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Naomi Campbell confirms diamond gift in Taylor war crimes trial

Aug 5, 2010, 14:35 GMT

Supermodel Naomi Campbell is seen on a screen in the pressroom of the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone in Leidschendam, Netherlands, 05 August 2010. EPA/VINCENT JANNINK/POOL

   The Hague - British supermodel Naomi Campbell told international prosecutors Thursday she was given rough diamonds as a gift in South Africa in 1997, but did not know whether the 'dirty- looking stones' were sent to her by former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor.

   The 40-year-old model was testifying as a witness in the international tribunal against Taylor, 62, in The Hague.

He is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly backing rebels responsible for widespread atrocities during a civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone.

   The diamonds had been delivered in the middle of the night in a jewellery box to her hotel room by two messengers, the supermodel confirmed for the first time.

But she added she did not ask who the package was from. 'It was late and I was tired,' she said during her two-hour testimony.

   She had only opened the package the next day, she said. 'I saw a few stones. They were very small dirty-looking stones.'

   It was the first time that Campbell, who was ordered to appear as a prosecution witness, admitted to receiving the controversial gift during a visit to South Africa in 1997.

But she was cautious not to identify Taylor as the man behind the gift.

   Her testimony is seen by the prosecution as crucial in backing up its allegation that Taylor received so-called 'blood diamonds' from Sierra Leone in return for his support for the rebel movement there.

   Campbell, who was a joint dinner guest with Taylor at the residence of former South African president Nelson Mandela in September, 1997, said she had never met Taylor until then.

   She denied having been 'flirtatious' with him and said, back in 1997, she did 'not know where Liberia was.'

   Campbell said she had handed the stones to Jeremy Ratcliffe, the representative of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, the next day so that they could benefit the cause of the charity backed by her.

   However, she revealed during questioning that Ratcliffe, who later left the charity, never handed over the gems. He had told her only last year in a telephone conversation that he still had the stones, said Campbell, adding it was something she had been 'astonished' to hear.

   In a letter to the court, the Nelson Mandela Childrens' Fund said it 'never received a diamond or diamonds from Ms Campbell or from anyone else. It would have been improper and illegal to have done so.'

The supermodel said she was told over breakfast by US actress Mia Farrow and her own former PR agent, Carole White, the next day that the stones were likely to be uncut diamonds, and that they were 'probably' sent to her by Taylor.

   When Farrow suggested that only Taylor could have given the stones to her, Campbell said she replied: 'I guess it was.'

   International prosecutor Brenda Hollis has said she hoped to prove with Campbell's statement that the former Liberian dictator had so- called blood diamonds, mined in rebel areas to finance the purchase of arms worth hundreds of millions of dollars for Sierra Leone.

   The supermodel, who is no stranger to courtroom dramas and angry clashes with the media, had initially been reluctant to testify in The Hague, but was finally subpoenaed to appear.

Taylor has rejected the charges and insisted he never received diamonds. He is accused of 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, for being directly responsible for mass killings, rapes, sexual enslavement, torture, and the enforced recruitment of child soldiers.

   More than 120,000 people died in the civil war in Sierra Leone, until it ended with the deployment of West African peacekeepers in 1999.

   Campbell said she was 'horrified' to learn that Taylor had supposedly 'killed thousands of people' when she looked him up on the internet long after the meeting in South Africa.

   Campbell said she had been reluctant to come to the court in The Hague because she did not 'want to endanger my family in any way.'