Charles Taylor did not support Sierra Leonean rebels in the early 1990s, but worked with them inside Sierra Leone to fend off attacks from a rival armed group in Liberia, he told judges today at the Special Court for Sierrra Leone.
Taylor began working with the Sierra Leonean rebel group, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) between August 1991 and May 1992, after a Liberian armed group started attacking Taylor's forces, he told the court today.
The rival group, the United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia (ULIMO), was supported by the Sierra Leonean government, Taylor said but this did not mean he wanted to help the RUF rebel leader, Foday Sankoh, to attack Sierra Leone in the early 1990s.
"My relationship with Foday Sankoh was for security purposes to fight ULIMO in Sierra Leone so as to prevent fighting them in Liberia," Taylor said today while giving testimony in his own defense.
Taylor told judges that "I never harboured any intention, never planned any such intention, there was no reason to plan such intention" to support the RUF and he refuted all allegations that he was present at the meeting where the RUF attack on Sierra Leone was planned.
"The whole issue of what is going on in Sierra Leone is none of my business. If ULIMO had not attacked Liberia from Sierra Leone, you will never have heard of all this foolishness," Taylor said. He went further to tell the court that "Sankoh and his people are a bunch of idiots" and that it will be "foolish to believe that Taylor who had had no military training will be advising Sankoh who had been a trained soldier in the Sierra Leone army."
Responding to questions that Sankoh fought alongside Taylor's armed group, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), in Liberia before attacking Sierra Leone, Taylor said that he "was not aware of Sankoh fighting alongside the NPFL."
"If he had, I would have known," Taylor said. "No evidence has been presented by the prosecution that Sankoh fought alongside the NPFL in Liberia."
Taylor also denied allegations that he used children as NPFL combatants in Liberia. He explained that while many children were in NPFL controlled territory, "there was no official policy of the NPFL to recruit, train and arm children for combat." He said that he even had one of the largest orphanages in Gbarngha during the war and that "whenever there is a crisis anywhere, you will always see soldiers moving around with children."
Taylor also denied allegations that he supplied arms and ammunition to RUF fighters in the early 1990s. He explained that the flow of arms between the NPFL and the RUF would not have been possible at this time because from 1992 to 1993, ULIMO fighters occupied all the major routes between the NPFL controlled areas in Liberia and the border with Sierra Leone.
He further said that from 1994 onwards, peacekeepers of the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) occupied all the airports and seaports in the country through which arms and ammunition would have been transported.
Taylor also said ECOMOG forces had been biased against Taylor's forces in Liberia, with an aim to stop the NPFL from taking power in Liberia. He accused ECOMOG forces in Liberia of "deceit and hypocricy" and said they were arming the Liberian armed forces in order to halt NPFL progress. Taylor defended attacks against ECOMOG peacekeepers as necessary because the NPFL "wanted to take the capital and end the suffering of the people."
"They were not peacekeepers," he said about ECOMOG forces.
Taylor's testimony continues tomorrow.
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A stone cold killer like Charles taylor stand up before the international community, especially citizens from Liberia and Sierra Leone and tell lies after lies, why doesn't he just call himself a Saint or the second coming of Jesus Christ. I wish he will burn in hell.
Well I do not know your definition of lies or a liar; however, it would have been just fine if the 90 plus witnesses would have established that this man played a major role in Sierra Leone, which they failed to do. The RUF, which was purely a Sierra Leonean group of bandits and blood suckers who had no feelings for their own brothers and sisters should be held responsible for their own act. The people of Liberia suffered at the hands of various warlords, but it is evident that they (people) did not undergo such wickedness and terror as compared to Sierra Leoneans. Hands, legs and other body parts that were dismembered from people were never the trick and act of Liberian rebels. So know the facts and agree that Taylor is not to be blamed as he never initiated such terror on his people, and would have never done that to others. S you can tell from my name, I do have a direct linage with Sierra Leone, I lost a brother and many family members, yet this does not justify any reason to be angry with neighboring Liberia for atrocities committed by our own brothers and sisters. In fact Taylor is right to have called Sankor and his RUF bandits idiots, indeed they are in fact morons okay.
i agree partly with "bangura". Charles Taylor was not fully responsible for the killing in Sierra Leone. i live at the boarder b/t Liberia and Sierra Leone doing 1990 as a refugee and displace girl of 16. what the Ruf did there was unspeakable. although Charles Taylor is responsilbe for killing Liberians and recruiting child solders.i i escape form being rape and recruited as a child solder. we African should stop pointing fingers in the wrong direction and learn to face the fact. stop blaming the world for our problems.
C. Taylor may not be guilty of everything, everywhere, but his blood soaked hands (and the many millions of dollars in foreign banks) show he did more than his part to bring misery upon countless people. It still rankles that he lives, relatively speaking (even as a prisoner), at a much more comfortable station than 99% of those he has claimed to help. (I am sure God has a special place for his ilk.)
My thanks and prayers go to angelamcgill2002 for her comments ~ further proof that, no matter what, one blessed with intelligence and heart will not only persevere, but stand up and tell the truth.
Those banks you are talking about, are those ghost banks that cant be seen.You are only looking at taylor lies, what about Ellen who sain they should burn monrovia down. She is denying being part of taylor.That is true right?
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