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Africa: The Hague Trials. Of mockery, anger and prejudice

By Aloysius AGENDIA

Ever since the trial of  Charles Taylor, the former President of Liberia  began, prosecutors at the Special Court at The Hague  had been waiting for the  day the British supermodel Noami Campbell would testify against Mr Taylor,  by admitting that Taylor gave her blood diamonds. The D-day happened on Thursday August 05, 2010 as Noami testified. She did admit that something  was given to her.  Taylor is accused among other crimes of selling Sierra Leonian diamond to purchase weapons and in turn supporting the RUF rebels in Sierra Leone. These rebels together with Taylor’s forces are said to have caused havoc in Sierra Leone and Liberia in the 90s.

I saw the testimony of Noami Campbell and it instead gives reasons that Charles Taylor "may not be connected" to any blood diamond saga adding to  the previous testimony of other Sierra Leonian rebels. This is the assumption until, it is proven otherwise. That therefore means that Noami's testimony may likely not be of any tangible evidence against Mr Taylor except there are further developments.

This does not however, vindicate Mr. Taylor of the several allege crimes. Not withstanding, he must be proven  guilty by the prosecutors.  You can watch or read the interrogation of Miss Noami  HERE, courtesy BBC. However, I find the headline and approach of the BBC and other media organs like this one overwhelmingly wanting and laced with a lot of prejudice because it makes no news if Noami accepted receiving a gift. What is more news are the overwhelming contradictions between Noami’s statements, her former manager and what many media organs in the west  were expecting to hear.

That said, Naomi dismissed all the previous allegations of her former agent, Carole White and US actress Mia Farrow who had insisted categorically that the diamonds were from Mr. Taylor. Curiously, Noami did not know the identity of the men who gave her the gift, neither did she bother to ask who was the sender nor even what the gift was. She did not even know Mr. Taylor,  she had never heard of him nor even the West African countries involved in this saga.

Just reading the comments of AP and Reuters articles relayed by yahoo, gives one the impression of how a lot more  are brainwashed.  

This adds more flesh to the declarations of Campbell that Taylor was a bloody killer and as she said “ I read in the internet”. The  comments on BBC blog show a much more diverse readership though.

 She claims the habit of receiving a lot of gifts that is why she did not bother much on knowing the content nor source of the her gift at Mandela’s residence . This may be the reason why she later “handed the gift” to a worker at the the Mandela Children Fund, a claim Mandela’s Foundation, has debunked according to a letter presented by Taylor’s defense counsel. Without acquitting Taylor of guilt, could those who brought the gift be members of some intelligence service or mercenaries aimed at bringing down Taylor, who was not himself a better president? Could it be also a well calculated move to kill any trace of the diamonds by Taylor himself, or is Noami Campbell simply lying?

 The farce of the court and sham of justice

What makes me worried is the double standard justice of the so called  Special Court  for Sierra Leone at the Hague in the Netherlands. It seems  more of a place to employ a few elites and pay them fabulous sums of money for them to chase Africans who are often never alone in their crimes. It seems more of a big farce aimed at deceiving ignorant Africans and pleasing neo-colonial agents and angering and mocking pan Africanists. Even as i write, dictators continue to commit horrible crimes in Africa with help of the neo-colonial agents. If the courts are serious let them bring all these guys to book.That would preventing a disease, rather than trying to cure a terminal infection

If at all Mr Taylor supported the RUF rebels in exchange for diamonds which he then used to buy weapons, it implies that those to whom he sold diamonds and bought the weapons should be at The Hague as well. These were the people who were supposedly pushing Taylor who in turn, pushed the rebels and the end was maiming and rapes, looting etc.

Mr Taylor seems a heck of an intelligent man. Popular opinion knows with "certainty" that Mr Taylor might have committed horrible crimes. The same popular opinion knows with same degree of "certainty" that Mr Taylor was aided in these crimes by accomplices in Liberia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, America and Europe. The Special Court for Sierra Leone at The Hague as well as the ICC guys know this so well. For the court to proof beyond reasonable doubt that Taylor committed crimes, his accomplices may need to come up and join him in the dock and testify.

Such testimonies would also drive the accomplices into the abyss because, it would have serious political and economic ramifications.  However, proponents of the New World d Social and Economic Order do not want this. It for this reason that after the seemingly charade or parade in the name of justice, Mr Taylor may not be found guilty but he may be declared guilty. The sad thing is that after all these, those who  might have aided Taylor in his supposed crimes continue to do this with impunity in various parts of Africa and the world.

It is therefore totally ridiculous to parade only Taylor as the supposed killer. This is just total nonsense of the first order. I am not in any way defending Taylor because he should be brought to book with all his collaborators in and out of Africa, if at all this court wants to stop such atrocities.  Let the gurus in America and Europe where the diamonds were allegedly sold and weapons bought be arrested too.

It is only at that juncture many may be tempted to believe that the court and prosecutors are serious. Anything short of this, is a farce.

 I do not even want to go to the extend of calling the names of other prime ministers and presidents who have invaded and are still invading foreign sovereign countries and killing, maiming and raping. That is another issue of its own. We are talking here of blood diamonds forgetting of blood oil and gas, blood gold, blood timber etc  in Africa.

It should be noted that Charles Taylor, whose son is already serving a 97 year prison sentence in the US, is being accused of 11 charges among which are those rape, torture, murder, human right abuse etc. He has denied  all the charges.

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