rmer Liberian President Denies War Crime Charges

Posted in News by Admin on November 9th, 2009

Liberia’s former president Charles Taylor on Thursday blamed an “intelligence plot” involving the British government for the fact that he is standing trial for war crimes charges in The Hague.

“Everything that is being played out for your honors in this case is all based on an intelligence plot with key players, senior officials in governments and intelligence agencies,” he told judges of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. “This is a careful orchestration for my destruction.”

Taylor claimed it was organizations such as the private military company Sandline, not him, that brought arms into Liberia’s neighbor Sierra Leone, where he is accused of having fueled war by arming the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in exchange for so-called “blood diamonds.”

“It is Sandline with the…knowledge and/or acquiescence of the British government, of senior ministers, that would bring in these arms and build this lie that the only way the arms are getting into Sierra Leone is because they are coming from the Charles Taylor government,” he said. “This whole thing that the British say they didn’t know: It was not possible for them not to have known. Their ambassador [was] meeting Sandline’s people all day. They are aware and to hide that fact, they put the blame on Taylor.”

The accused Taylor, 61, has been on trial since January 2008 on 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity stemming from the brutal 1991 to 2001 civil war in Sierra Leone.  The RUF is blamed for the mutilation of thousands of civilians who had their hands and arms severed in one of the most brutal wars in modern history, which claimed some 120,000 lives.

Taylor took the stand in his own defense on July 14, dismissing as “lies” charges of murder, rape, child soldier conscription, enslavement and pillaging against him.  His cross-examination is expected to start next week.