Naomi Campbell boosts Charles Taylor Trial Profile

Over the past 3 years the Charles Taylor Trial in Hague has received very little media coverage and the majority of Sierra Leoneans are disengaged from the process. A couple weeks ago ABC news got a hold of a statement made by actress Mia Farrow regarding a dinner she attended in South Africa back in 1997 in honor of Nelson Mandela. According to Mia Farrow, Naomi Campbell who was also present at the dinner confessed that late at night she was awoken by some strange men who presented her with a rough uncut diamond from Charles Taylor then president of Liberia. The prosecutor of the Taylor trial had presented this evidence to the court in an effort to get a subpoena for Naomi testify to say that she received the diamond from Charles Taylor. The prosecutor was denied the subpoena and it didn’t make much news then when it happened. But ABC news got its hands on the story and cornered Naomi Campbell in an interview in which she publicly stated that she did not receive any diamonds and that she didn’t want to talk to about it. She storms out of the interview upset and agitated.

YouTube – Naomi Campbell Snaps at ABC news Over Blood Diamond Scandal

Ultimately, it’s Mia Farrow’s words against hers and with Naomi’s reputation as it is no one is going to believe that she is telling the truth. We don’t imagine that she is the type of person who would say no to a free diamond (would you?) or care whether it was traded for weapons in a civil conflict in Sierra Leone.The Taylor trial and the UN Sierra Leone Special Court are merely to exonerate the powers that be for their failures to take action and intervene during the worst years of the civil war. If you ask the average Salone man if they believe that the Special Court has or will get justice for the thousands of people who suffered from the war, their answer would be a simple “NO”. Most of us believe that the greatest legacy of the Special Court will be weighted salaries to expatriates, inflating the real estate market, and big white SUVs.

The people of Sierra Leone should be grateful for Naomi Campbell’s eccentrics because she has single-handedly boost the profile of the Taylor trial and now the world’s talking. And our humble nation and one of the world’s foremost supermodels will forever be linked, no one will forget us now (wink wink).