Word: sierras
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...gray and rainy Saturday, five young men are gathered at the Body Guard music studio in Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital. The modest one-story building has only two rooms and no sign out front. Inside, the walls are lined with a velveteen fabric, the floor is covered in shag carpeting and there's minimal sound equipment - just a dated computer, two keyboards, a microphone and a mixing desk. The men are recording a track called "One Love," as King Fisher, the studio's founder and father figure to all the musicians who pass through it, sits at the computer...
...Thus began the testimony of Charles Taylor, the reviled warlord and ousted Liberian President, at his landmark trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. He is facing 11 charges relating to the murder, rape, sexual slavery and mutilation of civilians by rebels in neighboring Sierra Leone - or, as the prosecution put it, he's charged with being "everything from terrorist to rapist." Asked to respond to the charges, Taylor issued a forceful denial. "It is very, very, very unfortunate that the prosecution's disinformation, misinformation, lies and rumors would associate me with such titles," he said. (See pictures...
...Taylor took the stand on July 14 at the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone for the first time since his trial began 18 months ago. He is accused of arming, training and controlling Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels, who rampaged across the country during its brutal 1991-2001 civil war. Prosecutors allege that Taylor targeted Sierra Leone so he could strip it of its vast mineral wealth, in particular its diamonds. Earlier in the trial, chief prosecutor Stephen Rapp insisted that Taylor was "an exceptional violator of human rights" who steadily provided weapons and support...
...However, it is the stories of Taylor's sheer brutality that are likely to be the most damning testimony. As many as 250,000 people were killed in the blood-soaked conflict that embroiled Sierra Leone and Liberia, even spreading into Ivory Coast and Guinea. During the course of the trial, the court - sitting in the Hague for fear of stirring up fresh unrest in Sierra Leone and Liberia - was told about how RUF rebels enslaved and mutilated thousands of civilians, who had their hands and arms severed. Some of the worst crimes were carried out by gangs of child...
...ensuing civil war lasted until 1996, and Taylor was elected President the following year. He ruled for six years before heading into exile in Nigeria, where he was eventually arrested. Taylor was sent to the Hague in June 2006, but the trial covers only his role in Sierra Leone. (See pictures of the two sides of Nigeria...