In the framework of the UN war crimes tribunal against former Liberian president Charles Taylor, actress Mia Farrow is due to testify today about certain conflict diamonds pertinent to Taylor's case, the UN News Centre reports.

Model Naomi Campbell, who has been implicated in the case for allegedly accepting non-conflict-free diamonds, testified yesterday, telling Special Court for Sierra Leone that during a 1997 visit to former South African president Nelson Mandela, two unidentified men had presented her with a sack of "small, dirty-looking stones."

According to Campbell, the morning after she received the stones she discussed the occurrence with Farrow, who was also visiting and had been present at a dinner party the night before. Farrow told her that the stones were probably diamonds and likely given to her by Taylor, another guest.

Campbell said that she wanted to donate the diamonds to charity and turned them over to a representative of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund. The model said she had not known who Taylor was before meeting him at the dinner party and had been unfamiliar with the term "blood diamond" – which refers to the diamond trade that supports armed conflicts and perpetuating human rights abuses in some diamond-producing nations. The diamond industry has taken extensive steps to curb the trade in such diamonds.

The UN and the Sierra Leonean government established the SCSL in 2002. The court has a mandate to try the major figures responsible for human rights violations in Sierra Leone since 1996.