Expert witness against Taylor
2008-01-06 21:46
The Hague - An international expert in the trade in blood diamonds will be the first witness to testify at the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor when it resumes on Monday, six months after a chaotic opening session.
Taylor, 59, is accused of terrorising the people of Sierra Leone by orchestrating atrocities committed by militias known for hacking off their victims' limbs during the country's 10-year civil war that ended in 2003.
Among the 11 charges against him are murder, rape, enslavement and conscripting child soldiers. Taylor, the first former African head of state to appear before an international tribunal, has pleaded innocent to all charges.
Prosecutors say Taylor's desire to get his hands on diamonds from Sierra Leone was one of the root causes of his alleged involvement in the war.
Blood diamonds bankrolled wars
Their first witness will be Ian Smillie, an expert on conflict or blood diamonds, so called because they were smuggled out of Africa and sold, with the proceeds fuelling wars across the continent in the 1990s and into the new century.
The complex case will likely last nearly two years.
The second witnesses is slated to be a victim of the militias. Taylor's defence team does not deny the atrocities happened in Sierra Leone and has argued that calling victims is an unnecessary appeal to the emotions of judges.
Smillie is the first of 144 prosecution witnesses, though trial attorneys expect only half of them to appear in person.
But chief prosecutor at the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone, Stephen Rapp, said he had an obligation to highlight the suffering of victims.
"We owe it to the victims to present some testimony in a live sense," Rapp said, so as "not to drain the case of the human element completely."
Rapp has said he summoned 77 victims or other witnesses to establish that crimes had occurred in each of several regions mentioned in the indictment. He expected only 10 to appear in court.
Trial beamed to Freetown
The trial is being held in The Hague for fear that staging it in the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, could spark fresh unrest there.
However, the courtroom action is being beamed to Freetown and members of the public have been invited to watch at the court's headquarters.
"We will try in this early phase to lay out in broad strokes the basis of our case, and also the human element," Rapp said.
Monday's resumption comes six months after Taylor boycotted the start of his trial, claiming he would not be given a fair hearing, and fired his attorney.
He has since appointed a new team led by experienced British lawyer Courtenay Griffiths.
- SAPA