Thread:Comments:Campbell testifies against former Liberian president/Ugh

Three opinions:

1. I just love the excuse Campbell gives for needing forced to testify. It wasn't convenient. I daresay life was inconvenient for the victims of the crimes Taylor is supposed to have helped orchestrate; rape as a war crime, murder as a war crime and sexual enslavement to give some edited highlights.

2. This was supposed to be a star witness for the prosecution. In reality, she could not even confirm where the rocks came from. The trial has being going on for three years. Three years. Half that time seems to have been spent casting around in search of evidence and witnesses such as Campbell. The time for preparing your case is before a trial or even before a charge in cases such as this, not during the trial. From what little I've heard, the prosecution has buggered it up and Taylor is set to be cleared.

3. "From what little I've heard..." nicely sets up my next comment. Yeah, OK, I accept that there is some interest in hearing this part of the case against the accused. Other than in conjunction with Campbell, I think I've heard mainstream media mentions of the trial twice: once when he was charged and again at the trial's beginning. This trial is not a fucking joke or celebrity gossip. Campbell is not the news story. Taylor is. The people raped, murdered, maimed, enslaved or multiples of the above are the story. The population of an entire nation has seen everything torn apart. Sky News managed nothing on the case at all except relating to Campbell. They managed to give her testimony an hour-long special.

By joining in, and reporting just this tiny facet, we are contributing to the view that British supermodels matter and a few thousand butchered Africans do not.