ABC News Investigations of the Year:
Dec. 28, 2010 — -- This week, the Blotter is reprising 10 different Brian Ross Unit investigations that made a difference in 2010. Today: Naomi Campbell is forced to take the stand in a war crimes trial, and renting cars at your own risk.
A Supermodel, a Dictator and Blood Diamonds
ABC News began covering the international war crimes trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor several years ago, with numerous stories about the eccentricities of the ex-warlord, who is accused of using illicitdiamonds to pay for weapons that fueled the bloody civil war in the neighboring West African nation of Sierra Leone. But in 2010, when ABC News began pursuing the issue of some specific "blood diamonds" that had allegedly belonged to Taylor, the investigation led to a celebrity delivering important testimony against Taylor and the return of the long-lost gems.
In 1997, supermodel Naomi Campbell and actress Mia Farrow were guests of then-South African president Nelson Mandela when Charles Taylor showed up at the presidential mansion. Farrow told ABC News that Campbell had told her that representatives of the Liberian strongman had brought her a large diamond that night. Farrow also produced a photo of Taylor and Campbell together at Mandela's house.
Campbell declined to come to the international court in the Netherlands that is trying Taylor to testify about the gems, though the gems were believed to be important evidence that Taylor had been in South Africa using uncut diamonds to buy weapons. During New York's Fashion Week, ABC News producers confronted Campbell backstage and asked her if she'd ever received gems from Taylor. The supermodel denied receiving the jewels, slapped the ABC News camera aside and stalked out of the interview. The confrontation was part of a Ross Unit Investigation that aired on Nightline in April.
