Africa

Charles Taylor takes the stand

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Former Liberian president Charles Taylor testified at his own war crimes trial in The Hague today. He’s facing 11 charges relating to the civil war in Sierra Leone…including murder, rape, and terrorism. Anchor Jeb Sharp speaks with the BBC’s Adam Minott, who’s at The Hague. Listen

Charles Taylor – preacher, warlord, president

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JEB SHARP: I’m Jeb Sharp, and this is The World.

CHARLES TAYLOR: I, Charles Ghankay Taylor, never, ever at any time knowingly assist Foday Sankoh in the invasion of Sierra Leone.

JEB SHARP: That’s Charles Taylor’s side of the story. The former Liberian president testified at his war crimes trial in the Hague today. He denied that he ever plotted with Sierra Leone’s rebel leader Foday Sankoh. Prosecutors say otherwise. They charge that when Taylor was president of Liberia, he armed and directed Sankoh’s rebel group. Taylor faces 11 charges relating to the civil war in Liberia’s neighbor, Sierra Leone. They include murder, rape, and terrorism. The BBC’s Adam Minott is in the Hague. Adam, it sounds as if Taylor was pretty defiant today.

ADAM MINOTT: He was defiant, you’re absolutely right. He was also assured and confident in the witness box. This is his first appearance, the trial has been going on for two years, not continuously, there have been many interruptions. So there was some anticipation and expectation as to how he might perform. He has a reputation as something of a showman, and he was certainly on good form today.

JEB SHARP: I gather when the trial first started, he didn’t even show up in the courtroom. Now it sounds like if he’s sort of fully engaged in the process. Do you know what’s changed?

ADAM MINOTT: There has been a change, yes. Certainly initially he didn’t recognize the authority of the court. At one point he dismissed his entire legal team, but he now clearly has had a change of heart, and in deed his lead council, Courtney Griffiths, said yesterday that the time

had come for him to put his side of the story, and that is what he started today, and it’s gonna go on for some time.

JEB SHARP: What’s the thrust of the prosecution’s main evidence against him?

ADAM MINOTT: Well, the prosecution have called, in total, 91 witnesses. Some of those witnesses have brought with them to court some appalling testimony, and some bare the evidence of what’s happened to them. There’ve witnesses without limbs, there’ve been people, people talking of having their children butchered in front of them. One lady said two of her children were killed, their heads were hacked off and she had to carry their heads in a sack. So some of the testimony has been truly gruesome. And the prosecution line is that is Charles Taylor who was orchestrating this rebel activity in Sierra Leone from neighboring Liberia, with the intention of controlling Sierra Leone’s vast diamond resources. There are very rich diamond mines, and he wanted, the prosecution claims, to have control of this massive wealth.

JEB SHARP: This hallmark of the atrocity is the hacking off of the limbs of the victims. Lets just go back and hear some tape of one victim, Jabati Mambu, speaking about what happened to him during the war.

JABATI MAMBU: I lost my right hand in 1999. I was fifteen years old. Rebels from the revolutionary united front surrounded our house, and the commander asked one of the twelve years old boy to come with an axe to chop our hands off. He grabbed me from my back and placed my hand on the floor. You know, they tempted my left hand first, while I was lucky, and they say, oh, I want to fight them, then they said now they’re gonna chop my right hand and they just chopped my hand off, just like that.

JEB SHARP: That was Sierra Leonean amputee, Jabati Mambu. Now today, Charles Taylor’s defense lawyer addressed the charges that Taylor was connected with amputations of Sierra Leoneans.

CHARLES TAYLOR’S LAWYER: Did you ever order the trademark atrocity of the Sierra Leonean conflict, amputations.

CHARLES TAYLOR: It’s impossible for that to have ever been ordered by me.

JEB SHARP: Adam, there’s been a lot of victim testimony in this trial. Is there any indication that Charles Taylor was affected by it? You spoke of him being quite impassive throughout, but has he been at all moved by testimony from prosecution witnesses?

ADAM MINOTT: It’s hard to tell. Particularly as he’s maintained, studied silence for the past two years. I mean, certainly in his testimony today, he said that he would not have considered carrying out the sort of deeds that were perpetrated in Sierra Leone. And he pointed out, in his defense, that this signature trademark, as his council called it, of amputating people’s limbs, never happened in Liberia. it was something that happened in Sierra Leone. So, Charles Taylor said, you know, “How could I have been responsible for those sort of deeds, when they never took place in my country?”

JEB SHARP: And the prosecution contends that he that he armed and directed rebel groups from Liberia, in order to seize control of Sierra Leone’s diamond riches. Taylor told the court he’d only wanted to bring peace to Sierra Leone, and he denied being given coffee jars full of conflict diamond by the rebels.

CHARLES TAYLOR: Never, ever did I receive, whether it is mayonnaise or coffee or whatever jar, never received any diamonds from RUF. It’s a lie, it’s a diabolical lie.

JEB SHARP: Another denial today by formal Liberian leader Charles Taylor. Adam, how does Charles Taylor describe his relationship with Foday Sankoh and the revolutionary united front? Does he admit to any involvement in Sierra Leone?

ADAM MINOTT: He certainly admits knowledge of what went on there. He said, how could he not have known, it was a neighboring country, and clearly the world knew what was going on. But he certainly said, he did not support the RUF movement. He said there was one very brief period of about 11 months, where he did supply some arms and ammunition to some rebel soldiers stationed on the border between Liberia and Sierra Leone. The purpose, he said of this, was to bolster border security.

JEB SHARP: What happens to Taylor if he’s found guilty of any of these charges?

ADAM MINOTT: Well, I think if he’s found guilty of any of them, the chances are he faces a very lengthy prison term, probably a life term. But, of course, here we are, right at the beginning of the defense case. We’ve heard the prosecution case, which has gone on now for two years. We’ve got a long defense case ahead of us, headed of course by the man himself, Charles Taylor. But, his team have said they have as many as 249 possible witnesses. It’s very unlikely they’re going to call all of those. And they are maintaining very strongly that their client is innocent.

JEB SHARP: The BBC’s Adam Minott in the Hag. Thanks so much Adam, and we’ll check back in with you as the trial goes on.

ADAM MINOTT: Great, look forward to that.

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