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| Monday, November 12, 2001, updated at 21:03(GMT+8) |
Diamond Producers in Africa to Discuss Fighting Against Illegal Trade |
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Representatives from diamond producing countries and producers in Africa will meet in Gaborone, Botswana from November 25 to 29 to discuss proposals on combating the so-called "conflict diamonds" trade.
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Representatives from diamond producing countries and producers in Africa will meet in Gaborone, Botswana from November 25 to 29 to discuss proposals on combating the so-called "conflict diamonds" trade.
"Officials will confer from the 26th to 28th and government ministers on the 29th," Akolang Tombale, permanent secretary in Botswana's Ministry of Mineral Affairs, said on Monday.
The meeting is part of the Kimberley Initiative, started by the industry to formulate a plan of action to stop the trade in conflict diamonds, which is due to be presented to the 56th session of the United Nations General Assembly, according to the South African Press Association.
The United Nations will then consider sanctions against the countries that produce conflict diamonds, but chairman of diamond giant De Beers Investments, Nicky Oppenheimer, has warned that there must be safeguards in any legislation to protect legitimate producers, who use diamond revenues for development.
"We do not want any legislation that will throw the baby out with the bath water," he said from London in August as he presented the diamond company's half-year results.
"That is why it is so important that, particularly in the United States, all people come to understand the division between conflict and development diamonds," he said. "Once people fully understand, we would expect that any legislation that comes forward must be very careful not to damage diamonds coming from legitimate producers."
Campaigners have charged that diamonds have been sold to finance wars in Africa.
More recent allegations have been made that Osama bin Laden has been financing his Al Qaeda terror network through the sale of diamonds bought illicitly in Sierra Leone.
Information and education campaigns initiated by Botswana first targeted the United States, where 50 percent of the world production of diamond jewelry is sold.
According to De Beers's Executive Director Mike Farmiloe, his best guess of the annual volume of conflict diamonds is 274 million U.S. dollars or 3 to 4 percent of the world's production of some 7 billion dollars. But he admitted that consumers would not be able to tell the difference between a stone produced from a rebel mine in Angola or one mined in Botswana.
Diamond industry consultant Chaim Even-Zohar estimated that conflict diamonds from Angola are worth 150 million dollars, from Sierra Leone, 70 million dollars and from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 25 million dollars.
"The bulk of the trade is in gems from conflict-free Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Tanzania," said Botswana Ambassador Alfred Dube, specially assigned to the United States to coordinate the Botswana campaign.
"People must understand that while diamonds are being used in some countries to fund conflict, there is the other story of how this natural resource of Africa is being used legitimately for the benefit of all its people. The pending legislation must protect the vital interests of Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Tanzania," the ambassador said.
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