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Naomi Campbell testifies in Charles Taylor trial

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The civil war in Sierra Leone lasted a decade and left thousands dead or maimed. The former president of neighboring Liberia, Charles Taylor, is on trial for war crimes committed during the conflict. Prosecutors allege Taylor directly supported one faction, so he could gain access to Sierra Leone’s natural resources particularly diamonds. A special tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands is hearing the case and Thursday British supermodel, Naomi Campbell testified about receiving ‘dirty stones’ from Taylor.
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• Video: See Naomi Campbell’s testimony
• Q&A: Trying Charles Taylor

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DAVID BARON: The civil war in Sierra Leone, in West Africa, lasted a decade and left thousands dead. But the atrocities didn’t stop there. Thousands of civilians were maimed, their hands and limbs deliberately hacked off by the fighters. The former president of neighboring Liberia, Charles Taylor, is on trial for war crimes committed during the conflict. Prosecutors allege Taylor directly supported one faction, so he could gain access to Sierra Leone’s natural resources, particularly its diamonds. A special tribunal in the Netherlands is hearing the case. And today there was a special witness, British supermodel Naomi Campbell. The BBC’s Africa Editor, Martin Plaut, was in the courtroom. Now Martin, explain why was Naomi Campbell testifying?

MARTIN PLAUT:  Well, in a sense her testimony could have been absolutely vital because what the prosecution is trying to show was that raw diamonds, blood diamonds, came across the border from the pits in Sierra Leone where they were mined, frequently at gunpoint, and then taken across the border to Liberia sometimes in mayonnaise jars, would you believe it, handed over to Charles Taylor. He then sold those diamonds and those diamonds were then used on the international market with arms dealers to buy the weapons that were needed to keep the Sierra Leone war going. So it is critical that Naomi Campbell could say, as somebody who wasn’t involved in any way, yes I know that Charles Taylor had those rough diamonds, something he has consistently denied.

BARON:  Now, the story is that she had met Charles Taylor at an event in South African and that she received some of those diamonds [INDISCERNABLE] let’s just hear some of the testimony that she gave today.

NAOMI CAMPBELL: I had a knock at my door and I opened my door and two men were there and gave me a pouch and said a gift for you.

FEMALE SPEAKER: And these two men, did you know who they were?

CAMPBELL: No, I’m afraid not.

FEMALE SPEAKER: Did these two men introduce themselves to you?

CAMPBELL: No, they did not.

FEMALE SPEAKER: Did you ever learn who they were?

CAMPBELL: No, I did not.

FEMALE SPEAKER:  And when you opened up this pouch, what did you discover?

CAMPBELL: I saw a few stones in there. And they were very small, dirty looking stones.

BARON: That’s Naomi Campbell testifying. So, Martin Plaut, so the prosecution is saying that those dirty little stones were diamonds and they came from Charles Taylor.

PLAUT: Indeed, that’s precisely what they’re trying to prove. But as you heard there, Naomi Campbell was saying, well, don’t know where they came from. These men appeared at my door in the middle of the night. They handed me the pouch. And I don’t know, this sort of thing happens quite frequently now. Perhaps you and I don’t live in this kind of world, but she testified later that, you know, concierges give her gifts, all sorts of people press gifts on her, she never has any idea where they’re coming from.

BARON: Well, you said that her testimony today could have been vital. In the end, do observers think that this has changed things either for in favor or against Charles Taylor in the trial?

PLAUT: Well, let me put it to you this way. The prosecutor in the end turned around and said to the judge in the court, look, I hope you don’t think that this was a prosecution witness. This witness we would like to see as just a court witness. And the judge turned to her and said, look, you got us to subpoena her, but she’s your witness. So it gives you a flavor of just how poorly perhaps, from the prosecutions point of view, Naomi Campbell behaved. But you know this trial has been going on for three years. It will not be decided on the evidence of one witness. What they were hoping was that somebody outside of the conflict would give critical evidence. Doesn’t seem as if that has happened, but you know, I’m not a judge.

BARON: The BBC’s Martin Plaut at the war crimes trial in the Netherlands. Thank you, Martin.

PLAUT: Pleasure.

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