The first witness in former Liberian president Charles Taylor's war crimes trial testified that Sierra Leone rebels backed by Taylor mutilated and terrorized civilians to seize diamond fields and that Taylor used the profits to buy weapons.
But Taylor's lawyers on Monday challenged prosecutors to present evidence that linked him to widespread murder, rape and amputations during Sierra Leone's bloody civil war.
Miners -- often slave laborers kidnapped by Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) -- dug up diamonds worth between US$60 million and US$125 million each year, said Ian Smillie, a Canadian expert on conflict diamonds.
Prosecutors allege the diamonds were smuggled through Liberia and Taylor used the proceeds to buy arms and ammunition for the rebels -- earning them the name "blood diamonds."
Taylor's trial resumed after a six month recess. It was adjourned last June after a chaotic opening day during which he boycotted proceedings and fired his lawyer.
Taylor, 59, has pleaded innocent to all 11 charges of orchestrating rape, murder and mutilation in Sierra Leone from his presidential palace in Monrovia.
Taylor is the first former African head of state to appear before an international tribunal.
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