Taylor admits aiding Sierra Leone rebels

DAKAR, Wednesday

Former Liberia President Charles Taylor who is being tried by the UN-back court for Sierra Leone in The Hague for crimes he allegedly committed in the neighbouring country, has confessed to sending fighters to help rebels inflict mayhem on civilians during the 11-year war in the country.

The UN Special Court report said “in a surprising move, Charles Taylor reinforced the truthfulness of his former vice president’s testimony against him earlier in the trial.”

The report quoted Mr Taylor as testifying yesterday that “To a great extent, Moses Blah (Taylor’s former Vice President) told the court the truth.”

When asked by his defence counsel to give his view on his former vice president’s testimony, Mr Taylor said: “There were three areas where unfortunately, he (Blah) was wrong, but added that 90-95 per cent of what he (Blah) said is true.”

Mr Taylor’s analysis of Mr Blah’s testimony came as part of his ongoing effort to respond to evidence provided by several prosecution witnesses, disputing their claims that he provided support for the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in Sierra Leone after November 1996 at the height of the civil war which left an estimated 250,000 dead.

In May 2008, Mr Blah had testified for the prosecution against his former boss a testimony which covered Mr Taylor’s activities from the late 1980s when the two men were together in Libya and planning to invade Liberia, up to 2003 when Mr Taylor handed the presidency of Liberia to Mr Blah and sought asylum in Nigeria under pressure from the then US government of George W. Bush.

Mr Taylor went through some aspects of Mr Blah’s testimony and agreed with him that as vice president, he had no knowledge that arms and ammunition were transported from Liberia to Sierra Leone for use by RUF rebels.