The Charles Taylor War Crimes Trial.

Former Liberian President, Charles Taylor, is currently on trial in the Hague charged with 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Sierra Leone's long civil war. As the trial is ongoing I have to be a little bit careful about what I say.

However what we do know is that during the civil war someone was selling illegally mined diamonds known as conflict or blood diamonds and using the proceeds to arm rebel groups. These rebel groups then went on to carry out some of the worst crimes against humanity ever committed. One of the most serious allegations is that they forced children to take crack cocaine before giving them guns and sending them out to kill and eat enemy fighters and civilians. We also know that these rebels were armed, in part, with guns that the British Army somehow managed to lose from their warehouses on the British mainland.

The incident the Court is currently examining involves a party held in South Africa in 1997. Here it appears that the then South African President, Nelson Mandela, invited Charles Taylor to a party along with some of the worlds most beautiful women. It is alleged that at this party Charles Taylor gave one of these women, British supermodel Naomi Campbell, a pouch of these diamonds, presumably in an attempt to get into her pants. The head of Nelson Mandela's charitable foundation then took these diamonds from Ms Campbell and locked them in his safe for 13 years so they could be entered into evidence at Charles Taylor's trial.

The only problem the prosecution are having at the moment is Naomi Campbell's witness testimony. In a bad tempered Court appearance in which Ms Campbell appeared to be lying she refused to name Charles Taylor as the man who gave her the diamonds. This contradicts the testimony of the other witnesses and creates a doubt as to Charles Taylor's guilt. Therefore it's not hard to imagine that the British have been putting pressure on one of their subjects to provide false testimony in Court in order to help one of their friends escape justice.