But behind the celebrity froth was important evidence linking Taylor to a
trade in illegally mined diamonds that were siphoned off to arm and supply
the rebels that left 120,000 people dead and millions of homeless, instead
of helping Sierra Leone, the world’s poorest country.
During the visit to Mr Mandela in South Africa, Taylor is alleged to have
carried a cache of diamonds to buy arms which were shipped via Burkina Faso
to insurgents in a shipment landed at Sierra Leone’s Magburaka airfield in
October 1997.
It is thought that the “dirty looking stones” given to Miss Campbell
were part of the cache. “The blood diamonds issue is an important part
of the case and the verdict will certainly review the evidence heard by the
court,” said a UN source.
The value of the diamonds looted by Sierra Leone’s rebels and allegedly traded
for weapons with Taylor, a warlord and then president in neighbouring
Liberia, could have been as high as £950 million.
The popular Hollywood film, Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo DiCaprio,
dramatised the role of the gemstone in Sierra Leone’s civil war, which took
place between 1996 and 2002.
Blood or conflict diamonds are the name for gems mined illegally, and often
under violent coercion, in African warzones. The diamonds are then used to
fund warlords or insurgents trying to take over a country.
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