Charles Taylor did give Naomi Campbell diamonds: the dictator was therefore lying!

The British super model Naomi Campbell admits to getting “dirty looking stone” in the trial of former President Charles Taylor. Taylor is in The Hague on trial for serious human rights violations in Liberia whilst he was president of that country and for supporting rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leon. He is said to have helped the Sierra Leon rebels buy arms using money obtained from selling diamonds. Charles Taylor denied he ever got diamonds from the rebels. The prosecutor believed he did and that he gave some away, to Ms Campbell.

Ms Campbell has pointedly refuse to comment on the matter but, under oath she finally admitted.

Of course the stones were dirty; they were "bloody" diamonds and human blood can not be washed off easily as Charles Taylor is only now realising. When he was in power he never thought for one minute that he would ever be held accountable for all the suffering and deaths he was causing. 250 000 lives lost! This is a sad day for all dictators across Africa especially in Zimbabwe and Sudan. The writing is on the wall: YOU ARE NOT ABOVE THE LAW! Thank you Miss Campbell you can donate the dirty stones to millions of victims of the conflict in Sierra Leon or Liberia – they need the money more than you.

@ Mack Nyati You are condoning Charles Taylor because this is the same stupid arguement we here all the time from him, and his fellow travellers like Mugabe and his cronies. There are very important differences between Taylor and the Western leaders

@ Mack Nyati Trust you to miss the most important and obvious difference of all between Africa’s dictators and Western leaders. In the West the legal system WORKS! In an American is angry with President Bush or Obam he or she can take him to court and expect justice. We are talking about Charles Taylor being responsible for the murder of hundreds of thousand Mugabe tens of thousands and the nationals of these countries have no one to go. The legal systems in these African countries do NOT work.Yes I agree that a foreigner may not get justice in America for a crime committed against him by the American government but would he get justice in Liberia or Zimbabwe? Murder is murder yes but surely one can not put the murder by a stranger on par as that committed by a father or a Police Officer. You can be warned about stranger and the other two hold positions of trust!

@Themba KhumaloYou are clearly of the old pre-independence school of thought were blacks were conditioned to see everything the blacks leaders said or did was to be praised to the roof and it was unthinkable to question it. Any black person who did was considered a white sympathiser and that was a crime for which many blacks were lynched. Do you remember the “necklacing” in South Africa?Dictators like Charles Taylor and Robert Mugabe have caused so much suffering and misery and murdered thousands of our own people and you still believe they should be praised? Well that is down right stupid! You are the one suffering from a overpowering inferiority complex and thus over compensating it by simply refusing to see a black leader as capable of making a mistake let alone commit mass murder! Black or white we all make mistakes because we are all fallible; you want to “prove” black are superior by pretending they are NOT fallible. And to do by sweeping under the carpet mass murder! Well you have proved that you are really, really stupid!I am a very proud African but I am not proud that Africa has been dragged through hell by ruthless dictators and misguided idiots. That must be put right and I am looking forward to the day when every African will be treated with respect and human dignity and the continent is prosperous and at peace. That day is coming but first we must have the courage to clean up and imprison murderers!

@Themba Khumalo

My point exactly! Just because I have unreserved condemn what Charles Taylor and Robert Mugabe have been doing you immediately conclude that I must have supported what the apartheid regime and all the other colonial regimes were doing in Africa. That is why you write “Our own Mandela WAS taken to court, but you might not want to know”.

I do know what happened to Mandela, Mugabe, Nyerere, Banda and all the other heroes and heroines whose names are not in the history books of Africa’s struggle against white colonial domination. The very fact that there are serious human rights violations and tragic human suffering after independence tells me that something went wrong after independence. There are leaders with a vision and a good heart like Nelson Mandela, there a mediocre leaders Morgan Tsvangirai with a good heart but, unfortunately, with very little grey stuff between their ears and then they are ruthless dictators like Mugabe. We have all manner of leaders just as we have in characters in a family. Just because someone played a key role in the struggle for independence does not mean they must all be like Mandela.
The very fact that we are having this discussion is itself proof of just how far we still have to go in Africa. Common sense, my friend is not that common! Still, I should be pleased; at least we have started!