US: Diamonds Issue Still Needs Polishing

21 March 2002

WASHINGTON DC - Oxfam America and the Campaign to Eliminate Conflict Diamonds today welcomed the introduction of new legislation in the United States Senate to combat the trade in conflict diamonds. The Clean Diamond Trade Act (S. 2027) builds on earlier legislation in both the Senate and House of Representatives and sets clear standards for the import of rough stones, polished diamonds and jewelry in to the United States. The new legislation comes as concerns mount that the Kimberley Process (KP), the international negotiations to reform and restructure the international trade in diamonds, will result in empty measures that will both fail to address the problem or restore confidence in the industry.

"The legislation sends two important messages. First, it sends an unequivocal message that the United States Congress is determined to see this scourge ended and to prevent any US citizen from unknowingly financing the activities of groups like the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone or Al-Qaeda," noted Bernice Romero, spokesperson for Oxfam America. "Second, the bill sends a message to the participants in the Kimberley Process that the world expects them to create a truly transparent industry that cannot be misused to finance war and suffering."

S. 2027 will prohibit the importation of diamonds from countries that lack a system of controls for tracking rough diamonds to ensure gems mined and sold by rebel groups to fund their operations never enter the stream of legitimate commerce.

The legislation broadens the definition of conflict diamonds to include those traded by armed groups who commit human rights abuses against unarmed civilians. The legislation will cover conflict diamonds in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other surrounding countries, rather than only those in rebel-held areas of Sierra Leone and Angola as well as of Liberia and regions that are covered by U.N. Security Council resolutions. The bill also requires that the President move to prohibit imports of polished diamonds and jewelry if there is sufficient evidence that they were created from conflict diamonds.

Earlier in the month a bipartisan group of Senators wrote to President Bush to urge that the US delegation lead the KP participants in designing a diamond regimen that would include independent monitoring, the maintenance of authoritative statistics and a secretariat to coordinate policies and practices.

"The Kimberley Process should not sell itself as a diamond when we all know it is a cubic zirconium. A Kimberley Process without integrity and high standards will not pass muster," said Romero.