Col. No Spare No Soul

In dreads and a D&G t-shirt, Prince Dennis sips Black Label as he talks about the deal. Commander Queen came to Monrovia at the end of last year to recruit men to fight with the rebels supporting Alassane Outtara, the man the UN and other international observers say won the presidential election in November.  They were promised $1,000. He and his brother enlisted with about 100 other men. Trucks took them to the border in Nimba County. They crossed without incident. Upon entering Ivory Coast, they were given camouflage shorts, AK-47s and $100. That was the last of the money they’d see. For three months Dennis and his 15-person squad wandered along Ivory Coast’s western border, surviving by pillaging villages. “When I enter a place, I feed myself. I kill. I rape. I commit sins on the people because I need money.”

Dennis said he raped 5 women. He said he did not keep count of how many he killed. In a small border city, he massacred 13. A bullet skinned his right ankle, but he didn’t feel it. He takes what he calls Bubbles – medication given to people before they go into surgery – to numb for war. “On that side, I release myself,” he explained. Here in Monrovia, he has a wife and five children, and earns a living as a goldsmith. He and his brother and three other men deserted the rebels amid the confusion of the French army’s siege on Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent whose refusal to leave office provoked civil war in his country.

Dennis started fighting at age 10. He said he was among the dozen to enter Nimba County from Ivory Coast with Charles Taylor.  At 18, he worked as a mercenary in Sierra Leone as part of a special envoy sent by Taylor to buttress the RUF. He said he’s not praying for war in Liberia, but “when it comes, we’ll fight. People are waiting to go do it,” he said. He can rearm easily. He likes to fight. “That gun sound, it’s like music playing. When we’re firing, the gun sound is like music in our ear."