Liberian war-crimes trial resumes for Taylor

The Hague boosted the defense budget for former Liberian president Charles Taylor in a signal to his supporters in Liberia and Sierra Leone that he will get a fair trial.

By Simon Montlake

posted January 07, 2008 at 9:50 am EST

The trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, the first African leader to face an international war crimes tribunal, resumed Monday in The Hague. His case was postponed last June after President Taylor fired his original legal team and demanded more money for his defense.

Taylor is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity in neighboring Sierra Leone, where he is accused of arming a rebel army who supplied diamonds and timber in return. He has denied responsibility for the actions of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which became notorious during a decade-long war for a wave of brutal killings, rapes, and mutilations. The UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone was created after the war ended in 2001.

The Canadian Press says the prosecution will seek to tie Taylor to wartime atrocities committed in Sierra Leone by his proxy forces. He faces 11 charges that include murder, rape, enslavement and the conscription of child soldiers. Nearly 60 witnesses are being called on to testify on Taylor's link to the militias, most anonymously for fear of reprisals, said the Canadian Press.

The British Broadcasting Corp. says an expert on so-called "blood diamonds" from conflict zones in Africa will take the stand Monday. The trial, which is expected to run for two years, was relocated to the Dutch capital from Sierra Leone due to fears that Taylor's presence would stir unrest there.

Prosecutors say Mr Taylor's desire for access to diamonds and other natural resources from Sierra Leone was one of the root causes of his alleged involvement in the war.

The prosecution will also be calling a Sierra Leonean victim and a Liberian witness who is said to have belonged to Mr Taylor's inner circle.

…In all, the prosecution intends to call 144 witnesses, though only half are likely to appear in person.

By increasing the budget for Taylor's defense, the court has taken on a greater financial burden, reports The Times (London). But it is a signal to former supporters in Liberia and Sierra Leone that Taylor will receive a fair trial in The Hague.

He is receiving a legal aid budget of $100,000 a month. Faced with such costs, the Special Court for Sierra Leone is making a fresh appeal for international donors to ensure that it can complete the trial process.

The court, which has put nine other senior figures from the 1991-2002 civil war on trial in Sierra Leone, must prepare to run well into 2010 should Mr Taylor appeal against a verdict expected in about 18 months to two years. Officials have admitted privately that, despite pledges covering most of the original cost projections, there is enough money to run only until October.

The conflict in Sierra Leone began in 1991 when rebel RUF forces seized towns near the border with Liberia, reports Reuters. Other forces joined the fighting, which caused an estimated 50,000 deaths in a population of 6 million.

A truce was agreed in 1999 after heavy fighting in Freetown, but it fell apart in 2000. Former colonial power Britain sent troops to help a struggling U.N. force.

Driven back into the countryside, rebels allowed U.N. troops to deploy to the areas they held in 2001. Disarmament was completed in 2002 and the war was formally declared over.

In a profile of Taylor, Der Spiegel reports that the former president amassed millions of dollars trading blood diamonds and "rained death and terror" across West Africa. A former lay preacher, Taylor first took up arms in Liberia in the late 1980s and later became president for six years before fleeing into exile in 2003.

Hardly anyone disputes Taylor's horrific career and its outcome: two nations destroyed and an entire region destabilized. The only problem lies in assigning responsibility to the former president for the catastrophe he triggered in West Africa. Prosecutors now face the challenge of reconstructing the chains of command between lawless rebel groups and the man at the top.

Reuters also reports from Liberia's capital Monrovia that Taylor's supporters held a church service Sunday in support of the former president. A preacher said his trial was part of an international conspiracy against a "child of God."

The service at the First Baptist Church in Congo Town, outside the Liberian capital Monrovia, was attended by scores of supporters and Taylor's estranged wife Jewel Howard Taylor, a member of parliament in the West African country.

Supporters said more than three hours of prayers for the acquittal of Taylor, who is a deacon of the Baptist church and frequently invoked his Christian faith during his presidency, when Liberia became the epicenter of wars sweeping West Africa.

All-Africa.com reports that many Liberians appear uninterested in the legal drama under way in The Hague, despite the immense sway Taylor held over his country. Some observers argue that Liberians are quick to forget the past and focus on daily hardships. Only a few media outlets have carried the story, while the Liberian government has expressed its hope that Taylor will get a fair trial.

What concerns ordinary people nowadays, according to one young Liberian, Edwin Wilson, is "rebuilding the country, the prices of basic commodities and job provision rather than an endless trial."

Liberia has a huge population of young people, from whom Taylor boasted that he drew his support. When he was at the peak of his power, many believed in him so much that they thought there was nothing so complicated that the "Papay" (Liberian slang for "Father") could not solve.

But walking the streets of Monrovia today, and gauging people's opinion, it is clear that his sympathizers have either lost hope in the possibility of his acquittal, or that they too have fallen prey to the "quick-to-forget syndrome."