Blood Diamonds

Naomi Campbell Admits to 'Dirty Rocks'

Was given gems by Charles Taylor.

Someone was fooled by the rocks that she got: Supermodel Naomi Campbell testified on Thursday that she was given a bag of diamonds by Charles Taylor, the former Liberian leader on trial for war crimes at The Hague. Campbell said she was in a South African hotel in 1997 when two men knocked on the door in the middle of the night and gave her a small pouch. She only looked at the contents the next morning, when she saw a few “small, dirty looking stones,” Campbell testified. At breakfast, she told her friends Mia Farrow and modeling agent Carole White, one of whom said the gift was obviously from Charles Taylor. Taylor is charged with 11 counts of instigating rape, mutilation, murder, sex slavery, and forcing children to become soldiers in brutal wars in his country and Sierra Leone; prosecutors also say Taylor took diamonds from Sierra Leone rebels and used them to buy weapons. He denies all charges. Campbell’s testimony is important for prosecutors in establishing when Taylor acquired the diamonds.