Taylor pleads not guilty to war crimes

FREETOWN - Former Liberian President Charles Taylor has pleaded not guilty to war crimes in Sierra Leone and challenged the legality of the international court set to try him.

Making his first appearance since his arrest before the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone, Taylor listened stony-faced as the list of 11 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and other charges was read out.

Asked to plead, the man who was once one of Africa's most feared warlords and known as "Pappy" to his child soldiers told the judge, Samoan Justice Richard Lussick: "I do not recognise the jurisdiction of this court."

"Most definitely, your honour, I did not and could not have committed these acts against the sister republic of Sierra Leone," he added, flanked by police officers and wearing a dark blue suit and a red tie.

Taylor said he understood the charges against him, which accuse him of involvement in acts of terrorism, murder, rape, enslavement and use of child soldiers in Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war.

"I think that this is an attempt to continue to divide and rule the people of Liberia and Sierra Leone and so most definitely I am not guilty," Taylor said.

The hearing was adjourned but no new date was set for Taylor's next court appearance.

Remaining deadpan inside the court, he blew a kiss to family members as he left.

He was flown in handcuffs to Freetown last week, after Nigerian police thwarted his attempt to flee to Cameroon after nearly three years in exile in Nigeria.

His court-appointed defence lawyers said Taylor wanted to be tried in Sierra Leone, not in the Dutch city of The Hague as the court's president has requested, citing concerns over security.

"He wants to be tried in Sierra Leone and nowhere else," his principal defence counsel, Vincent Nmehielle, said.

During the hearing, a UN armoured vehicle stood guard outside the gates of the high-security court compound. Inside, a contingent of 250 blue-helmeted Mongolian UN troops protected the perimeter wall.

Mastermind

Taylor is viewed as the mastermind of intertwined wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone which killed more than 300,000 people and shocked the world with stories and images of child soldiers high on drugs killing, raping and looting.

There are fears Taylor's presence in Freetown could trigger unrest, both in Sierra Leone and in neighbouring Liberia, where some of his supporters have threatened violence if he is tried.

Outside the court, Sierra Leoneans were glued to their radios and televisions to try to catch reports of the hearing.

"There are a lot of blackouts in the city, but people will be turning on their generators ... people just want to see a glimpse of the trial," said Samuel Suluku, 29, many of whose relatives were killed in the war.

"This is a good day. I am so glad and happy that he is being tried. He is a West African terrorist," said Ali Tullah, 18.

But members of Taylor's family who had flown from Liberia said they feared for his life.

"I think he will not get a free trial because he has already been indicted, tried and sentenced in the papers and in the media," said one of his sisters, Louise Taylor Carter. She and four other relatives had brought him religious books to read.

The prosecution's case summary is a catalogue of horrors.

"Civilians were shot, burnt in their homes, hacked to death and killed while trying to escape from attacks on their homes or from their captors," part of it reads.

So many child soldiers took part that special units were formed for them, one of them known as the Small Boys Unit (SBU).

Some civilian victims had the initials of the Taylor-backed Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels carved on their bodies.

Taylor started a rebellion in Liberia to overthrow then-president Samuel Doe in 1989. The uprising turned into a 14-year on-off civil war in which 250,000 people were killed.

Taylor was elected president of Liberia in 1997 but left for exile in Nigeria in 2003 as part of a peace deal.

- REUTERS