AP News, May 11th, 2007
The diamond industry must do more to safeguard human rights in Africa, keep the gems out of the hands of criminals and terrorists and address pressing issues of child labor and substandard work conditions and wages, leading industry officials said Thursday.
At the same time, speakers at the World Diamond Council conference said the industry has made great strides in curbing the use of diamonds to fund wars in Africa. The "Kimberley Process" requires certification to ensure gems do not come from illegal trade that supports conflicts.
Council chairman Eli Izakoff said "conflict diamonds" now account for only 0.2 percent of the world's rough diamond production, which has revenues of some $13 billion a year. He said that was down from 4 percent in 1999.
Officials said economic and development issues such as work conditions, wages and government corruption have replaced "conflict diamonds" as the industry's main problem.
Gareth Penny, managing director of De Beers, which controls about 40 percent of the world's diamond trade, said "ethical consumers" had forced the industry to address the problem of gems funding war. "The days when people didn't know or didn't care are over," he said.
"Conflict diamonds" captured the world's attention during the brutal conflict in Sierra Leone in the 1990s.
Aside from Ivory Coast, the industry has all but eradicated the problem, said Izakoff, whose organization was set up in 2000 to explore ways to reduce trafficking in conflict diamonds.
The group is separate from the Kimberley Process, a voluntary 71-nation group started in 2002 by the United Nations to certify the origin of rough gems as a way to keep stones mined in war zones out of the world market.
Alex Yearsley, an activist with the nonprofit group Global Witness, commended the diamond industry for the strides it has made, "but I would urge you to expand that."
He said human rights violations still occur in diamond-harvesting Africa nations run by corrupt governments. He cited the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola as the most worrying cases.
___
On the Net:
World Diamond Council: http://www.worlddiamondcouncil.org
