The actress Mia Farrow has told a war crimes court that she had heard the supermodel Naomi Campbell say she had been given a "huge diamond" by Charles Taylor when he was Liberia's president. Ms Campbell appeared at the Special Court for Sierra Leone last week and said she had been given "dirty looking pebbles" after a 1997 charity dinner in South Africa, but did not know if they were diamonds from Mr Taylor, who is on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In court today, Ms Farrow said she had seen Ms Campbell join a group of guests at breakfast after the dinner, hosted by South African president Nelson Mandela, and that the British model had immediately started relating something that had happened overnight. "She said in the night she had been awakened by men knocking at her door that said they had been sent to her by Charles Taylor, and they had given her a huge diamond," Ms Farrow told the court, adding that Ms Campbell had been "quite excited" about it.
Ms Farrow said Ms Campbell had then said she intended to give the diamond to the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, adding that "it was a sort of an unforgettable moment". Prosecutors are seeking to link the diamonds to Mr Taylor to prove allegations, which he denies, that he received diamonds from rebels in Sierra Leone and used them to buy weapons. Prosecutors questioned Ms Farrow about the breakfast events in 1997, showing her Ms Campbell's testimony from last week and a US media interview in which she denied saying the diamonds were from Mr Taylor or denied getting diamonds at all.
Ms Farrow said Ms Campbell's versions of events were not consistent with hers. "Naomi Campbell said they came from Charles Taylor," she added under questioning. Taylor is charged with 11 counts of instigating murder, rape, mutilation, sexual slavery and conscription of child soldiers during wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone in which more than 250,000 people were killed. He denies all the charges. *Reuters
