The Hague:The former Liberian president's trial, which is expected to last a year, begins in The Hague today, writes Chris Stephen
Former Liberian president Charles Taylor will today become Africa's first former head of state to go on trial for war crimes when his case opens in The Hague.
Taylor (59) is accused of using a campaign of terror to plunder Sierra Leone's rich diamond fields during nine years of war. His is charged with 11 counts including murder, sexual slavery, extermination and the use of child soldiers in a trial expected to last at least a year.
Human rights groups are hoping his trial will send a signal to other leaders across Africa that the days of impunity are over. "What people want is that this trial is an example to others," said James Matthew, head of Sierra Leone's National Movement for Democracy and Human Rights. "When Charles Taylor was in power, he was above the law."
In the embattled history of Africa, few warlords were more feared than Taylor. He was trained in guerrilla warfare in Libya in the 1980s before seizing control of Liberia in an uprising in 1991.
Prosecutors allege that his true interest was in the diamond fields in the neighbouring state of Sierra Leone. Taylor is accused of orchestrating an uprising by Sierra Leone rebels in 1992, which saw them seize the country's diamond fields which produce some of the best quality gems in the world.
Taylor's charge sheet says he then enslaved the local population. Some were used to excavate the diamonds from the muddy rivers, and others forced to act as "mules", walking for days through the forest to smuggle diamonds into Liberia. Those falling sick or exhausted were executed.
Meanwhile, hundreds of women were herded into camps to act as sexual slaves for the rebel army.
A particularly gruesome practice of rebel forces was the hacking-off of hands and limbs of civilians. Several thousand amputees remain in Sierra Leone, a living reminder of the bitter war that has left the country one of the poorest nations on earth.
The trial is also expected to shed light on the shadowy business of diamond smuggling. The gems plundered from Sierra Leone are alleged to have found their way to western markets. And the sale of these so-called "conflict diamonds" led to the Kimberly Process, a diamond certification programme that requires all gem stones to have a country of origin listed.
Taylor's power across west Africa is such that the trial has been moved from Sierra Leone to The Hague, where the special court is using a courtroom from the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Taylor has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and while prosecutors have no shortage of evidence of the war crimes, they may struggle to prove that Taylor was responsible.
For a conviction they must prove a chain of command stretching from the diamond fields in Sierra Leone all the way to the presidential palace in Liberia, a process that may hinge on his former subordinates agreeing to give evidence against him.
When he lost power in 2003 he fled into exile in Nigeria, triggering a campaign by more than 300 African rights groups to get him arrested.
The campaign spanned the whole continent, uniting a fast-growing movement linked by the internet.
"Taylor is associated with murder and mayhem across west Africa," said Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice programme of the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
"It sends a signal that no one, including former presidents, are above the law."
The trial comes with international war crimes justice facing an uncertain future. While Sierra Leone's special court, set up under joint government and UN command, is counted a success, cases at the International Criminal Court, the world's only permanent war crimes court, are snagged.
The ICC has issued warrants for war crimes suspects in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Sudan. But lack of support from key nations, including China, Russia and the US, has seen it unable to enforce these warrants in most cases.
Last month, Sudan refused to hand over three senior officials, one a government minister, charged by the ICC of organising ethnic cleansing in Darfur.