The war-crimes trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, accused of controlling militia that killed and raped thousands in Sierra Leone, resumed on Monday in The Hague after a six month delay.
Taylor, the first ex-African head of state to appear before an international war-crimes tribunal, was present for the hearing in which the prosecution will call its first witness, an international expert on conflict diamonds.
He is accused of controlling rebel forces in neighbouring Sierra Leone who went on a blood diamond-funded rampage of killing, mutilation and rape during the 1991 to 2001 civil war. He denies the charges against him.
Before the hearing opened, Taylor, dressed in a dark suit and tie wearing gold rimmed glasses, looked contemplative with his hands clasped in front of him.
The first prosecution witness, Canadian Ian Smillie, will focus on the prosecution’s claim that Taylor hatched a plan to establish a subordinate government in Sierra Leone in order to have access to the country’s abundant natural resources like diamonds and timber.
Smillie has written a report for the court called Diamonds: The RUF and the Liberian connection. At the start of his testimony the court was shown footage of the 2006 documentary Blood Diamonds that Smillie had worked on.
Once one of Africa’s most feared warlords, Taylor is accused of arming, training and controlling the notorious Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in exchange for still-unknown amounts of diamonds used to fund the warfare.
About 120 000 people were killed in the conflict, with rebels mutilating thousands more, cutting off arms, legs, ears or noses.
The former president was also a key player in Liberia’s back-to-back civil wars which spanned 14 years.
His trial before the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone was moved from Freetown to The Hague because there were fears his presence there could destabilise the region.
The trial opened here last June but was postponed quickly after Taylor sacked his first lawyer and boycotted the opening of proceedings, demanding more money for his defence.
In August, Taylor accepted a new lawyer and a $100 000 (â,¬68 000) a month defence budget and the case was adjourned to allow the new team time to prepare.
During the week the prosecution is also expected to call a victim from Sierra Leone and a Liberian witness who belonged to Taylor’s inner circle.
”We will, in this early phase, try to lay out in broad strokes the basis of our case and the links between Taylor and the crimes and the direct perpetrators of the crimes on the ground,” chief prosecutor Stephen Rapp told journalists on Friday.
In all the prosecution is planning to call 144 witnesses — 77 victims, 59 witnesses on Taylor’s links to the actual crimes and eight experts who will give background information and provide a historical context for the case.
The chief prosecutor hopes the trial will be finished by late 2009. – AFP
