THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Charles Taylor's deputy testified in the war crimes trial of the former Liberian president on Wednesday, describing how a Sierra Leonean rebel leader answered to his boss.
Moses Blah was Taylor's vice president from 2000 until hetook over as interim president for three months in 2003 afterTaylor stepped down and accepted asylum in Nigeria as part of apeace plan.
Blah was subpoenaed to testify in Taylor's trial forinstigating murder, rape and terrorism in Sierra Leone's1991-2002 civil war, arming Revolutionary United Front (RUF)rebels in return for diamonds.
More than 250,000 people died in intertwined wars inLiberia and Sierra Leone. The fighting in Sierra Leone beganwhen ex-army corporal Foday Sankoh and his RUF took up arms.
Asked about relations between Taylor and Sankoh dating backto the 1980s, Blah told the court: "He called Mr Taylor chief."
Blah also described his first encounter with Liberian childsoldiers, some aged 13 and even younger: "Little boys weredragging their weapons behind them."
"They were very aggressive indeed ... they wereunreasonable and they had no sense of direction."
Blah is the 27th witness the prosecution has called of thesome 72 it plans to question in a trial that got underway inearnest in January. Taylor denies all charges against him.
Stephen Rapp, the chief prosecutor of the U.N.-backedSpecial Court for Sierra Leone, told Reuters last week thatBlah, like other witnesses, had been threatened.
The trial is being held in the Hague for fear ofdestabilising West Africa. Last month a former fighter told thecourt he had killed men, women and babies on Taylor's ordersand had eaten the heart of a former rebel leader.
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(Reporting by Emma Thomasson; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)
