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Liberia: Taylor's Arab Connection Revealed
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The Analyst (Monrovia)
23 June 2008
Posted to the web 23 June 2008
Alphonsus Zeon And Adolphus Williams
Hague
The trial of the former Liberian President Charles Taylor has heard additional evidence of his alleged support to the RUF rebels, his connections with Arabs in the diamond trade as well as the role of his son, Chuckie in human rights abuses in the region.
Prosecution witness, TF1-590, a Sierra Leonean exile living in Europe, who is also due to later testify against Chuckie in the United States, said Taylor supplied arms to the RUF and had Arabs buying diamonds from RUF rebels.
The witness told the court that he had spoken with a team of United States Federal prosecutors including Assistant US Attorney, FBI and Immigration and custom agents.
During questioning, Taylor's lead lawyer, Courtney Griffiths said he suspected the Special Court prosecutors and United States Federal Prosecutors were working together in prosecuting Taylor and his son.
Griffiths asked TF1-590 whether during interviews with US Federal prosecutors he had told them about Taylor's dealings with Arabs. The witness answered in the affirmative.
Griffiths said that when TF1-590 had given an earlier testimony to prosecution investigators on two different occasions in 2007 in which he had made no mention of Arabs being diamond merchants of Charles Taylor as he suggested Monday.
The witness had testified earlier and said that he had been arrested together with two other Sierra Leoneans accused of being Kamajor civil militia fighters and were taken on the ATU Gbatala Base in Bong County, in central Liberia which was commanded by Chuckie Taylor.
The witness said that Taylor did send a message that he wanted to set eyes on the suspected Kamajor fighters. TF1-590 said they were blind-folded and thrown into the back of a jeep headed for Monrovia, with their hands and feet tied.
At Taylor's White Flower home, the witness continued, they met the former Liberian president in pyjamas who allegedly asked the witness and his colleagues if they were the Kamajors sent to overthrow his government.
Another witness who took the stand during the week, 34-year-old RUF Radio Operator, Alice Pyne said RUF commander Issa Sesay took diamonds from Sierra Leone to Charles Taylor in Liberia to take back arms in return.
"What I learned in Buedu from Major Sellay and Sebatu who were in the Buedu station told me that Issa Sesay went with those diamonds to Charles Taylor so that he would bring arms and ammunition. I leant that when he went to Liberia he was lodged at a hotel according to his explanation. It was at that hotel he lost the diamonds." (sic)
Alice went on that RUF Battle group commander, Sam Bockarie alias Mosquito, also brought weapons from Liberia and distributed them to junior commanders like Superman. She said Taylor's support to the rebels went beyond arms and ammunition, alleging the former Liberian president also sent seven persons believed to possess magical powers to protect rebel fighters in their attempt to retake the Kono district.
Charles Taylor's lawyers said that Alice was not present when Sam Bockarie returned from Liberia and could not testify to what he might have brought with him.
They tried to contradict the witness's evidence that Taylor had supplied arms to the RUF and read out what another Prosecution witness, TF1-516, had told the court in April concerning the source of ammunition for the RUF.
Defence lawyer, Anyah said that despite mounting evidence that Taylor sent NPFL commanders to fight alongside RUF in Sierra Leone, Major Sally Duwai and Col. Daniel Tamba, alias Col. Jungle were ordinary Liberian NPFL fighters who crossed over to Sam Bockarie after they were cut off during fighting between the NPFL and another Liberian rebel group, ULIMO-K, in Lofa County.
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Courtesy: Search for Common Ground and BBC World Service Trust
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