The first witness in Charles Taylor's war crimes trial testified that Sierra Leone rebels backed by Taylor mutilated and terrorized civilians to seize diamond fields, and that Taylor used the profits to buy weapons.

Charles Taylor AP PHOTO

But lawyers for the former Liberian president Jan. 7 challenged prosecutors to present evidence that linked Taylor to widespread murder, rape and amputations during Sierra Leone's bloody civil war.

Miners — often slave laborers kidnapped by Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front, or RUF — dug up diamonds worth between $60 million and $125 million each year, said Ian Smillie, a Canadian expert on conflict diamonds.

Prosecutors allege the diamonds were smuggled through Liberia, and Taylor used the proceeds to buy arms and ammunition for the rebels, earning them the name "blood diamonds."

Taylor's trial resumed after a six-month recess. It was adjourned last June after a chaotic opening day during which he boycotted proceedings and fired his lawyer.

Taylor, 59, is accused of orchestrating rape, murder and mutilation in Sierra Leone from his presidential palace in Liberia's capital Monrovia. He has pleaded innocent to all 11 charges.

Taylor is the first former African head of state to appear before an international tribunal.

Fleeting video images of maimed victims cast a grim shadow over the first day of evidence.

One diamond miner shown in a video clip said RUF rebels forced him to lay out his arms and then hacked off both his hands so that he could never again vote in elections.