Taylor tells tribunal he is not a cannibal

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, July 28 (UPI) -- Former Liberian President Charles Taylor told a war crimes tribunal he did not order acts of cannibalism during a savage 10-year civil war in Sierra Leone.

The former African warlord is on trial in The Hague, Netherlands, for murder, rape, chopping off hands and sending drugged child-soldiers to battle during the war considered one of most vicious in the 20th century.

The defense has accepted that the atrocities were committed, but argue that Taylor was running his own country and had no part in them, The Times of London reported Tuesday. The prosecution in the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone, said Taylor sold Sierra Leone insurgents weapons for so-called "blood diamonds."

Part of the prosecution's undertaking is to prove Taylor terrorized citizens of the neighboring country, which witnesses claimed included eating the hearts of his opponents, the British newspaper reported.

Cannibalism, Taylor told the court Monday, "makes you feel like throwing up."

"It is sickening. You must be sick to believe it."

Taylor called witnesses' claims that he ordered human flesh be eaten "total nonsense."

"It never happened," Taylor said. "I never ordered any combatant to eat anyone."

Taylor is the first African leader to stand trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone that ended in 2001.