Judd Gregg: “in 1989, a little known thief and thug named Charles Taylor set in motion a series of events which have thrown the…”

“in 1989, a little known thief and thug named Charles Taylor set in motion a series of events which have thrown the impoverished nation of Liberia into chaos and its neighboring nations into genocide. From Ivory Coast he launched a successful coup against Liberia's sitting President, Samuel Doe, plunging Liberia into 15 years of civil war. We are still dealing with the fallout of that war today. The coup, notably, followed after Charles Taylor had escaped from a Massachusetts prison in 1985, where he was about to be extradited for embezzlement. Groups on all sides of the Liberian conflict have committed atrocities, including widespread rape, massacres, mutilation and torture, and forced labor of children. There are literally hundreds of accounts of villagers having been slaughtered as they tried to flee, women being raped, children being brutally raped. Such atrocities have been part of the deliberate policies of Charles Taylor, his government, and the groups that fought for him. In the conflict, it is estimated approximately 60,000 to 200,000 people died in the violence, and many more died from hunger, disease, and lack of medical care.”