Victims of "conflict diamonds"

January 12, 2000
Web posted at: 11:43 p.m. EST (0443 GMT)

In this story: Maintaining a fragile peace Barbaric acts stem from diamond mines The Belgian connection Industry shares blame Diamond-origin disclosure sought RELATED STORIES, SITES

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (CNN) -- The quest for diamonds in some African countries has fueled years of bitter fighting between government and rebel forces and brought about tens of thousands of civilian deaths.

According to a report published on Wednesday by the Canadian nongovernmental organization Partnership Africa Canada (PAC), the seven-year war in Sierra Leone was fueled by warlords, gangsters, government officials and international mining firms willing to go to almost any length to obtain valuable stones.

PAC is especially critical of the major diamond market in Antwerp, Belgium, saying Belgian officials ignored signs that many of the diamonds purchased from Liberia and other countries had clearly been smuggled out of Sierra Leone.

"There will never be a lasting peace in Sierra Leone until the diamond industry as a whole is properly managed, said Ian Smillie, co-author of the report.

U.S. Rep. Tony Hall, D-Ohio, said that during the war in that country "rebels had a group of maybe 500 soldiers, but because they seized the diamond mines, they quickly increased their 500-man army to 20,000, with some of the best weapons on the market".

In Angola, where war has raged for 25 years, the rebel forces known as UNITA are thought to have earned nearly $4 billion from so-called "conflict diamonds" since 1992.

Maintaining a fragile peace

A Global Witness report A Rough Trade: The Role of Diamonds in Angola during the 1990s

"Tension and mistrust among the parties to the conflict continue," said Annan. "In addition, unruly members of some armed groups continue to attack, rob and rape civilians in parts of the country, while humanitarian workers are denied access to large parts of the population."

Robert Fowler, Canada's ambassador to the U.N. who is on a week-long visit to Angola, met the commander of the country's armed forces on Wednesday to try to trace the origin of rebel weapons. He is also reported to have met captured UNITA rebels.

"We have to identify the origin of the equipment (weapons) and figure out how it arrived in this country," he said.

Fowler arrived in Angola last Saturday to inspect efforts to stop rebels trading diamonds for arms and identify the sanctions-busting countries.

He is to report his findings to a special U.N. session on Angola on January 18 and present a formal report to the Security Council in March.

Barbaric acts reported at diamond mines

The Canadian report on Sierra Leone's diamond trading urges the country's government "to ensure transparency, high standards and rigorous integrity in its diamond purchasing, valuation and oversight activities".

A professional diamond unit should be created to anticipate and counteract criminal activity, the report recommended.

The Belgian connection

"In recent years, there have been a number ofjudicial inquiries which have shown that the overall (Belgian) system violates almost any system of neutrality, and is an invitation to corruption," the report says.

For example, Liberia's average annual mining capacity is 100,000 to 150,00 carats -- yet the HRD recorded more than 31 million carats imported into Belgium from that country between 1994 and 1998.

The report said that since the diamonds could not all have been mined in Liberia, it was obvious thatmost had been smuggled from Sierra Leone and other countries.

Similarly, the Ivory Coast apparently exported more than 1.5 million carats to Belgium each year between 1995 and 1997, although its diamond mining industry was closed in the mid-1980s.

In Sierra Leone in 1998, the government exported a mere 8,500 carats, but the HRD registered imports of 770,000 carats for that year coming from that country.

Smillie said PAC wanted a high-level inquiry into the diamond industry in Belgium. "The authorities are afraid that tightening up the industry will drive it out of Belgium to Israel, Lebanon or somewhere else," he said.

"In our view that's not a good enough reason to do nothing," said Smillie.

Industry shares blame

"If De Beers were to take a greater interest in countries like Sierra Leone and if it were to stop purchasing large amounts of diamonds from countries with a negligible production base, much could be done to end the current high levels of theft and smuggling," the report says.

De Beers says it stopped trading in Sierra Leone many years ago and recently ceased doing business in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Tim Capon, a director of De Beers, said the company was not a policeman and that "we are fairly confident that we are not handling any diamonds that can be described as conflict diamonds".

The company pointed out that conflict diamonds account for only 7 percent of world diamond trading and cautioned against action that could harm legitimate trading.

Diamond-origin disclosure sought

"I think if consumers knew the diamonds they were looking at were conflict diamonds, there would be a significant decrease in the buying of these kinds of diamonds," said Rep.Hall.

Correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Reuters contributed to this report.

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