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The Diamonds and the Diva: Naomi Campbell Goes to The Hague | Open ...

When supermodel Naomi Campbell testifies this week in the trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, nobody quite knows what she is going to say. But one thing is certain: her testimony will bring global attention to a bizarre and brutal tale of celebrities, diamonds, and intense human suffering which has largely unfolded in a courtroom devoid of spectators.

Naomi Campbell is one of three high profile witnesses that prosecutors have called to testify as they re-open their case at the Special Court for Sierra Leone this Thursday. The actress Mia Farrow and Campbell's former agent, Carole White, are due to take the witness stand on Monday next week. Prosecutors say that the evidence these three women may provide could be crucial in helping them shore up a theory that ties Taylor to brutal crimes committed during the civil war that raged in Sierra Leone from 1991 to 2002.

Taylor has been accused of supporting and controlling rebel forces in neighboring Sierra Leone as they unleashed mayhem on a terrified population, using drugged-up child soldiers to rape, loot, and murder their way across the country, hacking off the limbs of men, women, and children to mark their path. Prosecutors say Taylor not only made no effort to stop or punish these crimes when he was in a position to do so, but actively helped plan the atrocities with rebels in order to terrorize the population, destabilize the country, and benefit financially from Sierra Leone's diamond wealth. Taylor has dismissed the charges as "lies."

Campbell's testimony is important, prosecutors say, because she may be able to link Taylor to a central allegation in the case: that he provided rebels with weapons in exchange for diamonds. They claim that in 1997, Sierra Leonean rebels (who by then had ousted their government) visited Taylor in Liberia and brought him a stash of diamonds, which they hoped he would use to buy them arms and ammunition during his trip to South Africa the following month.

And here is where the president of Liberia and the three ladies’ paths intersect: when Taylor traveled to South Africa in September 1997, he attended a dinner hosted by Nelson Mandela, at which he met Naomi Campbell, along with Mia Farrow and Carol White. This meeting is undisputed.

But the story of what happened in South Africa is not. According to the prosecution’s story, Taylor was smitten with the supermodel and had his men wake Campbell up that night and give her some of the rebels’ diamonds. The rest of the gems were allegedly used to buy a shipment of weapons which arrived in Sierra Leone in October 1997.

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