Diamonds Are the Heart of the Matter

UN Chronicle, Fall, 2000 by Horst Rutsch

You have just set up a panel of experts to examine the role of diamonds in the Sierra Leonean conflict.

The five-member panel of experts on Sierra Leone is expected to come back with a report by the end of October. The Sanctions Committee will then consider the situation in the country and bring it to the attention of the Security Council. The Council will then act on the recommendations contained in the report. In the process, as was said during the hearing, the Sierra Leone panel should avoid the mistakes or gaps that existed for the Angola panel. One should be particularly aware about the way information is gathered; the other is cross-checking the information obtained. And I believe that the resources available to the earlier panel of experts were not adequate. The question of resources always is a major dilemma, but we hope that we can resolve the problem by involving various actors.

Diamonds are increasingly becoming a global resource and a global problem; a permanent international monitoring mechanism seems necessary.

Yes, you axe very right. We must start thinking about a permanent international panel that would monitor and verify the implementation of the regimes set up in various countries. Until and unless that is done, what will happen is that we will have a kind of a county-focused approach; one for Angola and another for Sierra Leone. But this approach may not work, because then the mechanisms would run into a number of problems, either of a jurisdictional nature, when several countries are involved, or in terms of time-frame because the life of a panel is limited. So if we had a permanent international panel, it could look into the whole question in an integrated manner and within a broader context. I think that is what is needed; and I will be very strongly supportive of such a permanent panel.

We see the use of diamonds in fuelling conflict in many manifestations. It is a very, very sad situation, especially in Africa today, that countries rich with diamonds and other mineral resources continue to face conflicts that cause anguish and deprivation to common and innocent people. It is simply unacceptable; it should not happen in this day and age. These resources should be used for the improvement of the quality of life of the people and not for enabling rebels to continue their armed campaigns.

CONFLICT DIAMONDS -- KEY FACTS

* The global diamond industry was worth US $42 billion in 1998.

* Some 55 per cent of the world's cut diamonds are finished in India.

* Consumers in the United States buy 65 per cent of the world's retail diamonds.

* De Beers--founded in South Africa in 1890--controls 65 per cent of the world's trade in rough diamonds through its London-based Central Selling Organisation. Its own mining operations have accounted for as much as 40 per cent of global production.

* Antwerp, Belgium, is the world's largest trading centre for rough diamonds, with a turnover of around $23 billion per year. In the first quarter of 2000, Belgium imported 308,000 carats, worth an estimated $34 million.