RIGHTS-US: Lawmakers, NGOs Launch Campaign Against Conflict Diamonds

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

Feb 15 2001 (IPS) - Angered by delays in international action to ban so-called “conflict diamonds” from global trade, a bipartisan group of lawmakers, backed by some 73 US human-rights, humanitarian, and development groups, have introduced legislation that would subject diamonds imported to the United States to tight controls.

If enacted, the bill would make it far more difficult for diamonds mined for the benefit of armed groups in Africa, especially in Sierra Leone, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to enter the United States, which imports roughly 65 percent of the world’s diamonds.

Seizing on Valentine’s Day – a holiday which drives many consumers into jewellery stores to buy gifts for their loved ones – to launch their campaign, the groups called on the jewellery and diamond industry here to support the legislation.

“It seems clear that until a major importer of diamonds such as the US prohibits the direct or indirect importation of any and all diamonds and diamond jewellery from any country that does not have controls in place, progress in establishing the international system will proceed at a leisurely pace,” the groups said in a letter addressed to Jewellers of America and the World Diamond Congress (WDC).

“We respectfully urge you to protect your own product and safeguard unwitting American consumers by supporting tight restrictions against all diamonds that emerge from countries that have not adopted the Kimberley rough controls,” the groups said in a reference to a certification system endorsed by the UN General Assembly in December.

The jewellery industry, which has proposed somewhat looser legislation to deal with conflict diamond imports, said it will examine the proposed bill.

“The prospects of enacting effective legislation will improve greatly if the industry and other interested parties can unite in support of one sound bill,” said WDC executive Director Matthew Runci. “We have been striving to find common ground and will continue to do so.”

The drive to ban conflict diamonds from global trade began more than one year ago with the efforts of a London-based group, Global Witness, to document how the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group was using its control over Sierra Leone’s diamond fields to sustain its exceptionally brutal war against the government and the civilian population.

Backed by neighbouring Liberia and Burkina Faso, which also profited from its diamond operations, RUF became notorious around the world for its trademark terror tactic of cutting off the limbs of its victims, including small children.

While the RUF’s brutality was extreme, Global Witness and other NGOs quickly focused on other African conflicts in which armed groups used proceeds from selling or smuggling diamonds to buy guns and sustain their operations.

Angola’s Unita rebel group has survived for years by mining and smuggling billions of dollars worth of diamonds, while in the DRC, several foreign armies which gained control over diamond-producing areas over various parts of the country after Rwandan-backed forces tried to oust the late president, Laurent Kabila, in 1998, are financing their intervention through gem sales.

“Just last Saturday, troops from Uganda and Rwanda once again trade gunfire over the control of the diamond mines near the city of Kisangani,” said Republican Rep. Frank Wolf, one of the sponsors of the new legislation. “These diamonds are being traded with certain governments for arms – automatic weapons – and supplies to assist armies fighting in Congo.”

The NGOs were not the only ones concerned about the role played by diamonds in prolonging conflicts in Africa. Worried that a growing association of diamonds with brutality and bloodshed in the minds of consumers could wreak havoc on the industry – in much the same way that animal-rights groups ravaged the global fur trade over the past decade – the diamond industry and other producer nations, especially in southern Africa, realised that they had to take action to ensure that conflict diamonds would not affect their ability to sell legitimate gems.

The result was the so-called “Kimberley process”, named after the South African city where major companies and exporting and importing nations met last May to discuss proposals on how to keep conflict diamonds out of the marketplace. Conflict diamonds, according to various estimates, make up between four and 15 percent of all diamonds sold commercially, out of the seven-billion-dollar-a-year global trade.

Within a very short time, the Pretoria-led process came up with a global certification scheme whereby all rough diamonds would be placed in a sealed package at their point of extraction and given a unique registration number which would enable it to be tracked as it moved to a processing centre, such as Antwerp, Bombay or Tel Aviv, and eventually to a retail outlet.

These basic standards were endorsed by the UN General Assembly in December, but negotiations for an international treaty, which are currently taking place in Namibia, have reportedly bogged down, mostly due to reservations by Russia, the world’s second-largest diamond producer, according to NGO activists. “The treaty process has slowed it down,” said Holly Burkhalter of Physicians for Human Rights (PHR).

That is why the NGOs are launching their campaign now, she said.

The NGOs last year worked closely with the WDC on proposed legislation banning the import of diamonds from countries which do not comply with the proposed certification standards, but those efforts broke up in December over a number of differences.

The most important was the insistence by the NGOs, led by PHR, World Vision, Oxfam America and Amnesty International USA, that all diamond imports, including finished jewellery, be subject to the certification process, while the industry wanted only loose diamonds covered.

In addition, the WDC proposed a more relaxed definition of “co- operation” by exporting countries. Under its bill, the Treasury Department could determine that a specific country was “co-operating” with the certification procedure so long as it was “making progress” in complying with it.

The NGOs, noting that Sierra Leone had put a certification process into effect within three months, insisted that only countries which were already complying with the procedure should be approved.

The bill Wednesday introduced by Wolf and Democrats Tony Hall and Cynthia McKinney would cover all diamonds, including jewellery, but it would also give exporting countries up to one year to comply with the Kimberley standards.

In addition, it sets up an independent commission to monitor the compliance and provides much tougher penalties, including sentences of up to 10 years in prison, for violators.

“Our bill also aims to bring relief to the victims of these wars over the control of diamonds,” said Hall. “Any contraband diamonds caught entering the US market can be seized and sold to pay for prosthetic limbs, micro-credit projects, and other relief to war victims.”