DIAMONDS WILL be anything but a girl’s best friend for Naomi Campbell today when she appears in the witness box at the Hague trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor.
In a script more suited to a film than the proceedings of an international tribunal, the supermodel has found herself the key witness in one of the most closely watched war crimes trials ever held.
Campbell has been accused by another witness, actress Mia Farrow, of accepting uncut diamonds from Taylor when she met the warlord at a party at the home of Nelson Mandela in 1997.
The trial of Taylor is one of the most important undertaken by an international war crimes court: he is only the second former head of state to face justice at a UN-backed tribunal. The first such defendant, former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, died in his cell of heart failure in 2006 before his trial could finish.
Taylor is accused by prosecutors at the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone of masterminding a campaign of terror, murder and enslavement by the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone to plunder the country of its so-called “blood diamonds”.
Proving that the atrocities took place has been the easy part. Reporting for The Irish Timesfrom Sierra leone some years ago, I met scores of victims who had had hands or arms hacked off by RUF soldiers, their standard terror tactic.
The trial has heard copious evidence of ritual slaughter, mass rape and even cannibalism carried out by RUF units.
Less easy to prove is a direct command link between these horrors and Taylor himself. The 62-year-old, who likes to appear in the dock dressed in sharp black pinstripes, has denied 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, insisting that, as president of Liberia, he had no control over rebels operating in a neighbouring country.
While some former RUF commanders have testified to such a link, one of the group’s former leaders has denied it, and prosecutors may struggle to establish beyond reasonable doubt that Taylor had such control.
Hence the potential importance of Campbell’s testimony. In earlier evidence, Farrow, and Campbell’s former agent Carole White, have both said that the morning after the party at Mandela’s home, Campbell arrived for breakfast and told them Taylor’s men had visited her room at midnight to present her with a set of uncut diamonds.
Taylor has insisted in his trial that he never handled uncut diamonds, so Campbell’s testimony could give prosecutors their vital link between Taylor and the blood diamonds.
So far, the supermodel has denied the story, taking a swipe at the camera of an American news crew that put the allegation to her earlier this year.
Prosecutors will be hoping she changes her mind, knowing the case may hinge in part on her evidence.
For supporter of war crimes justice, a successful conviction of Taylor is seen as vital to shore up the flagging political support for international courts.
The only other world leader charged by a war crimes tribunal is Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir, who is refusing to answer charges of genocide from the International Criminal Court. If Taylor is found guilty, war crimes justice advocates say it will be a major scalp, and final proof that, when it comes to war crimes, even a head of state is not immune to the long arm of international law.