Blood Diamonds Cause and effect essay
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Tammy
Write an academic essay where you show a clear relationship between cause and effect, you will write your essay in the third person.
“Blood Diamonds”
Use the APUS Online Library article databases, no open web sources.
You need a minimum of three sources for your essay.
Integrate the sources using MLA format.
All essays should be 750-1000 words, in MLA format.
Remember to include your checklist.
Cause & Effect - Writer’s Checklist
All questions should be answered in complete sentences and should be submitted separately in word document.
1. What is the cause or effect you are analyzing in your thesis?
2. How have you explained the cause-and-effect relationship?
3. How did I organize my causes and/or effects so that they would follow a logical structure?
4. How did I conclude my essay so that it would end effectively?
5. Identify one change you have made as a result of proofreading your essay.
DISCLAIMER: As with Essays #1 and #2, your paper is automatically submitted to Turnitin when you submit it at the assignment location. Originality of attachments will be verified by Turnitin. Both you and your instructor will receive the results.
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References: see below
References for Essay on Blood Diamonds Cause and effect
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African Security Review |
BLOOD DIAMONDS
Effective African-based monopolies?
Full access
DOI:
10.1080/10246029.2001.9628118
CHRISTIAN DIETRICHa
pages 99-114
Publishing models and article dates explained
· Published online: 27 Jul 2010
Abstract
Few issues are currently as haunted by rumours and allegations as diamonds. ‘Conflict’ diamonds fuelling African wars originate mostly in Central Africa. Vast quantities of rough diamonds pass through rebel territory in this region. In Angola, UNITA controlled the export of diamonds for many years. The main rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) tax and regulate artisan miners who sell to dealers. Both Angola and the DRC established exporting monopolies in 2000 to reduce smuggling and increase official state revenue. The monopolies were promoted as a means to prevent conflict diamonds from entering the legitimate rough trade. Both were meant to bring order to local diamond markets. This essay appraises their success by establishing whether state revenue, transparency and oversight have increased, and official outlets for conflict diamonds have been reduced. Principal foreign power sources behind the monopolies are examined and allegations of links are assessed, highlighting specific cases to present a more complete picture of the dynamics in the monopolies, seeking to separate fact from fiction.
Details
· Published online: 27 Jul 2010
Author affiliations
· a International Peace Information Service , Antwerp, Belgium
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Zimbabwe economy: Blood diamonds?
EIU ViewsWire . (Apr 3, 2009).
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Abstract (summary)
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Critics have concluded that Zimbabwe's diamond industry is "out of control". Mr [Robert Mugabe]'s government has been accused of expropriating diamond properties and companies without due process, awarding prizes to "cronies" in the ruling party and the military, and using "brute force" to clear the diamond fields.
Full Text
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Zimbabwe economy: Blood diamonds?
FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT
There have been further calls to ban trade in Zimbabwean diamonds, because of fears regarding human-rights violations. This will do little for government plans to form joint ventures with international miners.
The World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) has called for a ban on trade in Zimbabwean diamonds, alleging that the process is funding "human-rights violations" by Robert Mugabe's government. The WFDB is not alone in its concerns: the EU has called for an investigation by the Kimberley Process--the international certification scheme that seeks to ensure that diamonds do not fund conflict--and has expressed concern that the Mugabe government is receiving financial support from dealings in "illicit" diamonds.
The calls cast further doubt on claims by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) that the country is capable of producing and exporting US$1.2bn of diamonds a month. The RBZ governor's own export figures put diamond sales over the past four years at US$31m annually, halving from a peak of US$44m in 2005 to US$22.6m last year, and the claimed totals would in fact exceed total global output (valued at US$12.1bn a year).
The basis for the central bank's extravagant claim, and the focus of the EU/WFDB concern, would appear to be the same: production from the controversial Marange/Chiadzya diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe. These deposits--whose size and output are unknown--were originally discovered by Kimberlithic Searches, the Zimbabwean exploration arm of the world's main diamond-producing company, De Beers. The De Beers concession, first granted in 1980, expired in 2006 when the claim was acquired by a UK-based firm, African Consolidated Resources (ACR), which started mining in December 2006, only to be immediately shut down by the Zimbabwean government. A court order won by ACR nullifying the state takeover was overruled by the mines minister, and the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) took over the diamond properties, producing an estimated US$15m-worth of stones in 2007.
However, a diamond rush started in September 2006 and accelerated after the state moved in, so that by mid-December an estimated 15,000-20,000 "illegal" artisanal miners were working the alluvial deposits. Police and army units were deployed and the miners driven out, meaning that by mid-2007 there was little evidence of mining other than by the ZMDC. Subsequently, Air Marshall Perence Shiri--formerly commander of the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade, used by the Mugabe government to crush so-called Ndebele dissidents in the west of the country in the early 1980s--became involved in mining at Marange.
Late last year there were reports of "scores" of miners being shot dead by security forces and a report released earlier this year by Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) says that by January 2009 the diamond fields "resembled a military garrison". The PAC believes that the mines are being worked by soldiers and villagers from Marange press-ganged into service by the authorities.
Kimberley "isn't helping"
The PAC is also highly critical of the "failure" of the Kimberley Process to investigate Zimbabwe's diamond industry. Some Process members argue that it is not a human-rights organisation and accordingly there has been no discussion of Zimbabwe's exclusion from the agreement.
However, critics have concluded that Zimbabwe's diamond industry is "out of control". Mr Mugabe's government has been accused of expropriating diamond properties and companies without due process, awarding prizes to "cronies" in the ruling party and the military, and using "brute force" to clear the diamond fields. The WFDB, donors and non-governmental organisations like PAC are likely to keep up the pressure on the government to come clean about the Marange fields and to restore the properties of the mining companies that have been dispossessed. This suggests that the central bank's stated hope of arranging joint ventures between international mining groups and the ZMDC, and so massively boosting Zimbabwean diamond earnings, look remote, especially given the drastic decline in the global diamond industry over the past six months.
Word count: 649
(c) 2009 The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. No further reproduction is permitted.
Indexing (details)
Subject
Economic conditions ; Economic indicators
Location
Identifier / keyword
Title
Zimbabwe economy: Blood diamonds?
Publication title
Publication year
2009
Publication date
Apr 3, 2009
Year
2009
Publisher
The Economist Intelligence Unit N.A., Incorporated
Place of publication
New York
Country of publication
United Kingdom
Publication subject
Business And Economics , Political Science--International Relations
Source type
Reports
Language of publication
English
Document type
web
ProQuest document ID
466451096
Document URL
http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/docview/466451096?accountid=8289
Copyright
(c) 2009 The Economist Intelligence Unit Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. No further reproduction is permitted.
Last updated
2015-02-07
Database
ABI/INFORM Global
The Blood Diamonds of Surat: Spurred by high domestic demand, diamond traders in India are importing stones from Africa's killing fields.
Shantanu Guha Ray in Surat. India Today (May 16, 2011).
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Abstract (summary)
Every night, sweatshops in Surat come alive with traders casually hawking diamonds wrapped in paper napkins as if they are freshly baked cookies. A buyer opens the conversation without fear or formality: "Su maal chhe tamari pase (do you have the product)?" The transaction is not laboured. A deal can be clinched in a minute. The stones, smuggled from African countries such as Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and The Congo, are "conflict" diamonds without the mandatory Kimberly Process (KP) certificate, offered at 30 per cent lower than the price charged for stones with kp certificates. Local police officials admit that the knuckle-sized diamonds also come from the Ivory Coast, banned from trading by the United Nations following accusations of human rights violations at their mines. Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Angola are the other nations banned from diamond trading. A host of countries like the US, UK and Australia have censured Zimbabwe on its human rights record. Surat traders answer with a shrug. The onus to check on the antecedents of the stones does not lie with them, they say.
[Surat] traders love such friction. The more the divide within KP on whether to impose a total ban or increase monitoring, the more they benefit. "Surat's dependence on illegal diamonds is India's biggest, worst-kept secret," says Chandubhai Suta, 56, a small-time diamond trader who has been in the business for a little over a decade. Last year, he sought police protection because he opposed such imports. His opposition to the sale of such stones evoked protests from the town's majority diamond traders who blamed him for bringing a bad name to their profession. Suta was forced to backtrack.
The continued smuggling from conflict zones is causing trouble because Surat traders are now coming under the scanner of global watchdogs. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has routinely raised alarms on such illegal imports. Early in March, E. Radhakrishna, Surat's joint police commissioner, told some of the town's big diamond traders that it was imperative for them to demand a kp certificate because the business was growing in India at an annual rate of 25 per cent and it was important to maintain checks and balances. Some argue that blood diamonds constitute only 15 per cent of India's $9 billion trade, others put the figure between 30-40 per cent. The Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), however, maintains blood diamonds do not exist in the world. "There are no blood diamonds in the industry, Gujarat or India. We are not aware of any such trade," says Rajiv Jain, chairman, GJEPC. Last week, GJEPC officials told reporters that they were alarmed at the recent incident in Surat where two traders were caught smuggling in blood diamonds. "It will help us clean the system," said one GJEPC official.
Full Text
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On April 22, two traders from Navsari, located 35 km from Surat, were arrested by officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) for hawking blood diamonds smuggled from Zimbabwe and Nairobi. "Prembhai Patel and Zohrabhai Desai have confessed to their crime of carrying blood diamonds worth Rs 10 crore," says a DRI official. The stones, once cut and polished for the local market, would have fetched over Rs 100 crore, say traders in Surat.
Every night, sweatshops in Surat come alive with traders casually hawking diamonds wrapped in paper napkins as if they are freshly baked cookies. A buyer opens the conversation without fear or formality: "Su maal chhe tamari pase (do you have the product)?" The transaction is not laboured. A deal can be clinched in a minute. The stones, smuggled from African countries such as Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and The Congo, are "conflict" diamonds without the mandatory Kimberly Process (KP) certificate, offered at 30 per cent lower than the price charged for stones with kp certificates. Local police officials admit that the knuckle-sized diamonds also come from the Ivory Coast, banned from trading by the United Nations following accusations of human rights violations at their mines. Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Angola are the other nations banned from diamond trading. A host of countries like the US, UK and Australia have censured Zimbabwe on its human rights record. Surat traders answer with a shrug. The onus to check on the antecedents of the stones does not lie with them, they say.
The illegal trade happens because the traders take advantage of the divide within KP-the Congo-based agency that monitors the movement of blood diamonds-on whether there should be a total suspension of supplies or whether such mining should be strictly monitored.
KP is an international governmental certification scheme set up in 2003 to prevent trade in diamonds that fund conflict. Under the scheme, governments certify that shipments of rough diamonds are conflict-free. Many have argued against the scheme because Zimbabwe has been defended most strongly by KP members South Africa, Namibia, The Congo and Russia. Worse, the certification scheme is itself in turmoil after its chairman, Mathieu Yamba of The Congo late last month cleared Zimbabwe to sell diamonds from its Marange field, which produces over a million carats of the stones every month and is considered the world's biggest zone for conflict diamonds.
Yamba's move is significant as it allows the Surat Rough Diamond Sourcing India Limited (SRDSIL), a consortium formed by over 1,500 diamond traders, to directly source rough diamonds from miners in Zimbabwe. The step was considered unprecedented because miners are meant to sell their products only after KP certification. Expectedly, the move has triggered protests from major diamond importers like Israel and the United States. Surprisingly, no diamond traders reacted from India.
Last year, SRDSIL and the Zimbabwe government signed an MOU for the regular supply of diamonds worth $1.2 billion a year in exchange for training Zimbabweans in Surat's diamond processing units. SRDSIL was formed to tap the huge resources of rough diamonds from Marange to facilitate direct access to rough diamonds for small and medium traders. KP feared direct sourcing would help traders sell conflict diamonds from Marange but the SRDSIL refused to budge.
Ian Smillie, one of the kp architects who resigned in 2009 in protest against its functioning, has called the organisation farcical, irresponsible and a disgrace. "Here we have a (Zimbabwe) government that has lied repeatedly to the KP and has a strong grip on its diamond industry, thanks to gross human rights violations. The regulatory body that is supposed to assure consumers that the diamonds it certifies are clean ignores its responsibility."
Yamba's announcement, which has drawn opposition from the World Diamond Council (WDC) and governments of the US, the European Union, Canada and Israel, was prompted by huge demands from Indian traders, many of whom have made Zimbabwe their second home.
Surat traders love such friction. The more the divide within KP on whether to impose a total ban or increase monitoring, the more they benefit. "Surat's dependence on illegal diamonds is India's biggest, worst-kept secret," says Chandubhai Suta, 56, a small-time diamond trader who has been in the business for a little over a decade. Last year, he sought police protection because he opposed such imports. His opposition to the sale of such stones evoked protests from the town's majority diamond traders who blamed him for bringing a bad name to their profession. Suta was forced to backtrack.
There are enough indications that within a year, India and China will easily overtake the US as the world's biggest importers of diamond. Last year, demand for diamonds rose 31 per cent in India, followed by China's 25 per cent and a mere 7 per cent in the US India has an added advantage, processing 92 per cent of the world's stones in both sweatshops and state-of-the-art factories that employ over a million people who slice, polish and facet the rough stones into sparkling gems.
The continued smuggling from conflict zones is causing trouble because Surat traders are now coming under the scanner of global watchdogs. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has routinely raised alarms on such illegal imports. Early in March, E. Radhakrishna, Surat's joint police commissioner, told some of the town's big diamond traders that it was imperative for them to demand a kp certificate because the business was growing in India at an annual rate of 25 per cent and it was important to maintain checks and balances. Some argue that blood diamonds constitute only 15 per cent of India's $9 billion trade, others put the figure between 30-40 per cent. The Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), however, maintains blood diamonds do not exist in the world. "There are no blood diamonds in the industry, Gujarat or India. We are not aware of any such trade," says Rajiv Jain, chairman, GJEPC. Last week, GJEPC officials told reporters that they were alarmed at the recent incident in Surat where two traders were caught smuggling in blood diamonds. "It will help us clean the system," said one GJEPC official.
The Diamond Trading Corporation (DTC), a subsidiary of De Beers, the world's largest diamond company, says blood diamonds account for just 4 per cent of the global trade though Global Witness, an international NGO, puts the figure at over 25 per cent. Prices for rough diamonds rose by around 27 per cent in 2010 from a year earlier.
Indians account for about 65 per cent of the $26 billion in diamond trade revenues, up from about 30 per cent two decades ago. Indian businessmen have made major inroads into the traditional Jewish-dominated hubs of Antwerp in Belgium and Tel Aviv in Israel. Indian traders pushed the Jewish diamond business to a lowly 25 per cent from 70 per cent two decades ago.
In 2010, the diamond jewellery market in India grew by 45 per cent over the previous year. For some of the branded players, the growth was as much as 70 per cent. The diamond industry has fuelled Indian demand with sophisticated advertising. "The interest in diamonds is driven by promotions by players," said a Technopak study in 2010, predicting a steady 45 per cent growth over the next few years.
Surat is the centre of this action. Every morning, hundreds of black-marketers mingle with genuine dealers and huddle over their briefcases of illegal raw stones in the day market at the bustling Mahidharpura Heera bazaar (diamond market) and do brisk business. In the night, the market operates in dingy by-lanes close to the Varasa Road.
"We cannot tell where blood diamonds come from. It is virtually impossible to keep a tab," says Dinesh Navadia, 64, president of Surat Diamond Association (SAD). Navadia says the town's small and medium traders source rough diamonds from the secondary market at high premium. "They push their products to retailers across India. If you want to find out who these retailers are, you are effectively asking me to launch India's biggest investigation," he adds.
The global rough diamond demand in 2010 was estimated at $13.8 billion and the supply at $12.5 billion. The demand this year is expected to be at $17 billion with consumer demand shifting eastwards (read India and China). At the same time, demographic changes have also tended to sap demand in traditional Western markets, forcing Surat traders to seek newer markets: 70 per cent of polished diamonds are now exported to Hong Kong, China, the UAE, Israel and Australia.
"Indians need diamonds, rarely caring about their source. The demand is very high," says a top Mumbai-based businessman who owns a mine in the Congo, the world's second-largest producer of diamonds by volume. In 2009-10, the Congo produced more than 33 million carats, accounting for around 20 per cent of the world diamond market. Worse, nearly half of the country's exported stones were untraceable. It is rumoured that the diamonds were illegally purchased by Indian and Chinese traders.
Diamond traders from Surat, over the years, have developed good contacts with miners in Chiadzwa fields in Marange. "They pick up conflict diamonds through contacts in Harare," the sources added.
It was recently widely reported across Zimbabwean media that Indians were in touch with two companies-Mbada Diamonds and Canadile-airlifting diamonds to Harare International Airport in gross violation of kp norms. One of their conduits, Canadile's marketing directors Komalin Pakirisamy and V. Naidoo, were arrested in Harare on charges of smuggling conflict diamonds. Both are currently out on bail. Last November, a local court in Surat sentenced Robai Hussain of Guyana and Yusuf Ossley of Lebanon to four years imprisonment for smuggling blood diamonds, the first such case in India.
Thanks to contacts in faraway Africa, supplies continue from the seas in dhows from Dubai, where diamonds first land. The dhows, and at times fishing boats, travel the shallow waters of the state's largely unmanned west coast and make a mockery of global attempts to checkmate flow of blood diamonds. "The dhows will keep coming because of high demand at home," said one trader.
In Surat, the business in conflict diamonds is done in cash and no questions are asked. "We buy from agents who come from Dubai in dhows. Some come from Mumbai by road. We get an agency to polish and then get a buyer who, in turn, sells it to a domestic jewellery company or an export firm, which then exports the stones with a certification that they were not imported from conflict areas," says Ashwin Meta, a medium-rung trader.
The supplies normally come to Hazira, a small port town that is also home to some of India's biggest steel plants, 32 km from Surat. Local traders say the supplies continue through the year, increasing during the festive season from September to December. "Around that time, workers in Surat work overtime to ensure supplies," says Ashok Anand, a diamond trader. Since most of the supplies are meant for the domestic market, there is no pressure on the sellers to reveal sources. The business is handled with consummate ease because the products are small. No one notices.
Anand should know. Surat has just one daily flight to and from Delhi. Every time the small aircraft takes off from Delhi, it is full of Africans, many discussing business with local diamond merchants. "We have many visitors from across Africa," says Nimesh, a sales executive at the city's Lords Inn hotel. On paper, even SRDSIL plays it safe, insisting only on kp-certified supplies from Africa. "We signed the agreement with Zimbabwe for only KP-approved rough diamonds," says Chandrakant Sanghavi, one of the five founding directors of SRDSIL.
The London-based Amnesty International says India and China are encouraging illegal trade and, knowingly or unknowingly, funding bloody conflicts in parts of Africa. Those who fail to strike deals in Zimbabwe head to Mozambique's Vila de Mancia, a town close to the Machipanda frontier often referred to as diamond country. Surat diamond traders flock here because dealers come from Somalia, Mozambique, the Congo and Sierra Leone and offer diamonds in tea bag-size sachets, such as packets of shampoo. "It is easy to operate all over Africa if your passport is in order. Direct import is impossible. This is how stones from Zimbabwe become taint-free," says a diamond dealer.
Some even go to South Africa. Diamond mining in eastern Zimbabwe is handled by companies in which South Africa's Old Mutual group has a share. The companies are now setting up a diamond-cutting operation at Harare airport that will allow them to export diamonds without the KP certification. No one from Surat would like to plug the loopholes in the illegal trade. In India, the origin is not important, the end product is. For Indians, diamonds are forever.
Word count: 2137
(Copyright (c) Living Media India Limited. Not to be reprinted or reused in any way without prior permission of the publisher.)
Indexing (details)
People
Company
Title
The Blood Diamonds of Surat: Spurred by high domestic demand, diamond traders in India are importing stones from Africa's killing fields.
Author
Publication title
Publication year
2011
Publication date
May 16, 2011
Year
2011
Section
The Big Story
Living Media India, Limited
Place of publication
New Delhi
Country of publication
India
Publication subject
General Interest Periodicals--India
ISSN
02548399
Source type
Magazines
Language of publication
English
Document type
News
ProQuest document ID
866512770
Document URL
http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/docview/866512770?accountid=8289
Copyright
(Copyright (c) Living Media India Limited. Not to be reprinted or reused in any way without prior permission of the publisher.)
Last updated
2011-10-04
Database
ProQuest Research Library
Illicit Diamonds: Africa's Curse
Rasna Warah. UN Chronicle 41.3 (Sep-Nov 2004): 20-21.
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Abstract (summary)
The link between diamonds and conflict in Africa and the role of international players in the illicit diamond trade were recently discussed at a seminar in Nairobi Kenya, on resource-based conflicts organized by the Society for International Development's East Africa Chapter. Warah discusses the link between diamonds, poverty and conflict, which is evident in countries such as Sierra Leone, where the rich alluvial diamond fields of the Kono District and Tongo Field were among the most prized targets of the Revolutionary United Front.
Full text
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Just as the history of Arab States is intimately tied to the discovery of oil in the region, the discovery of diamonds in Africa has not only impacted the continent's history, but has been one of the leading causes of conflict.
The link between diamonds and conflict in Africa and the role of international players m the illicit diamond trade were recently discussed at a seminar in Nairohi, Kenya, on resource-based conflicts organized by the Society for International Development's East Africa Chapter. It is interesting to note that Africa's most conflict-ridden countries-Angola, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo-are also the most diamond-rich countries on the continent, as well as the most poor and underdeveloped. Conflict or "blood" diamonds have fuelled wars and led to the massive displacement of civilian populations in many African nations. While conflict diamonds represent a small proportion of the overall diamond trade, illicit diamonds constitute as much as 20 per cent of the annual world production. The level of illegality gives an opportunity and a space for conflict diamonds.
The report reeounts the corrupting of Sierra Leone's diamond industry, from peak exports of 2 million carats a year in the 1960s to less than 50,000 carats by 1998. The country's despotic President during much of this time, Siaka Stevens, had tacitly encouraged illicit mining by becoming involved in criminal or near-criminal activities himself. When the RUF began waging a war in 1991, Liberian leader Charles Taylor acted as mentor, trainer, banker and weapons supplier for the movement. The RUF also took on the role of diamond supplier to the illicit international trade. "It is ironic", says the report, "that enormous profits have been made from diamonds throughout the conflict, but the only effect on the citizens of the country where they were mined has been terror, murder, dismemberment and poverty".
The PAC report supports the idea that there was virtually no oversight of the international movement of diamonds. In the 1990s, for instance, billions of dollars worth of diamonds was imported into Belgium from Liberia, even though the latter produces very few diamonds. This can only be explained by the fact that big and small companies were colluding in the laundering of diamonds in West Africa, using Liberia as the conduit country. Much of the laundering was done by local Lebanese traders who have been living in West Africa for over a century.
Lebanese immigrants began arriving in West Africa as refugees fleeing the hardship caused by the silk-worm crisis which struck Lebanon in the mid-nineteenth century. Among the earliest recipients of those immigrants were Senegal and Sierra Leone, then under European colonial rule. According to Lansana Gberie, a researcher who has written about the Lebanese connection in Sierra Leone's diamond trade, since the 1950s, "diamonds have been the linchpin of Lebanese business and a range of subterranean political activities".
In her paper, "War and Peace m Sierra Leone: Diamonds, Corruption and the Lebanese Connection", published by the Diamonds and Human Security Project in 2002, Gberie describes the beginnings of the Lebanese trade in diamonds: "Diamonds were discovered in Kono District, in eastern Sierra Leone in 1930, and that same year, as word of the discovery spread, the first Lebanese trader arrived in Kono and set up shop, ahead of colonial officials who did not want to establish a district office there until two years later. They were also ahead of the British-owned Sierra Leone Selection Trust, which was granted exclusive diamond mining and prospecting rights for the entire country in 1935. From that time until 1956, when an alluvial diamond mining scheme was enacted, it was illegal for anyone not working for the Trust to deal in any way with diamonds. However, illicit mining activities were rampant, with many Lebanese subsequently settling in Kono and funding Africans to mine and sell their finds to them."
In the 1950s, the illicit diamond mining and smuggling increased dramatically, and it was estimated that 20 per cent of all diamonds reaching the world's diamond markets were smuggled from Sierra Leone, largely through Liberia and mainly by Lebanese and Mandingo traders. In later years, civil war often revolved around the control of this illicit trade. In 2002, a UN Expert Panel reported that the then "interim" leader of the RUF, Issa Sesay, had flown to Abidjan late in 2001 with 8,000 carats of diamonds that he had sold to two traders of undisclosed identity, who were apparendy using a Lebanese businessman to run errands for them between Abidjan and the Liberian capital, Monrovia. Some reports suggest that the UN peacekeeping force in Sierra Leone may have also become involved in the RUF illicit diamond trading.
In 2001, shortly after the 11 September attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., the Washington Post found another link in this most secretive and highly lucrative trade-that of international terrorists. In an article published on 2 November 2001, war correspondent Douglas Farah stated that the Al Qaeda network "reaped millions of dollars in the past three years from the illicit sale of diamonds mined by rebels in Sierra Leone" and that three senior Al Qaeda operatives had visited Sierra Leone at different times in 1998 and later. He further claimed that the West African Shi'ite Lebanese community was sympathetic to Hezbollah and often served as a link between the RUF rebels and Al Qaeda. However, according to Gberie, much of the evidence linking West Africa's Lebanese community to global terror networks is largely "anecdotal and circumstantial".
In the last few years, however, the illicit diamond trade has come under scrutiny from many quarters, which makes it much more difficult for middlemen and smugglers to operate. Since 1999, PAC has undertaken a programme of policy research, education and advocacy to ensure that the international diamond industry operates legally, openly and for the primary benefit of the countries where the diamonds originate. It has also extensively published reports that have uncovered the secret dealings and James Bond-style manoeuvres of the middlemen and smugglers in the industry who operate often with the full knowledge and approval of Governments (or rebel movements), and act as conduits for diamonds smuggled from neighbouring countries.
In May 2000, an international certification process for rough diamonds, known as the Kimberley Process, was initiated by the Government of South Africa. Concerned about how diamond-fuelled wars in Angola, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo might affect the legitimate trade in other diamond-producing countries, more than 35 nations have been meeting on a regular basis to develop the system, which was established in 2003.
In Sierra Leone, the diamond certification system was instituted in October 2000, four months after the UN Security Council passed a resolution that banned diamond exports until a certification system was set up. In the twelve months after the system was introduced, legal exports rose from $1.3 million to $25.9 million worth of diamonds. However, PAC believes that many of the better quality diamonds are still being smuggled and are not going through the official certification system. In other words, the illicit diamond trade continues to operate through informal agreements that are sealed with a nod, a wink and no paper trail.
Sidebar
Ours was not a civil war. It was not a war based on ideology, religion or ethnicity, nor was it a 'class war'. ... It was a war of proxy aimed at permanent rebel control of our rich diamond fields, for the benefit of outsiders."
-Ahmad Tejan Kabbah
President of Sierra Leone
Rasna Warah, a freelance writer based in Nairobi, is a Board member of the East Africa Chapter of the Society for International Development.
Copyright United Nations Sep-Nov 2004
Indexing (details)
Subject
Diamonds; International trade; Conflict
Location
Title
Illicit Diamonds: Africa's Curse
Author
Publication title
Volume
Issue
Pages
20-21
Number of pages
2
Publication year
2004
Publication date
Sep-Nov 2004
Year
2004
Section
Perspective
Publisher
United Nations
Place of publication
New York
Country of publication
United States
Publication subject
Meetings And Congresses, Political Science--International Relations, Population Studies
ISSN
02517329
Source type
Trade Journals
Language of publication
English
Document type
Commentary
Document feature
Photographs
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Copyright United Nations Sep-Nov 2004
Last updated 5/10/14
Diamonds: Arm-twisting Africa?
Misser, Francois. New African 384 (Apr 2000): 47-48.
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Abstract (summary)
The entire diamond industry sector in Africa is unanimous that consumer boycotts could only harm the diamond industry and affect the economies of producing countries.
Full text
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Headnote
African diamonds have become a target for Western NGOcampaigners. In fact the United Nations has recently blamed Belgium for its 'extremely lax controls' over the diamond market
Headnote
in Antwerp, which handles 85% of the world's rough diamonds. The UN also blames the current presidents of Togo and Burkina
Headnote
Faso, and the past presidents of Cote d'Ivoire and Congo Brazzaville for helping Jonas Savimbi's Unita to break the UN embargo on diamond sales by rebel groups. Meanwhile the NGOs are calling for more sanctions. But isn't this a way of helping some powerful players to corner the market and marginalise small African producers?, asks Francois Misser, writing from Brussels.
At first, the world number one diamond player, De Beers, appeared surprised when the UK-based NGO, Global Witness, accused it of having bought UNITA diamonds prior to the embargo imposed in July 1998 by the UN Security Council.
Then all of a sudden, the "bad boys" turned into "angels": De Beers decided on 5 October last year to go beyond the requirements of the UN Resolution 1173 by imposing on itself a unilateral embargo on the purchase of diamonds suspected of coming from Angola.
De Beers claimed its intention was "to be a leading part of [the] solution to conflicts" because "De Beers has a commercial as well as a moral interest in seeing an end to the conflict in Angola". The company added for good measure that it "would like to assist in the development of a legitimate diamond industry in Angola".
But Angolan diamonds are not the only ones at stake. When imposing the 5 October unilateral embargo, De Beers also announced that it was closing its buying offices in DRCongo and Guinea.
A few months later, in January this year, Canadian NGOs called for an international embargo on diamond exports from Liberia, Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire. Their reason: rebels from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) were smuggling gems out of Sierra Leone through these neighbouring countries to purchase weapons and continue the war in Sierra Leone.
In February, Etienne Tshisekedi, one of the main leaders of DRCongo's unarmed opposition, somewhat supported the Canadian NGOs by also calling for an international embargo on all gems from DRCongo, from both government and rebel areas, in order to squeeze the war chests of the warring factions.
This "embargomania" comes with accusations that Belgium's inadequate customs control on the origin of rough diamond imports, help fuel the smuggling by rebel groups.
The NGOs have, in fact, named names of diamond dealers involved in arms deals on behalf of both rebels and governments embroiled in war.
No doubt, there is a case for a stricter regulation of the-market. The Belgian authorities themselves have recognised this, and have set up a task force to this effect together with the High Diamond Council, the industry's ruling body in Antwerp, the world's main diamond centre.
The aim is to ensure that only "legitimate and correctly documented Angolan goods pass through Belgian customs".
But the Belgian foreign minister, Louis Michel, thinks that the NGOs' campaign may have a sinister agenda behind it. In fact, diamond dealers in Antwerp have claimed that there is a "plan" to boycott all African diamonds except De Beers' "legitimate" and "ethical" production from Namibia, Botswana and South Africa.
The Antwerp diamantaires are also convinced that De Beers wants to kill competition from the "outside market" supplied by gems outside the De Beers' commercial arm, the London-based Central Selling Organisation (CSO).
How strange! These are the countries that should be under the embargo.
Cynics also point out that De Beers' enthusiasm for the embargo against Angola coincided with its change of strategy. The company no longer seeks to control the world market by systematic purchasing of rough diamonds but rather through increased investments at the sources of production.
This is why De Beers, according to the cynics, doubled the capacity of its huge Orapa mine in Botswana and also struck a deal with the Australian group, BHP, to market 35% of the production of the Ekati mine in Canada until 2002. Canada's production is expected to increase from the current three million to 16 million carats a year by 2008.
In this context, large supplies from uncontrolled areas of Africa may be a disturbing factor for De Beers. Angola, where some 700 kimberlite pipes have been identified, threatens to become a big player on the world scene. "If you want to stop that, you have to do it now," says a Belgian diamond expert.
This may be a mere conspiracy theory as, in fact, no one has yet provided or found any evidence that the NGOs involved in the "embargomania" are funded by mining companies who stand to benefit from the embargo.
It may be pure coincidence that the most enthusiastic supporter of the sanctions against UNITA is the ambassador at the UN of a country that has so bright a Future in diamond mining: Canada.
But there are still some unanswered questions. Why do Canadian NGOs attribute the huge annual gap of over five million carats between Liberia's production capacity and Belgian imports in the mid-90s exclusively to the smuggling of Sierra Leonean gems via Liberia? Antwerp dealers claim that during that time a lot of Siberian gems were sold on the Belgian market as "Liberian" stones?
De Beers may not be trying to marginalise the diamond sector of Sub-Saharan Africa as such. It is even still prospecting in Guinea. The conflict is rather one of the informal sector versus the king of the mining industry.
In a recent statement, De Beers said: "Concerning the suggestion that De Beers had disassociated itself from the informal secfor to suit its own ends, the issue here is surely that a responsible diamond industry cannot stand by when people are suffering because of the activities of a few short-termists. Angola, Sierra Leone and the DRC will not be rebuilt without buckets of political, social and commercial integrity. Can the informal sector guarantee this?"
Probably not.
The informal sector is not a long-term solution. When wildcat diggers exploit alluvial deposits, they endanger the viability of future official projects in the vicinity because companies want deposits to be "virgin" before they start mining. Companies like to finance underground exploitation costs out of the profits from the exploitation of surface deposits.
Now, in countries like DRCongo where over 70% of production comes from the informal sector, branding all illegal gems as "unethical" and refusing to buy them is equivalent to marginalising a large number of people who may have nothing to do with the war or wars, but earn their living through the informal production and sale of diamonds. In fact, it is a matter of survival!
It is also erroneous to consider that all illegal diamonds are tainted with blood. The proceeds from illegal diamonds do allow students in Kisangani or Bangui to pay their school fees or buy medicines. Conversely, revenues from the legal diamond sector or from other products like oil do finance wars!
The question, therefore, should be: Why are so many people attracted by illegal diamond mining or trafficking? Low agricultural revenues and huge unemployment are some of the answers.
It is, therefore, important to consider the restructuring of Africa's diamond sector along with the safeguarding of the economic future and the creation of alternative jobs and revenue for the millions of part-time peasants/wildcat diggers.
At any rate, the entire diamond sector is unanimous that with or without hidden agendas, the best-intended consumer boycotts could only harm the diamond industry and affect the economies of producing countries. This issue is so serious that miners and cutters trade unions from all over the world found it necessary to discuss the issue at their last meeting in Botswana.
Let the supporters of the embargoes take note.
Copyright International Communications Apr 2000
Indexing (details)
Subject
Diamonds; Industry; Consumers; Boycotts; Economic impact
Location
Title
Diamonds: Arm-twisting Africa?
Author
Publication title
Issue
Pages
47-48
Number of pages
2
Publication year
2000
Publication date
Apr 2000
Year
2000
Publisher
IC Publications, Inc.
Place of publication
London
Country of publication
United Kingdom
Publication subject
Business And Economics--International Development And Assistance
ISSN
01429345
CODEN
NWAFA8
Source type
Magazines
Language of publication
English
Document type
Feature
ProQuest document ID
230236600
Document URL
http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy1.apus.edu/docview/230236600?accountid=8289
Copyright
Copyright International Communications Apr 2000
Last updated
2012-11-05
Database
ProQuest Research Library
