Former Liberian president Charles Taylor, testifying in his war crimes
trial in The Hague on Thursday, said that his government had awarded
American televangelist Pat Robertson a gold mining concession in 1999
and that Robertson later offered to lobby the Bush administration on
the government's behalf.
The revelations came in the midst of Taylor's U.N.-backed trial on 11 counts of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during Sierra Leone's 1990s civil war. Taylor is accused of directing a Sierra Leonean rebel group, the United Revolutionary Front, in a campaign aimed at securing access to the country's diamond mines. The rebel movement stands accused of committing mass atrocities in the West African country in the late 1990s, including the mutilation of thousands of civilians.
Prosecutors at the Special Court for Sierra Leone contend that Taylor offered concessions to Westerners in exchange for lobbying work aimed at enhancing his image in the United States. They maintain that he also spent an additional $2.6 million paying lobbying and public relations firms to influence in his favor the policies of former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Under cross-examination, Taylor said that Robertson had volunteered
to argue Liberia's case before U.S. officials and that he had had
spoken directly to Bush about Taylor. He also confirmed that
Robertson's company, Freedom Gold, signed an agreement to exploit gold
in southeastern Liberia, but that it never generated any profit.
Source: Colum Lynch, Washington Post
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