SOUTH AFRICA: DIAMOND TRADE

(18 Sep 2000) E
English/Nat

Diamonds used to be a girl's best friend.

However today, with Western diamond-buying nations trying to stop the entry of so-called "blood" or "dirty diamonds" onto the market, the sparkling gems have become a political minefield.

Civil wars in countries like Angola and Sierra Leone are believed to be funded largely by revenue from diamonds.

Now experts from around the world, including war-torn Sierra Leone are to meet in South Africa on Tuesday (September 19) to thrash out ways of solving the thorny problems connected with the trade in diamonds

It is the trade in these allegedly illicit diamonds that American lawmakers and the European Union amongst others are trying to curb.

Now experts from around the world, including war-torn Sierra Leone are scheduled to meet in South Africa this week to thrash out ways of solving the thorny problems connected with the trade in diamonds

It is estimated that about six percent of the world's diamonds are in the hands of Angola's rebel Unita movement.

This figure helped a recent European Union decision to impose new diamond-related sanctions on the rebel group.

And the United Nations' ban on the import of diamonds from Sierra Leone is gathering support.

Smugglers are believed to be moving vast amounts of diamonds from countries like Angola and Sierra Leone, through neighbouring states and on to European diamond centres like Antwerp in Belgium where 85 percent of the world's rough diamonds are traded.

The World Diamond Congress has imposed a package of measures to track diamonds from the mines to the jewellers stores.

In the United States a group of lawmakers are presently trying to get Congress to pass a law requiring proof of origin of all diamonds sold on world markets.

One suggestion is that diamonds be sold in sealed containers with a certificate of origin.
At it's meeting in July, the World Diamond Congress supported a system of certification.

Some argue that such controls could inflict significant economic damage on diamond-producing countries such as South Africa.

De Beers diamond company which controls more than half of the world's diamonds, claims it is virtually impossible to tell where a diamond is originated.

Johannesburg diamond merchant Max Barker agrees.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"The question is, can you tell the source of rough stones and you can't. Not, not as a rule you can't. You can't. As I say you might have a suspicion but you can't. It's not like a motor car or a wrist watch or something which, it's you know ... there are ways and means of finding out the origin, with a rough diamond, it's very difficult."
SUPERCAPTION: Max Barker, Managing Director, Diamond Supply Corporation

Setting up and enforcing a certification system for the $6-billion-a-year industry would be at best difficult to control.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"In one month there is probably millions of stones being sold worldwide or probably hundreds of millions traded worldwide every month. I mean, how? First of all you don't know the source of the stone and secondly if you did how are you going to control it?"
SUPERCAPTION: Max Barker, Managing Director, Diamond Supply Corporation

But consumers are starting to ask where their diamonds come from. Gone are the days when the simple act of buying an engagement ring was just an expensive, but romantic gesture.

Nowadays pictures of victims of wars in African countries awash with minerals are starting to raise questions. Will the simple purchase of a diamond help result in further massacres?
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