I culled this article from the Times.  Some of these diamonds pass through 
Yundum airport to get to their final destination.  Enjoy!!


THE denizens of three small backstreets, hidden away behind Antwerp's elegant 
Central Station, are accused of fuelling two of Africa's bloodiest and 
longest-running wars. 
The secretive dealers of Hovenierstraat, Vestingstraat and Rufstraat in this 
Belgian port city handle 80 per cent of the world's rough diamonds. The 
streets are the heart of the world's diamond trade - a trade now charged with 
wilfully perpetuating the conflicts in Angola and Sierra Leone by purchasing 
their smuggled and illicit gems. 

It is there that Angola's Unita rebels finance their war machine by covertly 
selling diamonds in defiance of a United Nations embargo, according to a UN 
report released yesterday. 

The report blames "extremely lax controls" that "perhaps even encourage 
illegal activity", and says the Belgian authorities have singularly failed to 
crack down on "suspect brokers, dealers and traders - virtually all of whom 
appear to be able to travel freely and operate without hindrance". 

Since 1992 Unita has earned almost £2 billion from diamonds, enabling it to 
prosecute a war that has cost 500,000 lives. Antwerp is also the principal 
destination for smuggled gems from Sierra Leone, where government and rebel 
forces are essentially now fighting for control of the diamond fields. 

Antwerp is a "diamond smuggler's dream", where "even in the most overt cases 
of questionable behaviour little is done", according to another recent report 
by a coalition of pressure groups called Partnership Africa Canada (PAC). 
"The Belgian diamond industry - and apparently the Belgian Government - are 
basically not interested in the source of diamonds or how they get to 
Belgium," the report says. 

Since 1991 the war in Sierra Leone has claimed more than 75,000 lives, 
created 500,000 refugees, and displaced half the country's 4.5 million 
population. "Diamonds have fuelled Sierra Leone's conflict, destabilising the 
country for the better part of three decades, stealing its patrimony and 
robbing an entire generation of children, putting the country dead last on 
the UN's Human Development Index," the report adds. 

The two reports are extremely embarrassing for the young, liberal-led Belgian 
Government, which takes pride in its support for human rights, and are highly 
discomforting for an industry that fears Western consumers could boycott 
diamonds just as they boycotted fur in the 1980s. 

They are rushing to address the charges, but critics fear their measures 
could prove mere window-dressing. Diamonds account for 7 per cent of 
Belgium's exports. "They are terrified of driving the market elsewhere," said 
Johan Peleman, director of Antwerp's International Peace Information Service. 
"They turn a blind eye a lot. They are scared to crack down." Antwerp's tiny 
diamond district contains 1,500 registered dealers, who do more than £12 
billion of business a year. 

In Antwerp's defence, diamonds are easy to smuggle and there is no sure way 
of determining their origin, but the Belgian system is wide open to abuse. 
Firstly, the authorities deem the diamonds' country of origin to be from 
where they were imported, not where they were mined. Unita thus channels most 
of its diamonds through other African countries. Secondly, the industry 
largely polices itself. Imports and exports are checked on the Government's 
behalf by experts from the Diamond High Council, which represents the 
dealers. The PAC calls that an "invitation to corruption". 

The council yesterday rejected the UN's allegations and claimed Antwerp's 
controls were second to none. The Belgian Government insists that "trade in 
diamonds only generates part of the total conflict funding" and that "only a 
very small percentage of trade can be linked with current conflicts". 
Together they are promising a range of measures, including an improved 
diamond certification system, more rigorous customs inspections, and allowing 
UN observers into the council. 

But Mr Peleman believes nothing will really change until Antwerp's archaic 
diamond industry finally opens up. What is required is a "mental-ity change", 
he said

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