MICHELE NORRIS, Host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Michele Norris.
ROBERT SIEGEL, Host:
launched a rebellion in Liberia, a small West African country settled by freed American slaves back in the 19th century. Liberia's western neighbor is Sierra Leone. And it's in Sierra Leone that Taylor stands accused of masterminding and bankrolling the savage civil war in the '90s. He was driven out of office in Liberia into exile in 2003 with an indictment for war crimes issued by the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone. Two years ago, Taylor was captured and imprisoned to face those charges, all of which he denies. Fast-forward to 2008.
SIEGEL: The Special Court for Sierra Leone is seeking for the resumption of the trial in the case of the prosecutor versus Charles Ghankay Taylor. Justice Julia Sebutinde, presiding.
QUIST: Charles Taylor's trial was transferred to The Hague because of lingering security concerns that holding it in Sierra Leone could again destabilize West Africa. On the second day of the trial, the prosecution's second witness was a pastor, Alex Tambate(ph). Speaking through an interpreter, he gave harrowing testimony. One horrific account was of a group of child soldiers known as a small boys' unit who got hold of another youngster and indulged in the Sierra Leone's rebels' trademark torture tactic of mutilation.
ALEX TAMBATE: They had to put his right arm on a log. They took a machete and amputated it at the wrist. The boy was screaming, shouting, asking them, what have I done that you are doing this to me? They took the left arm again and put it on the same log and sliced it off.
QUIST: Then the boys' legs were chopped off. But the boy rebels still haven't finished with him.
TAMBATE: They were swinging the boy. They threw him over into a toilet pit. I was there. I saw it myself. The boy was screaming, shouting, crying.
QUIST: The pastor was then taken to a rebel camp where he reports hearing women being terrorized.
TAMBATE: The women, at night, they used to force to have sex with them. Sometimes you hear them scream. They used to use those women as sex slaves, and these are the things that happened.
QUIST: Charles Taylor's lead counsel, Courtney Griffiths.
COURTNEY GRIFFITHS: Of course it's part of the overall picture of events in Sierra Leone. But atrocities were committed. Nobody is denying that. Mr. Taylor isn't denying that. But the fact of the matter is, when one looks at the issues on the indictment, ask himself the question, why is this material relevant?
QUIST: Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, Dakar.