Charles
Taylor, the former Liberian president, admitted last
week during his war crimes trial that his government spent about $630,000 on the firm of a powerful Washington, D.C., lawyer, Lester Hyman, between September
1997 to April 1999 to improve Liberia's relations with Washington and secure
access to influential Democratic officials, including then-President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary
Clinton.
A U.N.-backed prosecutor has charged Taylor with 11
counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for lending support to the
brutal Sierra Leonean rebel movement, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), that
allegedly killed and maimed thousands of civilians during the country's civil
war in the late 1990s. The prosecution maintains that Taylor armed the RUF in
exchange for access to Sierra Leone's diamond mines.
Taylor has denied the charges.
Prosecutors have sought to show that Taylor lavished large sums of money and
mineral concessions on D.C. lobbyists and other influential Americans, including
the conservative evangelist Pat Robertson, to purchase influence in Washington, D.C. At the same
time, they said, he deprived his own citizens of basic services. Robertson, who signed a gold exploration deal with Taylor's government
in the 1990s, denied through a spokesman that he provided any services to
Taylor in exchange for the deal.
In an interview with Turtle Bay, Hyman acknowledged his firm had represented the Liberian government in its
dealings with the United States, but denied he received so much money for his
services. "It was a minuscule amount," Hyman said, though he could not recall
the precise amount. "Money was never the factor. It was a great loss for me and
for the firm."
Hyman said that he had urged the U.S. Departments
of Justice and Defense
to provide training to Liberian troops and police, and pressed the Clinton administration to allow American firms to invest in
Liberia. The United States, he recalled, declined. "I
was never representing Charles Taylor; I was representing the 3 million citizens of the country," Hyman added.
"They were the ones who were really suffering. I was trying to see if I could
resolve some of the problems between the United States and the Liberian
government."
Hyman wrote a letter to President Clinton in July 1999 asking him to meet with
Taylor during a trip to the U.N. General Assembly, according to court documents.
The meeting never took place because Taylor changed his mind at the last minute
and canceled his travel plans, according to Hyman. Hyman also arranged to set
up a private meeting between Hillary Clinton and Taylor's wife Jewel Howard
Taylor, where they discussed African microenterprise programs, he said.
For his part, Taylor selected Hyman to manage the country's lucrative maritime
registry in 2000, taking over from another American company that had fallen out
of favor with Taylor. Hyman served as shareholder and chairman of the American
firm Liberian Shipping and Corporate Registry (LISCR),
which oversaw the registry. "Lester, I can say he was a friend," Taylor said.
The prosecution also cites
the efforts of retired U.S. Army General Robert A. Yerks to advise
Liberia in 1999 on how it could improve relations with the United States,
noting that he had reached out to senior officials in the State Department.
Taylor said Yerks received no payment for his services. But a U.N. report from
2000 indicated that Yerks has been linked to the transfer of diamonds in the
region.
It remains unclear how successful Hyman and Yerks were in convincing U.S. officials
to improve their relations with Liberia. But Taylor believed Hyman played an active role in persuading American
authorities to expunge Taylor's criminal record following his escape from a Massachusetts
prison before the war. "Yes, he did have some involvement in dealing with the legal
matters about the escape, yes," Taylor said.
The lead prosecution counsel in the war crimes
case, ret. U.S. Air Force Col. Brenda Hollis, asked Taylor whether
Hyman was able to persuade then-Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright, a friend of Hyman's, to have the charges dropped. "I'm sure State
had something to do with it," Taylor said. "I'm not sure if it was Secretary
Albright personally."
Hyman said that he had approached Albright but that she refused to intervene to
press Massachusetts to clear Taylor's record. "Madeleine Albright's position
was that this is a matter that has to be resolved by the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts," he said. "The most Madeleine would say was that [the State
Department] would abide by whatever decision the district attorney there made."
Efforts to reach Albright, who is traveling abroad, through a representative of
her office this weekend were unsuccessful.
A State Department spokesman declined comment this
weekend.
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