---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 22:59:25 EDT From: [log in to unmask] Reply-To: [log in to unmask] To: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask] Subject: [AfricaMatters] Summit asked to wash hands of bloody diamonds Summit asked to wash hands of bloody diamonds October 25 2000 at 07:23PM London - Trade in "blood diamonds" - gems whose illicit sales help bankroll some of Africa's most brutal civil wars - can be stemmed, but only through concerted international effort, a top British official told a landmark gathering on Wednesday. The two-day conference, which opened on Wednesday in London, marked the most wide-ranging assembly so far in the fight against so-called conflict diamonds, the British organisers said. Attending were delegates from 37 nations, including the world's largest producers and refiners of diamonds, plus the European Union and the industry's World Diamond Council. Before heading into a series of closed-door talks participants heard an impassioned plea from the foreign office minister, Peter Hain, to eliminate the "scourge" of blood diamonds, a driving force behind insurgencies including the vicious nine-year civil war in Sierra Leone. 'Nothing could be easier than carrying a diamond across a border' Rebels in the West African nation have killed tens of thousands of civilians and intentionally maimed many others. "No one who has visited a refugee camp in Sierra Leone, as I did ... can doubt the value and urgency of the task before us today," Hain told the group. "No one who met women who had seen rebels lop off the arms and legs of their children could fail to be moved. And no one could see these children and not be angered." The gathering was meant to foster a free exchange of views in advance of next month's UN General Assembly debate on conflict diamonds. Participants did not plan to issue a communique or formally vote on any new guidelines, the organisers said. In his opening remarks Hain acknowledged the enormous logistical difficulties in preventing diamonds from being smuggled out of conflict zones and traded for weapons. 'Cutting out this cancer from the world diamond trade is a real challenge' "Nothing could be easier than carrying a diamond across a border," he said. "Nothing could be harder than detecting the origin of a diamond once it has been mixed with other diamonds from different mines." To help stifle the illicit trade the diamond industry has called for diamond-importing nations to prohibit rough diamonds unless they have gone through a global certification process. Existing controls require certificates of origin to state where a diamond was last exported, but not where it was mined. Measures adopted by the industry in July are meant to track diamonds from the mine to the jewelry store, with severe penalties for dealers who break the rules. With the backing of governments involved a global certification process could be in place by Christmas, Hain said. In July the Security Council banned the purchase of Sierra Leone diamonds without government certification, and in August, the UN panel monitoring sanctions against Sierra Leone approved a new government plan to certify diamonds, paving the way for the lifting of an export ban earlier this month. Conflict diamonds represent only a fraction of world production but trade in them hurts the entire industry, Hain said. "Cutting out this cancer from the world diamond trade is a real challenge," he said. "We must ensure that the solution does not jeopardise the tens of thousands of jobs worldwide which depend on the legitimate diamond trade." - Sapa-AP -------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~> eGroups eLerts It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free! http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/14/_/192352/_/972529178/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------_-> To the extent possible, please keep postings concise. Our archives are at : http://www.egroups.com/group/us-afr-network . To Post a message, send it to [log in to unmask] . Tell others to subscribe by sending a blank message to [log in to unmask] . To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------