Varmuyan Sherif told the court Taylor ordered him to accompany RUF leader Sam “Mosquito” Bockarie on a trip to Liberia in the late 1990's. Sherif recounted that Bockarie told him Taylor had financed his operations and provided him with a satellite phone with which to communicate with Taylor directly. Sherif said that Taylor told him to bring “whatever arms and ammunition” he ferried into the Liberian capital, Monrovia, directly to Bockarie and provide rebels with safe passage from Sierra Leone into Liberia.
Sheif said that during one trip with Bockarie, the rebel leader had a “mayonnaise bottle” on him filled with diamonds.
Just the other day, I was commentating that the Taylor trial should move beyond the horrible stories of dismemberment and child soldiers strung out on heroin and move to directly implicating this guy in the civil conflict there. Let's hope testimony like this continues, especially if the prosecution hopes to wrap this one up by 2009. I wonder what they’re going to do with Taylor when and if they find him guilty anyhow? Let him spend his final days in his “prison” cell equipped with a private kitchen and conjugal visits? Not too bad for the overseer of some of the worst war crimes in the modern era. Hmmm maybe he's onto something.