notorious for killings and amputations at his checkpoint. The list is endless of the crimes meted against innocent civilians by the NPFL and INPFL rebels during the seven-year civil war. I met a Coast Guard officer while in Sierra Leone who told me that his right hand had been hacked off in Nimba County during the early days of the civil war by NPFL rebels. He said the rebels let me live to show my cut hand as a warning to other soldiers of the AFL that such treatment awaited them if they dare go to war zone in Nimba. So, upon his preliminary treatment at the JFK hospital in Monrovia, he decided to flee the city with his family before the rebels arrived.  

United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia (ULIMO) was organized in Sierra Leone in 1991 and after several months of fighting at the bordering towns between Liberia and Sierra Leone , they gained grounds in 1992 in Lofa and Bomi Counties. Their strength was drawn from mainly the Krahn and Madingo ethnic groups. Their stories too are endless of their crimes against the innocent civilian population that up to today, the Madingo tribe faction is still at loggerheads with the Lorma tribe.  Cannibalism was their main characteristic. They ate human beings heart and they nicknamed the heart as the 'engine'. 

During the April 6, 1996 fracas in Monrovia, the late General Dumboyah of Ulimo-K faction body was eaten up at the elements of the Liberia Peace Council (LPC) and ULIMO-J at the BTC.

The RUF was trained at various bases in Liberia operated by the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL). The initial attack on Sierra Leone in early 1992 was carried out by NPFL commandos from all the major crossing points along the Mano River and in Lofa County. The NPFL sustained the war in Sierra Leone and trained their Sierra Leonean ally every trick of the trade in the art of guerrilla warfare. My argument is that, The NPFL being the teacher taught its tactics of amputation to the RUF. It has been present over the years although without the same acronym providing support, military advice and hardware to the RUF as evidenced by the United Nations Sanctions Committee report. If the NPFL or present Liberian government had no knowledge or acquiescence of such amputations, it would have stopped its support years ago. The saying goes birds of the same feathers flock together. The Liberian rebel factions introduced these nasty habits of terror ranging from amputation of the limbs to arson as well as murder and rape into Sierra Leone as we all know that many were still actively involved in the fighting there until the disarmament and demobilization of the RUF few weeks ago.

Witnesses are still alive and willing to give their testimonies of the horror they experienced at the hands of the various warring factions during the senseless civil war in the Republic of Liberia and it is my ardent hope and desire that historians document these valuable information. Empty denials and shifting blames wont help Liberia gain its rightful status among the comity of nations. Our Liberian adage goes when a chicken is white, it is white!, meaning there is no need trying to cover it up what is already an open secret. We should all begin to write facts as it happened so that the future generation will know the ills and dangers of war. The truth will help shape the destiny of a new Liberia. Telling these cheap lies for propaganda purposes will only make our history highly inconsistent. It is time we put our acts together and think of Liberia and its people first above all else by designing corrective approach to the disparities and bad image of our sweet land of liberty. 

 PEACE TO YOU ALL!!!