Knowing fully well that not all diamond buyers equally care about where their jewelry comes from, the only beneficiaries from these controls would be those that would now be able to buy the conflict diamonds relatively cheaper. Given the high quality of the diamonds, speculators can afford to sit on them or sell through secret channels to bargain
hunters (particularly Asian). The net effect of this is a viscious circle i.e. Angolan and Sierra Leonean rebels and their agents intensify mining activities and make illicit diamonds more attractive for the dealers-cum-investors to buy or exchange for weapons and other supplies.
Ylva Hernlund wrote:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 22:10:05 -0700
> From: David Mozer <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
> To: wa-afr <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: [wa-afr] FW: ACTION: Conflict Diamonds legislation needs support
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, August 17, 2000 5:07 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: ACTION: Conflict Diamonds legislation needs support
>
> ADNA Action: 000816
> Message from: Physicians for Human Rights
> For contact information see also:
> http://www.africapolicy.org/adna
>
> Dear ADNA members,
>
> Following find the latest action alert from Physicians for Human
> Rights(PHR) regarding conflict diamonds. Please feel free to share
> this widely with your own networks. Contact PHR for further
> information as indicated in the body of the message.
>
> Thank you for supporting this action.
>
> Regards,
> Vicki Ferguson
> ADNA Communications Facilitator
>
> Date sent: Wed, 16 Aug 2000 09:08:29 -0700
> From: Holly Burkhalter <[log in to unmask]>
> Send reply to: [log in to unmask]
> Organization: Physicians for Human Rights
>
> URGENT ACTION: IMPORT RESTRICTIONS
> ON CONFLICT DIAMONDS
>
> For more Information:
> Contact Holly Burkhalter/PHR at 202-728-5335
>
> August, 2000
>
> When Congress reconvenes in September after Labor Day,
> Representative Tony Hall plans to reintroduce the so-called “Carat
> Act,” a bill that places import restrictions on diamonds. We urge
> everyone concerned about the role of diamonds in fueling cruel
> conflict in Sierra Leone and Angola to immediately contact the
> Members of Congress listed below, and urge them to act favorably
> on the revised “Carat Act” if and when it comes before them.
>
> Here are the four things that organizations can do:
>
> 1) Please write a letter to the following members on your own
> stationery as soon as possible. Talking points are listed below.
>
> 2) Please place any portion of this Urgent Action or other material
> you may have in your organization’s newsletter, weekly mailings, e-
> mail communication with members, or other material that you send
> out. Any mailing up through mid-September would be very helpful.
> Please contact me if you would like additional material or
> assistance in drafting a diamond message that would particularly
> suit your constituency.
>
> 3) Please mail or e-mail this Urgent Action to your own
> membership in the states listed below. (To find out what member
> represents your city,town or area, go tohttp://www.vote-smart.org
> and type in your zip code.)
>
> 4) Write a letter to the editor of local newspapers where your
> members are represented, or ask them to. The letter should call
> upon the Member or Senator to take action on diamonds, talking
> points below.
>
> 5) Call the offices of the Members and Senators listed below and
> ask to meet with their staff some time this month. If you are
> interested in having such meetings, I am going to be organizing
> some, and will tag along. It would be nice to have a representative
> delegation of humanitarian, human rights, and religious groups
> visiting each and every office named below.
>
> Because the revised Carat Act provisions are most likely to be
> considered on a trade bill, we are targeting members of the Trade
> Subcommittees in the House and the Senate. We have also
> added the chairman and ranking members of House and Senate
> Appropriations.
>
> We particularly urge that the humanitarian and religious
> organizations that signed our letter to the World Diamond
> Congress alert their membership in the states and districts of the
> following Representatives and Senators, so that each of these
> individuals hears from a large number of concerned individuals from
> his own state or Congressional district over the next month.
> Please note: office room numbers are listed after the member’s
> name. The zip code for Senators is 20510; the zip code for
> Members of Congress is 20515.
>
> Rep. Bill Archer (R-TX),1236 Longworth House Office Building, Rep.
> Charles B. Rangel (D-NY), 2354 Rayburn House Office Building,
> Rep. Phil Crane (R-IL), 233 Cannon House Office Building, Rep.
> Sander Levin (D-MI),2268 Rayburn House Office Building, Rep. Jim
> Ramstad (R-MN), 103 Cannon House Office Building, Senator
> Chuck Grassley (R-IA), 135 Hart Senate Office Building, Senator
> Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY), 464 Russell Senate Office
> Building, Senator William Roth (R-DE), 104 Hart Senate Office
> Building, Senator Jim Jeffords (R-VT), 728 Hart Senate Office
> Building, Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), 522 Hart Senate Office
> Building, Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), 311 Hart Senate Office
> Building, Rep. Bill Young (R-FL), 2407 Rayburn House Office
> Building, Rep. David Obey (D-WI), 2314 Rayburn House Office
> Building.
>
> Talking Points:
>
> 1. I am deeply concerned about the importation of diamonds from
> Sierra Leone and Angola that has enriched rebel groups that
> commit gross abuses against unarmed people. I strongly favor
> import controls so that American consumers, who buy 65% of
> diamond jewelry sold internationally, do not unwittingly help these
> insurgent forces.
>
> 2. It is my understanding that legislation to require some form of
> labeling on diamonds imported by the U.S. will be considered by
> the Congress this fall. I urge you to favorably support legislation
> that requires either a country-of-origin certificate or an assurance of
> diamond industry controls on the handling of rough stones.
>
> 3. I strongly favor an American boycott of diamonds imported from
> rebel-controlled Angola and Sierra Leone, and from countries which
> launder diamonds from these conflict zones, namely Liberia,
> Burkina Faso and Congo.
>
> Background: As you know, control of Sierra Leone’s diamonds by
> the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) turned a band of thugs into a
> formidable fighting force that virtually destroyed an entire country.
> Diamonds have similarly enriched UNITA, Angola’s rebel group.
>
> Human rights, religious, and humanitarian groups have been deeply
> concerned about the role that diamonds have played in fomenting
> conflict and human rights abuses in Africa. Seventy organizations
> joined Physicians for Human Rights in signing an open letter to the
> World Diamond Congress, which met in mid-July. We are very
> pleased at the commitments made there by the industry to a
> comprehensive program to assure that the diamonds they are
> cutting, trading, and exporting are from legitimate sources. This
> program of “Rough Controls” would set in place a forgery-proof
> delivery system and computer data-base for the tracking of
> shipments of uncut stones. Once inside cutting centers the
> stones would all be certified as legitimate, and traded and sold.
>
> Representative Hall’s revised “Carat Act” contains three provisions
> that address the problem of conflict diamonds. A summary of the
> bill follows:
>
> Title I: Language implementing the U.N. embargoes against RUF-
> controlled Sierra Leonean diamonds and UNITA-controlled Angolan
> diamonds, as well as well-known transhipment points, including
> Liberia, Burkina Faso, and Congo.
>
> Title II. This will be an updated version of the “Carat Act,” requiring
> certificates of origin for every diamond imported by the U.S. over a
> certain weight, to take effect in 2002. The Customs Service could
> delay implementation of this provision if 1) technology did not
> permit the origin of cut/polished diamonds to be determined; and/or
> another system was in place to sever diamonds funding link to
> wars. (The other system is the Rough Controls regimen, see Title
> III, below.)
>
> Title III. This title will prohibit the importation of diamonds from any
> cutting or exporting center that does not have in place “Rough
> Controls,” which is the system that the industry agreed to in
> Antwerp. Rough controls would include forgery-proof packaging and
> computer database, export and import controls and inspection,
> criminal sanctions against abusers, international inspection of the
> process, and an international accreditation process for diamond
> exporters and importers.
>
> Rep. Hall’s proposed legislation makes a very valuable contribution
> to the process that has already begun by the diamond industry. It
> does call for “birth certificates” for finished diamonds entering the
> U.S. within two years, but waives that provision if the industry
> makes good on its commitments at Antwerp, in a timely way.
> Again, there is a two-year phase in period, which should allow the
> industry (which had promised that rough controls could be in place
> within six months) ample time to put its own house in order.
> Maintaining the threat of certificates of origin on finished diamonds,
> the Hall legislation would keep the pressure on both industry and
> diamond producing, finishing, exporting, and importing countries to
> move forward with the Rough Controls process. It also provides a
> valuable nudge to the industry to more quickly develop means of
> sourcing cut and finished diamonds – technology that is currently
> still in the developmental stages.
>
> ***
>
> This message is distributed from Physicians for Human Rights for
> the Advocacy Network for Africa (ADNA).
>
> Vicki Lynn Ferguson
> Advocacy Network for Africa
> Communications Facilitator
> c/o Africa Policy Information Center
> 110 Maryland Ave, NE #509
> Washington, DC 20002
> Ph: 202-546-7961
> Fax: 202-546-1545
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> Web: http://www.africapolicy.org/adna
>
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