Brendan O’Neill: Mia Farrow is a celebrity imperialist, labouring to save Africa from itself. Never mind Naomi - the really outrageous, diva-esque, crazed celebrity in this story is her accuser, Mia Farrow
- A few years back she was calling for Western militarism in Sudan. As part of the 'Save Darfur' antics she and other celebs arranged for a Black Hawk helicopter to be placed on Second Avenue in New York with a banner pleading: 'Send me to Darfur'.
- Frustrated by the unwillingness of Washington to send the military to Darfur, Farrow held talks with Blackwater, the super-controversial private military firm that wrought so much destruction in Iraq. She was effectively trying to organise her own Mia's Military, to put the mad blacks Over There back in their place.
- She played a key role in dumbing down the complex conflict in Darfur, presenting it to Westerners as a simple case of "good vs evil". And ironically, for an actress who got into bed with the notorious Blackwater outfit, she campaigned extensively to have Khartoum officials sent to The Hague to be tried for crimes against humanity.
- When she failed on that front, too, she had to make do with playing her Hollywood colonialist card at The Hague instead.
Source: Article from The First Post - www.thefirstpost.co.uk
By Brendan O'Neill
Published: Friday, 06 August 2010
Last updated 8:07 AM, Friday, 06 August 2010. Full copy:
Lay off Naomi – Farrow’s the celebrity culprit hereWhy is everyone down on Naomi Campbell for accepting diamonds, or what she calls "dirty stones", from former Liberian president Charles Taylor? Never mind Naomi - the really outrageous, diva-esque, crazed celebrity in this story is her accuser, Mia Farrow.
Campbell only did what supermodels do all the time: as she testified at The Hague yesterday, she accepted a pouch of diamonds from men who knocked on her hotel door. She didn't even look in the bag until she'd got her beauty sleep.
Farrow, however, seems to fancy herself as a one-woman saviour of the Dark Continent. Having agitated for war against the savages of Sudan as part of her campaign to 'Save Darfur' a few years ago, she now wants to help reveal The Truth about Charles Taylor, by giving evidence against Campbell, and by extension against the former warlord.
Campbell might be a naive catwalk-strutter, but Farrow is something worse: a celebrity imperialist, labouring under a White Woman's Burden to save Africa from itself.
The actress is due to appear in person at The Hague next week, having already sworn an affidavit asserting that in South Africa in 1997, at a dinner hosted by Nelson Mandela, Campbell was given 'blood diamonds' by Taylor's people.
Campbell admitted yesterday that she had received a bag of diamonds, albeit rather miserable dirty ones. But given that there was no note explaining their provenance, she was unable to finger Taylor, as the prosecution had hoped. She also made it very clear that she did not want to attend the trial at The Hague, but had been subpoenaed to attend. "I was made to be here," she said. "This is a big inconvenience for me."
The same cannot be said for Farrow. She couldn't wait to get involved. She scribbled her affidavit and gave a primetime interview with ABC News in which she recalled the events of 1997 and explained the importance of her telling "the truth".
This is because Farrow really does believe she's a whiter-than-white celebrity activist who has a duty to fix those less-white parts of the world.
A few years back she was calling for Western militarism in Sudan. As part of the 'Save Darfur' antics she and other celebs arranged for a Black Hawk helicopter to be placed on Second Avenue in New York with a banner pleading: 'Send me to Darfur'.
Perhaps she has never seen the film Black Hawk Down, which might have given her a clue as to the kind of barbarism that can occur when the Pentagon does send fighter helicopters to African countries (in that instance, Somalia).
Frustrated by the unwillingness of Washington to send the military to Darfur, Farrow held talks with Blackwater, the super-controversial private military firm that wrought so much destruction in Iraq. She was effectively trying to organise her own Mia's Military, to put the mad blacks Over There back in their place.
She played a key role in dumbing down the complex conflict in Darfur, presenting it to Westerners as a simple case of "good vs evil". And ironically, for an actress who got into bed with the notorious Blackwater outfit, she campaigned extensively to have Khartoum officials sent to The Hague to be tried for crimes against humanity.
When she failed on that front, too, she had to make do with playing her Hollywood colonialist card at The Hague instead.
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Campbell demands photo ban at trialNews report from bigpondnews.com - Tuesday, August 03, 2010; 02:51pm - excerpt:
Campbell's lawyer, Lord Macdonald, has written to the United Nations special court requesting a ban on media coverage. ... According to the Sunday Times, Macdonald asked that 'members of the public, the media, the parties and the court not follow, photograph, video record or sketch Miss Campbell's transit to the court within the Netherlands'....
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Mandela party photo that put Naomi Campbell in 'blood diamond' stormWar crimes trial of former Liberian president may rest on events surrounding 1997 photograph taken at party in South Africa
Article from
The Guardian - guardian.co.uk
By Ed Pilkington in New York
Published: Friday, 23 July 2010 18.06 BST. Full copy:
Nelson Mandela is pictured with guests at a party in South Africa in 1997. The interaction of Charles Taylor, Naomi Campbell and Mia Farrow at the event is likely to come under the spotlight at The Hague when Farrow and Campbell appear as witnesses at Taylor's war crimes trial. Photograph: Sipa Press / Rex Features
The picture speaks volumes. At the centre of a group of 10 people stands Nelson Mandela and beside him his partner and later wife, Graça Machel. On Mandela's other flank is a short man dressed in a military-style jacket with his hand held out as though he, and not the great South African leader, was hosting the gathering.
He is Charles Taylor, and the photograph was taken a month after he was elected president of Liberia. Now Taylor is in prison at The Hague, the first African president to face trial for war crimes.
The events that surround the photograph could prove to be a significant part of the case against Taylor, who is charged with 11 counts including murder, rape and turning children into soldiers.
The picture was taken in 1997 at Mandela's home in Cape Town and the assembled guests, who included Jemima and Imran Khan, the music producer Quincy Jones and Chinese actor Tony Leung, had been invited to mark the opening of South Africa's luxury passenger rail service, the Blue Train.
To Taylor's right is Naomi Campbell, the British model, dressed in an elegant white dress and a cross pendant around her neck. Five people to Taylor's left is Mia Farrow, the actress who starred in Rosemary's Baby and several of her former husband Woody Allen's films.
The interaction of Taylor, Campbell and Farrow is likely to come under the spotlight at The Hague next month when both Farrow and Campbell are due to appear as witnesses.
Their testimony goes to the heart of the case against Taylor – that he obtained illegally procured "blood diamonds" from the Revolutionary United Front rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone, smuggled in mayonnaise jars.
The prosecution alleges he used some of the enormous profits from the sale of the diamonds to traffic weapons to the RUF, thus fomenting and prolonging Sierra Leone's brutal civil war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
Taylor has always denied the charges. "I'm supposed to be such a scumbag that people bring me diamonds in nothing more than a mayonnaise jar? How much more can you demonise me?" he told the court.
But Farrow has claimed that on that night in 1997 Taylor, struck by Campbell's beauty, arranged for the model to be given a rough diamond.
Farrow told ABC News that Campbell told her that during the night Taylor's men "knocked on her door and that they had given her a huge diamond and it was like, Oh my gosh!"
Farrow, who was in South Africa along with some of her children, insists that her memory of the conversation with Campbell is accurate. "You don't forget when a girlfriend tells you she was given a huge rough diamond in the middle of the night," she said.
She said Campbell had told her that she was going to donate the diamond to Mandela's children's charities. She added she thought no more about it until the Taylor prosecution unfolded.
The prosecution at The Hague says the incident corroborates its case that Taylor was involved in trafficking blood diamonds. But Campbell has denied receiving a diamond and has refused to speak on the subject, attempting to avoid appearing before the court.
When ABC News tried to ask her about it she ended the interview and lashed out at a camera. "I didn't receive a diamond and I'm not going to speak about that thank you very much, and I'm not here for that," she snapped.
In May, Campbell told Oprah Winfrey that she had no desire to be involved in the case against Taylor. "He has done some terrible things and I don't want to put my family in danger," she said.
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Naomi Campbell: I handed 'blood diamonds' to Mandela charityArticle from
The Daily Telegraph - telegraph.co.uk
By Bruno Waterfield, in The Hague, Aislinn Laing and Caroline Gammell
Published: 9:00PM BST 05 Aug 2010 - excerpt:
Naomi Campbell, the model, told a war crimes tribunal that she gave alleged "blood diamonds" to the head of Nelson Mandela's children's charity...
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