DATE=8/22/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=AFRICA / DIAMONDS
NUMBER=5-46894
BYLINE=JOSEPHINE KAMARA
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
NOT VOICED:
INTRO: Experts say many of the wars now raging in
Africa would have ended long ago but for a single
commodity - diamonds. In Angola, Sierra Leone and the
Democratic Republic of Congo, insurgents have been
selling diamonds to finance their military efforts.
In an effort to stop the fighting, the United Nations
is making an unprecedented attempt to stop the illegal
trade in diamonds. Josephine Kamara has the story.
TEXT: Conflict diamonds, blood diamonds, "gem-o-cide"
- this is the new language of the world of diamonds.
If diamonds are forever, they are also fueling
conflicts in Africa that observers fear may last
forever. This has raised concern among diplomats.
Among them, the U-S ambassador to the United Nations,
Richard Holbrooke:
/// 1st HOLBROOKE ACT ///
I think that the world has only recently begun
to recognize that diamonds, the most beautiful
of all gemstones, are also a deadly component of
some the worst conflicts on earth.
/// END ACT ///
Angola has been at war for more than a quarter
century. A recent report to the U-N Security Council
calculated that Angola's rebel movement has sold
nearly four billion dollars worth of diamonds since
1992. With that wealth, it purchased an arsenal of
weapons equal to that of the Angolan government.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, rebels are
smuggling diamonds out of the country and using the
profits for weapons. The government has also turned a
diamond-mining concession over to the Zimbabwean army
in exchange for the backing of over 20,000 Zimbabwean
troops.
And in Sierra Leone, rebels have used hundreds of
millions of dollars in diamond profits to buy weapons.
Last month, the U-N Security Council slapped an
embargo on all diamonds from Sierra Leone, where the
fighting has been especially cold-blooded, with rebels
systematically chopping off the arms and legs of
civilians -- including children -- to terrorize the
population under their control.
Sierra Leone's minister of mineral resources, Mohamed
Deen, attacked the rebels' brutality and said the
government, unlike the rebels, wanted to use the
country's diamonds to rebuild the country:
/// 1st DEEN ACT ///
Rape, amputation, abduction, indiscriminate
killings and other atrocities against innocent
civilians. From now on, the government is
determined to use the nation's diamonds as a
tool for development, progress, wealth and
prosperity for its people.
/// END ACT ///
But the high hopes of the Sierra Leone government will
have to wait, as it has lost control of the primary
diamond areas to the rebels. In addition, much of the
nation's diamond wealth disappears into the pockets of
political leaders and diamond merchants. The
corruption has spread from Sierra Leone to other
nations in Africa that do not produce diamonds but
play a major role in facilitating the illicit trade in
diamonds.
According to Ambassador Holbrooke, the leaders of at
least two nations have become wealthy men as a result
of Sierra Leone's civil war:
/// 2nd HOLBROOKE ACT ///
The governments of Liberia and Burkina Faso,
through the actions of their
presidents, are fueling the war in Sierra Leone
and profiting from the arms-for-diamond-trade.
I recognize fully well that this kind of candor
and this kind of explicit statement is not
always welcomed at the United Nations and thus
causes controversy.
/// END ACT ///
Ambassador Holbrooke's statement came only a few
months after similar accusations by Canada's former
ambassador to the U-N, Robert Fowler, who charged the
presidents of Burkina Faso and Togo with profiting
from Angola's illicit diamond trade.
(OPT) In the case of Sierra Leone, specific charges
have been made against Charles Taylor, president of
neighboring Liberia. It was reported that he directed
the tactics of Sierra Leone's rebels to ensure they
maintained their hold on the diamond fields.
Mr. Taylor was reported to have a personal role in
arranging arms shipment into Liberia and across the
border into Sierra Leone in exchange for a hefty
commission on diamonds coming out of rebel-held areas.
These charges, which appeared in U-S and British
media, have also circulated at the United Nations.
But Liberia's foreign minister, Moni Captan, said the
charges were not proved.
/// 1st CAPTAN ACT ///
Now what is surprising about this is that almost
all of these journals and radio stations have
said that their sources are based on Western
intelligence. Now the Western intelligence is
presenting the journalists reports as their
evidence. And I'm a bit confused.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Captan has not actually denied the charges. Nor
have they been denied by officials from Burkina Faso
and Togo, which are also accused of profiting from the
illicit diamond trade from Angola. (END OPT)
Under pressure from the U-N Security Council, steps
are being taken to police the diamond trade. Sierra
Leone is creating a new certification system to prove
its diamonds have been mined and exported legally.
And a few weeks ago, officials at the world's largest
diamond exchanges, meeting in Belgium, created the
World Diamond Council to clean up the trade. Its
president, Elai Izakof, said any trader in illicit
African diamonds will be expelled from the
organization.
/// 1st IZAKOF ACT ///
Expulsion means their picture is posted
throughout the world in the trading floor. And
this man is a pariah like the list of the FBI's
most wanted. He cannot do any business; he may
as well forget about being in the industry. We
have a moral question above business question -
that we must rid ourselves of conflict diamonds
regardless of any business consideration. First
of all, I believe we are going to get every
diamond dealer throughout the world cooperating.
/// END ACT ///
But some remain skeptical that the diamond industry
can police itself. Peter Takirambudde follows West
Africa for Human Rights Watch. He says some diamond
officials on the government side in Sierra Leone are
known to cooperate with the rebels. So he thinks the
new certification scheme could be corrupted.
/// 1st TAKIRAMBUDDE ACT ///
We're concerned that these steps by themselves
would be largely insufficient to block the trade
which helps to finance the war in Sierra Leone
and other culprit areas on the African
continent. The absence of an independent
auditing regime suggests that it would not be
possible to assure that the system is going to
work.
/// END ACT ///
Another problem in stopping the trade is that diamonds
are hard to trace. Even when the gems are examined by
experts using the most advanced techniques of
magnification, there appears to be no sure way of
determining where they come from. Diamonds can be
laundered as easily as money is, by sending them
through Russia, India or another country before they
get to cutting houses in Europe.
But whatever the difficulties, Jeffrey Laurenti of the
U-N Association says that if the world's diamond
traders don't find a way to manage the problem, many
consumers may come to despise diamonds as they do
animal furs.
/// 2nd LAURENTI ACT ///
The last thing they want is people going into
Tiffany's or into their hometown jewelers and
they're turning their noses on diamonds because
they think it they're covered with blood.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Laurenti says that if the diamond industry cannot
stop the trade in blood diamonds, the industry might
face stronger sanctions from the U-N. (Signed)
NEB/JK/KL
22-Aug-2000 14:41 PM EDT (22-Aug-2000 1841 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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