Charles Taylor: ‘I Never Sent Weapons To Sierra Leone’

Charles Gbankay Tay­lor, for­mer Liber­ian Pres­i­dent, has tes­ti­fied at his war crimes trial in the The Hague that he never sent weapons to Sierra Leone. The trial has now fin­ished its third week. Pros­e­cu­tors in The Hague have accused for­mer Liber­ian Pres­i­dent Charles Tay­lor of 11 counts of war crimes allegedly com­mit­ted dur­ing the civil war in Sierra Leone. Among the alle­ga­tions, pros­e­cu­tors say he pro­vided weapons to the Rev­o­lu­tion­ary United Front in Sierra Leone in exchange for access to so-called ‘blood diamonds.”

But, on Thurs­day, the 61-year-old Tay­lor rejected the alle­ga­tions of a pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness who said Tay­lor had trans­ported arms to Sierra Leone by road. “I say it bluntly, it’s a lie. Bluntly, that’s as blunt as I can get,” Tay­lor said. He said there was not even a road from Liberia to that part of Sierra Leone.

“There is no such thing then, there is no such thing today in the Repub­lic of Liberia,” Tay­lor said. “That any­one in his sound mind and body can say that you can get in a truck and drive from Mon­rovia through Tub­man­burg, Gbor­polu, all the way through Fas­sama and come up to Salaye and Zor­lewu. It’s not pos­si­ble. If you really want to make it up, fine, but it was not pos­si­ble then, it is not pos­si­ble now.”

The for­mer pres­i­dent also denied alle­ga­tions that rebels under his com­mand in Liberia engaged in can­ni­bal­ism. Some wit­nesses have alleged that National Patri­otic Front fight­ers in Liberia ate the organs of those they had killed.

He alleged that the U.N. wrongly linked him to Liberi­ans fight­ing in Sierra Leone. He said that mis­con­cep­tion had landed him in jail.

The for­mer Liber­ian pres­i­dent first took the stand in his defense on July 14. He has dis­missed the war crimes charges against him as “lies” and said he had noth­ing to gain from desta­bi­liz­ing Sierra Leone.

He is the first African leader to be tried at a U.N.-backed court.

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Tags:  Charles Taylor, rebel war, Sierra Leone

By Daily Mail