General Guangxi’s personal history

In the years-long civil war in Liberia, Joshua Milton Brahi, known as the "Bare Butt General", was one of the most notorious leaders of the armed forces. On the battlefield, he led his men to charge naked, often killing a young child as a sacrifice to the "devil" before launching the attack. Throughout the civil war, as many as 20,000 people died at the gunpoint of him and his men.

According to US media reports on January 21, 2008, the "Bare Butt General" has now "abandoned evil and embraced good" and returned to Liberia from abroad. He confessed to the crimes he had committed and expressed his willingness to accept justice.

1. Eleven-year-old senior pastor

Although Liberia's civil war officially ended in 2003, the capital, Monrovia, is still devastated. In the dilapidated streets and alleys of Monrovia, a fat priest in a suit and tie often walks around, preaching peace and reconciliation to the people through a small loudspeaker he carries. He also sells tapes of his sermons for a staggering $20 apiece. You know, most Liberians live on less than $1 a day. This pastor is Joshua Milton Blasch, the "Bare Butt General" who was once famous in Liberia.

Brashi was born in 1972 and belongs to the Klan tribe of Liberia. When he was 11 years old, Blasi claimed to have received a call from the "devil" and was granted supreme authority. The elders of the tribe were horrified and appointed him senior priest.

When he got a little older, Brahi combined the traditional religious beliefs of his tribe with Christian teachings and launched his own set of religious ideas. He created a protective god named "Nyanbe-a-weh" and established it as one of the three protective gods of the Klan tribe. Later, he replaced "Nyanbe-a-weh" with "Satan". Blasi also reformed the power inheritance system of the Klan tribe, changing the traditional primogeniture system to obtaining power through duels. Such duels were held annually and were extremely bloody, with the victor killing or maiming the defeated.

Through the above changes, Blasi firmly established his authority within the Klan tribe, so much so that Samuel Canion Doe, who was born in the Klan tribe and later served as the president of Liberia, , also invited him to be his "spiritual advisor".

It is indeed doubtful that a child can "act" like this. Some people believe that there are adults with ulterior motives behind Brasi's instigation.

2． "We are naked and fearless"

The civil strife in Liberia began in 1979. At that time, the opposition provoked riots and were suppressed by government military and police. In April 1980, Samuel Kanion Doe, a Klansman who served as captain of the Presidential Guard, led 17 soldiers to launch a coup, overthrowing and executing President William R. Tolbert, ending the American uprising. The long-standing black monopoly on state power. Doe succeeded as president and became Liberia's first indigenous black head of state. In 1989, Charles Taylor, a black American, led the "National Patriotic Front" forces created abroad to fight back to Liberia, triggering a full-scale civil war in Liberia.

When the full-scale civil war broke out, Brahi was only 17 years old. Since President Doe is from the Klan tribe and has always taken care of the interests of the tribe during his administration, Blasi and the entire tribe naturally adopted a firm attitude of supporting Doe. Doe was arrested and executed by opposition forces in September 1990. His supporters, led by Roosevelt Johnson, who was also from the Klan tribe, continued to fight against the armed forces of Taylor and others.

In 1994, Johnson found the adult Blasi and asked him to use his "divine power" to help him fight. Blasch readily agreed and recruited a large number of young soldiers (many of them minors) to join Johnson's team. In bloody battles, Blasi was accustomed to charging into battle naked, wearing only a pair of boots, and his soldiers followed suit. As a result, they were called the "Bare Butt Battalion" and Brasi himself was called the "Bare Butt General." Blasi said that this was because they were acting on the will of "Satan" so that they could be "invulnerable."

When recalling the scene of the battle, Brasi said: "Before going into battle, we would get drunk and take drugs. Then we would take off our clothes to the end, leaving only Next pair of shoes.

During the battle, some soldiers also wore colorful wigs and hung beautiful looted wallets. We killed whoever we saw and cut off their heads to use as balls. We were naked, fearless, drunk, and murderous. I can’t even remember how many people I killed! " Brasi later published a biography, in which the photos clearly reflected the scene of him and his men fighting naked.

3. Sacrificing young children to the "Devil Satan"

The fighting style of "Bare Butt General" makes the enemy shudder. What is even more terrifying is that he also uses living people (basically young children) to sacrifice to the "Devil Satan"

Bu. Rashi said that at that time, he believed that the "fresh blood" of young children could satisfy the needs of "Satan", so he strongly advocated killing a young child before each war. The leaders were somewhat hesitant about this idea. But in the end, he was convinced by Brahi, a priest. Most of the victims were children from villages near the battlefield. From time to time, Brahi would do it himself. “When some children were swimming and playing on the water, I quietly dived into the water. Go down, grab one, and break his neck. Sometimes, I cause accidents. More often than not, I just shot them to death. "Brahi said this in an interview with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in January 2008.

After the outbreak of the Liberian Civil War, there were rumors of using young children as sacrifices. Now, Brahi Xi first publicly confirmed the existence of such acts. During the Liberian Civil War, the total death toll was about 250,000, and Brahi and his men killed about 20,000 people.

In 1996. , Brahi suddenly stopped killing. In a later interview with the media, he said that while he was fighting naked on the battlefield, "God" suddenly came to him and rebuked him for becoming "Satan". A slave, not the hero he thought he was. Brahi said that he became a "reborn Christian" and began preaching peace and reconciliation on the streets of Monrovia in 1997 to promote his sermons. Audiotape.

Some analysts believe that the real reason for the "Bare Butt General" to stop killing may be the political situation in Liberia that was moving towards peace in August 1996. Under the pressure of the international community, the civil war in Liberia broke out. The two parties reached an agreement and agreed to end the civil war and disarm. In July of the following year, Liberia held an election and Taylor was elected president. The war-torn country ushered in a brief period of peace.

4 ． Returning to China and surrendering caused a sensation throughout the country

Perhaps because his former "rival" Taylor came to power, Brahi did not stay in Monrovia, which was gradually stabilizing, to continue preaching, but moved to a refugee camp in Ghana. He stayed there for more than 10 years. Brahi said that he repented in a church in the refugee camp and prayed to "God" to save himself. The rest of the time, he traveled around the refugee camp preaching, and sometimes met people. People who had been violated by him and his men "felt very bad, very bad." During this period, the situation in Liberia changed dramatically. In 1999, a rebel force emerged in the north of the country. The government armed forces once again provoked a civil war. Unable to cope with the situation, Taylor resigned in 2003 and fled to Nigeria. With Taylor's ouster, an opportunity for peace appeared again in Liberia, and the various factions signed a peace agreement in August of that year. In October 2005, Liberia held its first general election after the civil war under the supervision of the United Nations, and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, known as the "Iron Lady", was elected president.

As the political situation gradually improved. After stabilizing the country, Liberia began to systematically examine the civil war that had brought heavy disaster to the country. With the attention of the international community, Liberia established the "Truth and Reconciliation Commission", whose main responsibility was to collect the testimonies of the victims of the civil war and to investigate the atrocities committed during the civil war. The agency does not have the power to prosecute suspects for war crimes, but it can make "recommendations" for their prosecution. In mid-January 2008, "Bare Butt General" Brahi returned from Ghana. Liberia confessed to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission about her crimes during the civil war. This unusual move shocked the entire country and attracted the attention of the international community. "I have been looking for opportunities to tell the true stories of my life. . Whenever I tell people about my crimes, I feel relieved. " Blasi said of his motivations for returning to Liberia.

5. "Exploring the truth is the prerequisite for true reconciliation"

In Liberia, there are not many people like Blasi who dare to admit their crimes. Prince Johnson, the current senator of Liberia, once served as the leader of one of the armed forces in the civil war. According to the Associated Press, President Doe, who was supported by Blasi, died tragically in front of Johnson. At that time, Johnson's soldiers cut off Doe's ears and slowly tortured him to death. Johnson drank Budweiser beer leisurely and filmed the scene with a camera. After the video was released, the international community was in an uproar. In 2008, Johnson publicly stated that he would not appear before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission unless someone came forward and publicly accused him of committing war crimes.

Many ordinary Liberians hope to completely forget the history of the civil war. Because almost every family has both victims and perpetrators - if a woman in a family is raped, her brother will grab a gun and rush into the perpetrator's home and rape a woman there. In other words, nearly every family suffered during the Civil War, which also brought suffering to other families.

But Blasi firmly believes that exploring the truth is the prerequisite for true reconciliation, although he may pay a huge price for it. "I may be electrocuted, hanged, or otherwise punished. However, I always believe that forgiveness and reconciliation is the right path for us to take," Blasi said.