The international war crimes trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor reopened at The Hague yesterday, six months after it was adjourned when he boycotted the opening session and fired his attorney.
Taylor, 59, is accused of terrorizing the people of Sierra Leone by orchestrating atrocities committed by militias known for hacking off their victims' limbs during the country's 10-year civil war that ended in 2003.
The 11 charges against him include murder, rape, enslavement and conscripting child soldiers. Taylor, the first former African head of state to appear before an international tribunal, has pleaded innocent to all charges.
Ian Smillie, a Canadian expert on the international trade in blood diamonds, was the first witness to testify, telling the three-judge panel that diamonds fueled the war in Sierra Leone.
Prosecutors say Taylor's desire to get his hands on diamonds from Sierra Leone was one of the root causes of his alleged involvement in that nation's civil war.
Taylor, wearing a gray suit and tie and gold-rimmed glasses, listened carefully to the proceedings, but showed no emotion.
Smillie is the first of 144 prosecution witnesses, though trial attorneys expect only half of them to appear in person. The complex case will likely last nearly two years.
The second witness scheduled to testify was a victim of the militias. Taylor's defense team does not deny the atrocities happened in Sierra Leone and has argued that calling victims is an unnecessary appeal to the emotions of judges.
But Stephen Rapp, chief prosecutor at the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone, said he has an obligation to highlight the suffering of victims.
"We owe it to the victims to present some testimony in a live sense," Rapp said, so as "not to drain the case of the human element completely."
Later in the week, a former member of Taylor's inner circle will testify about how Taylor allegedly controlled and encouraged militias in Sierra Leone.
Nearly 60 witnesses will be called to draw links between Taylor and the militias, and most are expected to do so anonymously for fear of reprisals by his supporters.
The trial is being held in The Hague for fear that staging it in the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, could spark fresh unrest.
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