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Prosecutor closes in on Taylor's diamond haul

The prosecutor in the former Liberian president Charles Taylor war crimes trial said on Thursday he was closing in on a US$600 million blood diamond haul amassed by the defendant.

"We're working on the Taylor assets with a special team from the British government [to] make them available to victims both in Sierra Leone and Liberia," Stephen Rapp said in an interview in The Hague. "We believe there are some assets that are still there, they are not in his name but there is the ability to ... bring them back."

Since his trial opened on Jan. 7, a total of 18 witnesses have testified to Taylor's role during neighboring Sierra Leone's bloody 1991 to 2001 civil war, and Rapp said they had helped him to build a "strong and compelling case."

The Special Court for Sierra Leone is pursuing Taylor on 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Taylor, 59, is specifically accused of controlling rebel forces in Sierra Leone who went on a rampage of killing, mutilation and rape, funded by blood diamonds, during the civil war. He denies the charges.

"If the judges convict him for pillage, in part for pillaging the diamonds in Sierra Leone, we can then go back to the court after that judgment and say `these diamonds were worth X amount of money, so we want a judgment for X million dollars,'" Rapp said.

"We can then enforce that judgment against his assets and ask an order for restitution to the victims and the Sierra Leone government," he said.

Rapp said the sums amounted to US$600 million "stolen from the Liberian treasury" and largely composed of diamonds taken from Sierra Leone during the war.

He added that countries with banking secrecy laws are "increasingly willing to cooperate ... particularly when talking about individuals involved in war crimes, in a brutal civil war."

Taylor's defense team have mounted stern cross-examination of the witnesses brought to testify against him, with Rapp saying that persistent intimidation has meant an extensive witness protection program being implemented.

"We offer temporary relocation while [the witness'] situation is evaluated. At the end of the day some of them may have to be relocated to another country or continent. Generally they're not going back home immediately after their testimony. There have been threats, they are being investigated and pursued," Rapp said. "Whatever the situation, we will seek the strongest protective measures to make sure the witness is not at risk."
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