The Hague, Europe:
Much of the trial at this point is repetitive with Taylor under cross examination. Taylor reiterated last week a common position taken throughout his testimony, denying prosecution allegations that he supplied the RUF rebels with arms and ammunition, which were used to commit atrocities in Sierra Leone, in exchange for diamonds.

Freetown, Sierra Leone
In May 1999 there was an attack on the country’s capital Freetown during which civilians were killed or amputated, houses set on fire and offences of sexual violence committed. The prosecution alleges that Taylor was part of the plan to commit these crimes and therefore bears responsibility for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international humanitarian law.

Sam Bockarie
Prosecution witnesses have testified that RUF commanders – including Sam Bockarie, Issa Sesay and Eddie Kanneh — made regular trips to Liberia, taking with them diamonds for Mr. Taylor. Mr. Taylor has consistently denied these allegations.

“Nobody is bringing me diamonds, not Eddie Kanneh, not Issa Sesay, nobody ever brought me diamonds. I never received diamonds from any human being in Sierra Leone,” the accused former Liberian president persisted. In supplying arms and ammunition to the AFRC and RUF sometime in 1998 using helicopters, Mr. Taylor today told the court that as of 1998, the Liberian government did not have any helicopters. “I did not have a helicopter at this time,” he told the judges.

Mi 12 Helicopter
At the start of 1999 that his government obtained an Mi I2 helicopter, which he said was too small to even transport arms.
A huge portion of the prosecution’s case throughout 2008 centered on the relationship that existed between Mr. Taylor and Mr. Bockarie.

The prosecution has alleged these two men had a “superior-subordinate” relationship, with Mr. Taylor being the “superior.” This relationship, the prosecution alleged, put Mr. Taylor in a joint criminal enterprise with the RUF, and one where he had control over RUF actions and hence could act to prevent or punish crimes committed by the RUF.

Foday Sankoh
Mr. Taylor denied allegations that he was the one who decided the replacement RUF leader when the group’s head commander, Foday Sankoh, was arrested in 2000 after the abduction of United Nations peacekeepers by the RUF. West African leaders, he said, advised that another high level RUF commander, Issa Sesay should serve as interim leader of the rebel group.

Issa Sesay
He referred to Mr. Sesay as a being “very trustworthy.” (Issa Sesay’s conviction for 16 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for crimes committed during Sierra Leone’s war was upheld on appeal this week, with the Special Court for Sierra Leone’s appeals chamber confirming his sentence of 52 years imprisonment).

NPFL
Also in his testimony last week, Taylor dismissed as “lies” the evidence of “Zig Zag” Marzah, a former member of Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), who in his 2008 testimony told the judges that Taylor was the overall boss of both the RUF and NPFL. Marzah said that the RUF and NPFL were one and the same group. He said that when NPFL rebels crossed the Sierra Leonean border, they became part of the RUF and when RUF rebels moved to the Liberian side of the border, they became part of the NPFL. They all looked up to Taylor for instructions, Mr. Marzah had said.

“It is a proofing lie. RUF and NPFL were never the same,” Taylor said.
Taylor also denied several other claims by the witness, including claims that Mr. Marzah took diamonds mined by the RUF to Taylor on several occasions; that Taylor gave him arms and ammunition from his White Flower residence to take to the RUF in Sierra Leone; that Taylor had a pregnant woman buried at the back of his White Flower residence; and that Taylor gave him orders to execute many people including civilians.

Prosecutors this week grilled Charles Taylor on allegations that his rebel forces committed widespread and systematic crimes in Liberia similar to those committed by rebel forces in Sierra Leone, that he trained and used children for combat in Liberia, that he stashed away huge amounts of Liberian government money into foreign bank accounts, and that he has lied and given inconsistent testimony while testifying as a witness in his own defense.

Atrocities
Mr. Taylor denies all charges against him, but this week did admit to inconsistencies in his own testimony. Last week, lead prosecution counsel, Brenda Hollis, questioned Mr. Taylor about crimes committed by his National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) rebel forces during the conflict in Liberia as part of a broader effort to show consistent crime patterns with RUF rebels in Sierra Leone for whom Mr. Taylor is accused of providing support.

“Crimes committed by all factions in Liberia including your NPFL were widespread and systematic in nature,” Ms. Hollis told Mr. Taylor “I’ll say it’s incorrect,” Mr. Taylor responded. Ms. Hollis disagreed with Mr. Taylor on this, pointing that Liberian rebel forces also subjected civilians to amputations, just like RUF rebels did in Sierra Leone. “There were no amputations in Liberia. That is a blatant and diabolical lie,” Mr. Taylor said.

Counsel, Brenda Hollis
Ms. Hollis told Mr. Taylor that he recruited and used children for military purposes in Liberia and it was therefore no surprise to him to learn that child soldiers were being used by RUF rebels and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), an illegal junta regime that overthrew the elected government of Sierra Leone in 1997. Mr. Taylor dismissed the claim as untrue.

AFRC
“You yourself had armed children, some as young as eight years old,” Ms. Hollis accused Mr. Taylor on Tuesday. “That is total nonsense. Every child that I held I put in an orphanage,” Mr. Taylor responded. In response to prosecution allegation that he “used children as young as 10 to man check-points,” Mr. Taylor said that “I did not use any children as young as 10 to man check-points. There were soldiers and some of them had their relatives around them but I did not use any children to man check-points.”

RUF rebels
As Ms. Hollis asserted that “use of child soldiers by the RUF and AFRC was no surprise to you,” Mr. Taylor responded that “I have no knowledge of what the AFRC and RUF did in Sierra Leone.” “I had no knowledge of the inner workings of the RUF and AFRC.” Mr. Taylor responded, adding that crimes such as amputations were not committed in Liberia and cases of rape were severely dealt with.

NPFL Jeep
Ms. Hollis told Mr. Taylor that he failed to take actions against some of his NPFL commanders who massacred civilians in various towns and villages in Liberia. Mr. Taylor insisted that he did take actions for any crimes that were brought to his knowledge.
Prosecutors questioned Mr. Taylor about bank transfers which they say allowed him to secretly buy weapons while his country was under a United Nations arms embargo. Mr. Taylor said he could not remember specifically what the money was used for.

Prosecution counsel Nicholas Koumjian sought to demonstrate that Mr. Taylor’s Liberian government purchased arms and ammunition in violation of a United Nations arms embargo on Liberia. Mr. Koumjian went through portions of a United Nations Expert report which accused Mr. Taylor and his government of busting UN sanctions, as well as involvement in Sierra Leone’s conflict.

Mr. Koumjian, reading from the UN report told Mr. Taylor that in October 2000, the Bureau of Maritime Affairs transferred 150,000 USD into a bank in Dubai and the said money was used for “sanction busting.”
“Did you know about this?” Mr. Koumjian asked Mr. Taylor. “Not specifically,” Mr. Taylor responded.

Oriental Timber Company
Mr. Koumjian also told Mr. Taylor that during his administration as president of Liberia, a letter originating from the Liberian Ministry of Finance instructed Mr. John Teng, the General Manager of Oriental Timber Company (OTC) in Liberia, to transfer 500,000 USD into a bank in Switzerland.

Swiss Banks
The money, Mr. Koumjian said, was OTC’s tax payment to the Liberian government. “Were you familiar with this instruction to transfer this tax amount not to the Central Bank of Liberia or the Ministry of Finance but to a Swiss Bank?” Mr. Koumjian asked Mr. Taylor.

UN Peacekeepers
In his response, Mr. Taylor said that he could not say what the money was transferred for but agreed that an amount like that could have had clearance from the presidency. “I do not know. I cannot recollect specifically. All I can say is that an amount like that will need some presidential clearance,” he said.
According to the UN report, Mr. Taylor’s government provided money to Mr. Sanjivan Ruprah, the former Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Maritime Affairs in Liberia.

As Mr. Koumjian pointed out on Wednesday, Mr. Ruprah was described by the UN Sanctions Committee on Liberia as “Businessman, Arms dealer in contravention of UNSC resolution 1343. Supported former president Taylor’s regime in effort to destabilize Sierra Leone and gain illicit access to diamonds.” Mr. Taylor denied that in 1999-2000, he authorized the disbursement of 1 million USD to Mr. Ruprah for the purchase of arms and ammunition.

“I did not authorize money to him to buy arms. I would have authorized money to him but the details of it, I do not know. I do not recall the details of why these amounts were paid. All I can say is that I authorized them,” Mr. Taylor said. While agreeing that he approved Mr. Ruprah’s status as a Liberian diplomat, he, however, added that he does not know every detail of Mr. Ruprah’s life. Asked if he has been honest about his knowledge of Mr. Ruprah, the former president said that “yes, what I have said is what I know. I do not know every detail of Mr. Ruprah’s life.”

Mr. Taylor’s cross-examination continues this week.