The prosecution closing argument is scheduled on May 8 in the trial of Guus Kouwenhoven, which opened April 24 before a Hague-based court. The 63- year old Dutch businessman is charged with war crimes and selling weapons to Charles Taylor in Liberia from 2001 to 2003, in violation of a UN arms embargo. Having concluded the Frans van Anraat trial in December 2005 [IJT-38], the Dutch judicial system is continuing its efforts to prosecute those who are deriving financial profit from war crimes.
According to the prosecutor, Kouwenhoven operated out of Gueckedou in Guinea and out of Buchanan, Monrovia and Voinjama in Liberia. As president of Oriental Timber Company (OTC) and the Royal Timber Company (RTC), he allegedly delivered AK-47s, rocket propelled grenades, and other weapons and munitions to President Charles Taylor and his troops. Moreover, he allegedly forced his own militia that he employed to guard his lumber business to take part in crimes against Liberians, such as the murder of civilians, women and children, rape, torture and plundering.

He also supplied Taylor with a helicopter, trucks, use of the RTC camp, cigarettes, drugs and whatever the militias seemed to need, according to the prosecutor. David Crane, former prosecutor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone and author of the Taylor indictment, said at the time of Kouwenhoven's arrest in Rotterdam in March 2005 that he had long known about Kouwenhoven's ties to Taylor's inner circle and his support for the former Liberian president's militias.

Since then, Kouwenhoven has given many telephone interviews to the Dutch media from his Scheveningen prison cell, always calling the prosecution "total nonsense." He appeared at his trial in a dark suit, a white shirt without a tie and his eternal gold-rimed, tinted spectacles. On the first day, he told the judges he had never seen the Liberian horrors up close. "I only heard about them in the press. We were 400 or 500 kilometers away from the combat zones. During this time I never heard anything about civilian casualties. I did, however, hear about the many deaths." In one of his interviews with Dutch journalists he said, "I am the victim of a political game. Witnesses have been bought by the Dutch prosecutor. It is not about finding the truth. The police are not even verifying the witness statements. They do not go to the places witnesses mention. They do not want to do even the simplest investigative work and they are trying to prevent us from properly conducting our own investigation." According to a prosecution spokesperson, however, Kouwenhoven is still influential in Liberia and has made attempts, supposedly through his daughter, to intimidate and bribe witnesses there.

Cindor Reeves, the insider

Kouwenhoven prospered in the 1980's, but his empire collapsed in the 90's during the ravages of the civil war Taylor started in December 1989. Only after Taylor was elected president in 1997 he was able to rebuild his businesses. That was the time covered by the indictment, when he supported Taylor wherever he could. His timber companies, together with some others, became a key financial resource for Taylor's regime. According to the prosecution, whenever Taylor and his associates needed money, they went to see Mr. Gus and when in 2000 Taylor wanted to assemble one of his many anti-terrorist units, as he called them, he also asked Kouwenhoven for weapons and troops. The indictment says that Kouwenhoven coerced his own 2,500 militiamen to fight with Taylor's men. But according to Kouwenhoven, Taylor simply took the men without his knowledge or consent. The prosecution claims that Kouwenhoven's timber ships left Buchanan port with timber and returned with weapons. Kouwenhoven calls this a ridiculous fabrication.

To support his charges, the prosecutor called a witness who gave firsthand evidence - Cindor Reeves, who used to be one of Taylor's confidents but had a falling out with him in 2002. Afraid of the CIA, al Qaeda - with whom Taylor allegedly traded arms for diamonds according to Crane - and Taylor's henchmen, Reeves appeared in the Dutch courtroom as a protected witness, wearing a wig and glasses. He told the court that Kouwenhoven picked up the guns in person in Buchanan harbor and delivered them. "I drove to the OTC office near the harbor," Reeves said, "and there the formal transfer took place in the presence of Kouwenhoven. I signed a receipt that listed the weapons and took the list with all the arms in the containers." The witness estimates that he received arms between twenty and thirty times, with the load comprising one container at times and two or three containers at other times. The trial will take three weeks and the judgment is expected in the second half of June. If convicted, Kouwenhoven faces up to life in prison.