Rough Trade: Diamond Industry Still Funding Bloody Conflicts in Africa

[sasha031]

The global diamond trade is continuing to fund vicious civil wars in countries such as Ivory Coast and Liberia, despite international efforts to blacklist stones from regions at war.Human rights campaigners warn, in the approach to Valentine's Day, that an international system of regulating the gem trade is being systematically bypassed. Millions of men, women and children are being killed, injured and made homeless as a result. According to a Global Witness and Amnesty International report released today, "conflict diamonds" from Liberia are being smuggled into neighbouring countries for export, and stones from strife-torn Ivory Coast are also finding their way on to the British and other European markets.



In Liberia, a bitter eight-year civil war, which has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced more than a million, has been fuelled by the illegal diamond trade. Diamonds from Ivory Coast are smuggled to Mali and sold on the international market to provide millions of dollars in revenue for rebel factions such as the Forces Nouvelles.Amnesty International and Global Witness are calling on the public to protest against the international trade in conflict diamonds. Shoppers are being urged to ask sales staff at jewellers where their diamonds come from and whether the areas are conflict-free.
Under existing guidelines retailers should be able to provide a copy of their company policy on conflict diamonds and a written guarantee from suppliers about the origin of the stones.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0210-06.htm

[leesa]

1. Pat Robertson working for the Lord.