Former Liberian Leader Boycotts Trial

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor plunged the start of his landmark war crimes trial into uncertainty Monday by boycotting the hearing and firing his lawyer, saying he did not believe he would get a fair trial.

However, the judges ordered proceedings to continue against Taylor. He is charged with controlling and arming rebels who murdered, raped, mutilated and enslaved civilians during Sierra Leone's 10-year civil war that ended in 2002.

Refusing to leave his jail cell Monday, Taylor said he did not believe he could get a fair trial because he was being denied enough time or money for an adequate defense.

Taylor's court-appointed lawyer, Karim Khan, delivered the news to judges at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. He then gathered up his papers and left, despite warnings from the presiding judge, Julia Sebutinde, that he could be in contempt of court.

"This is not defense counsel making some cheap trick," Khan told The Associated Press outside the courtroom. Taylor "thought this was a railroad to a conviction and in those circumstances, he exercised his right to terminate my representation and to represent himself."

In a letter to the court read by Khan to the judges, Taylor complained that his single defense attorney was heavily outgunned by the nine-member prosecution team.

"This is neither fair nor just," Taylor wrote in his letter.

"I cannot participate in a charade that does injustice to the people of Sierra Leone ... and the international community in whose name this court claims to speak," Taylor wrote.

Taylor has said he is not guilty and that he never even set foot in Sierra Leone, reports CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar. The difficult challenge for prosecutors is to link Taylor directly to the crimes.

Prosecutor Stephen Rapp went ahead with his opening statement after Khan walked out, outlining atrocities committed by rebels and saying he would call witnesses who will directly link them to Taylor. The Liberian leader shipped rebels arms, ammunition and supplies such as alcohol and drugs used to desensitize children forced to fight. In return he got diamonds, often mined by slave laborers.

Rebel attackers "would mutilate; amputating arms, limbs, gouging eyes," Rapp said. Child soldiers were sometimes forced to kill their own parents. Women were repeatedly raped and forced into sexual slavery.

Speaking after the hearing, Rapp dismissed Taylor's concerns as administrative issues "blown out of proportion in order to create a reason for what we view as obstructive conduct in this case."

Rapp added that Taylor was getting more money for his defense — up to $2 million for the trial — than any other suspect charged by the court.

Elise Keppler of Human Rights Watch conceded that Khan's courtroom drama "certainly drew a lot of attention and tried to shift focus from the presentation of the prosecutor."

Taylor, 59, has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the period from 1996-2002. The court has no death sentence and no limit to the number of years in prison he could be sentenced if he is convicted.

The next hearing is set for June 25. It remained unclear who would be sitting on the defense bench when it resumes. The trial was expected to last 18 months.

In his letter, Taylor claimed he had been prevented from seeing a court official mandated with making sure he is properly defended.

Sebutinde called Taylor's inability to see the court official "worrying" and ordered court staff to arrange for the official, Vincent Nmehielle, to fly from Sierra Leone to meet with the defendant.

Despite the problems, the trial has been hailed as a watershed for war-torn western Africa.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the start of Taylor's trial, "a significant move towards peace and reconciliation in Sierra Leone and in the region," U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said in a statement.

"This is an important day for the international community, contributing to the fight against impunity and the strengthening of the rule of law not only in West Africa, but in the world as a whole," Okabe said.

A conviction, Rapp told the court, "will not bring back the dead from their graves, nor give back limbs to the thousands of amputees ... it will not give back the childhoods to countless boys and girls," but would give "some small measure of closure" to the people of Sierra Leone.

Thousands of children were forced to pick up weapons, kept stoned on drugs, urged to commit atrocities in one of West Africa's most brutal wars, adds MacVicar.

Ismael Beah was a soldier at the age of twelve.

"In the beginning the killings are very difficult to do, but as time goes on, you know you've lost yourself completely — it becomes your life," said Beah, author of "A Long Way Gone."

In Sierra Leone Monday, at the complex where the court trying him at The Hague usually sits, school children, researchers, rights activists and others watched Monday's proceedings via satellite hookup.

"I believe that if Charles Taylor is to be tried the truth will be out about the part he played during our rebel war and justice will be done," said Fatmata Kamara, a 17-year-old high school student.

The charges he faces refer only to events in Sierra Leone, Liberia's neighbor, although Taylor also is linked to brutality in his own country.

At the Liberian capital's largest cemetery, where most of the tombstones date from the period of the country's 14-year civil war, four gravediggers listened to radio reports of the trial. Flomo Tokpah, 54, said his older brother was killed by Taylor's forces, and that he was glad Taylor did not address the court himself.

"I don't want to hear that wicked man's voice anymore," he said.

From 1989 to 1997, Taylor led the rebel National Patriotic Front of Liberia, whose aim was to unseat then-President Samuel K. Doe. Taylor is believed to be one of the first warlords to recruit children, who were organized into a Small Boys Unit and christened with names like "Babykiller." Taylor was elected Liberia's president in 1997 and quit and went into exile in Nigeria after being indicted in 2003.

He was arrested in 2006 and transferred to The Hague a year ago amid fears his trial in Sierra Leone could trigger fresh violence in the region.