Key test for African war crimes as Taylor's trial resumes

There is enormous interest around the world in the trial of former Liberian President Charles, finally under way at The Hague. E-Brief News reports that apart from the fact that it marks the first time that an African leader has ended up in an International War Crimes Court, the outcome will undoubtably fuel debate over the creation of a war crimes tribunal in Liberia. Taylor's trial initially began in June 2007 under the jurisdiction of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, but he immediately raised objections to the process, firing his lawyer and boycotting the trial. Taylor 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. He is accused of arming, training and controlling the Revolutionary United Front rebels in exchange for still-unknown amounts of diamonds, says a Mail & Guardian Online report. He has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including terrorising the civilian population, murder, r ape and the use of child soldiers.

The first victim of atrocities to take the stand was Alex Tamba Teh (47), a reverend in the diamond-rich Kono district of Sierra Leone. He told the court he was captured along with other civilians and taken to a rebel leader. ‘After they killed the civilians in the group (other adult men) he gave instructions that they should be decapitated,’ he said. A so-called Small Boys Unit of child soldiers carried out the orders. ‘They were small, small boys below the age of 15, some could not even lift their guns, they were dragging them,’ Tamba Teh said. After the massacre a harrowing incident followed where some of the child soldiers killed another boy by chopping off both hands and both feet before throwing him screaming into a pit latrine.

Ian Smillie, a Canadian expert on the international trade in blood diamonds told the three-judge panel that diamonds fuelled the war in Sierra Leone. Canadian Press reports that Taylor, wearing a grey suit and tie and gold-rimmed glasses, listened carefully to the proceedings, but showed no emotion. Smilie cited his investigations into the traffic of weapons paid in thousands of carats. According to an allAfrica.com report, he even named the notorious traffickers; including Mohammed Jamil Derbah, suspected by the UN of having links with al-Qaeda and Hezbollah. BBC News reports that the defence tried to undermine Smilie's testimony by submitting that he was not a real expert on diamonds. But the prosecution dismissed this, saying Smilie was one of the world's top authorities on the subject of blood diamonds. During a break in proceedings, Courtenay Griffiths QC said much of the evidence was playing to the heartstrings of the world and that it was unnecessary to make people live through these traumatic events again. 'It's not contested that atrocities were committed. But this is not what this trial is about,' he said.