The prosecution is playing another clip from the documentary “Blood Diamonds”.  An amputee named Ibrahim Fofana describes how rebels came to his village.  He and his family were captured and taken to Tombudu.  He and five others were tied together outside a house, but there were other captives inside the house.  The rebels burned the house down.  The man describes how the rebels accused him and the others with whom he was tied up of voting for Tejan Kabbah.  The rebels amputated both of his hands.  He later learned that his family had been in the house that was burned down.  The film describes how amputation was widely used by the Revolutionary United Front.  Fofana speaks about how diamonds in Kono were seen by the RUF as their only means of support.  He says that without the diamonds there, his hands would not have been amputated.

Pros to Smillie: Have you heard of atrocities during the war in Sierra Leone, and from whom?

IS: Has heard many accounts of atrocities.  Recounts a story one of his former students told him, a woman who had been a diamond trader in Kono. 

Defense: Objection to this witness commenting on the film clip and on atrocities.  Witness is an expert on diamonds, and his testimony should be restricted to diamonds.  Pros: Witness is an expert on diamonds and conflict.  He can speak to what he knows about atrocities.  Judge Sebutinde: What’s the point of the clip, if Smillie doesn’t know the people in the documentary?  Pros: The Court has an obligation to hear the voices of victims.  Judge Sebutinde: There’s no foundation for the showing of these documentary clips.  Rules to uphold the objection of the defense.  Prosecution must lay a foundation for statements by the witness.

Pros: Asks IS to continue story of his former student.

Judge Sebutinde: Interrupts to say that this is hearsay testimony and the line of questioning should not be continued.  Witness should restrict testimony to diamonds and diamond mining.

Pros to IS: What kind of mining took place in SL during the war?

 IS: After war broke out, from approx. 1991-2002, all mining was artisinal, alluvial.