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http:// --> Ashland, Oregon HOME Valley & State Sports Nation & World Opinion/Editorial Classifieds Business Columnists Obituaries Weather Archive Hot Topics Most Viewed Forum Photo Gallery Video Readers Polls Revels Etcetera Backpage O-Zone Special Sections Real Estate Guide Menu Guide Shakespeare Subscribe Contact Us Rate Card Place an Ad Online Games Movie Preview Top Galleries: December 9, 2006 Violence over diamonds slows to a trickle in African nations By Heidi Vogt The Associated Press DAKAR, Senegal — The Hollywood film "Blood Diamond" once again focuses attention on how gems associated with wealth and glamour have too often meant war and suffering in Africa. The movie, which opened Friday in the United States, is set in Sierra Leone in the late 1990s, when the West African country was in the throes of a civil war and untraceable diamonds allegedly funded fighters who hacked off people's hands with machetes and burned entire villages. Since then, the situation has improved dramatically. But while the gems may no longer be paying for war, they are a long way from pulling people out of poverty in Africa, which the World Diamond Council says produces about 65 percent of all diamonds — some $8.4 billion worth a year. Wars in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola and Congo have given way to peace deals — and even to democratic elections. This week, Congo inaugurated its first freely elected president in more than four decades. Since 2003, African diamonds have been labeled and tracked from extraction to sale to ensure gems in Western jewelry stores don't fund rebels. But rights groups say the oversight organization — called the Kimberley Process — has had problems that could keep it from being effective if conflict breaks out again in a major diamond producer. And residents in some diamond-producing countries say they still aren't seeing much benefit from diamonds. Sierra Leone's eastern diamond region, for instance, still has poor roads and little electricity or running water. Partnership Africa Canada, an activist group, says most diamond miners in Sierra Leone are not paid a salary. Instead, they get food and tools and are forced to sell their finds to holders of a mining license at below-market prices. In Botswana, the Basarwa have accused the government of trying to force them from ancestral lands to make way for mining. The government has denied it. Such issues are outside the purview of the Kimberley Process, a voluntary 71-nation group created out of the furor over diamond-funded wars in Sierra Leone and Angola. The group, whose members agree to trade only certified diamonds, has helped conflict diamonds drop to less than 1 percent of those sold worldwide, from about 4 percent previously. "We are striving to make it zero," said Eli Izhakoff, chairman of the World Diamond Council. "We want to tighten up more of the controls." Global Witness, one of the groups that started the campaign against conflict diamonds in 1998, said Kimberley is weak and too quick to trust member governments. "At this point, should armed conflict spark up again in some of the countries that were most affected ... we're not confident that the Kimberley Process is yet strong enough to stem the flow of conflict diamonds," said Annie Dunnebacke, a Global Witness campaigner. Calls to the Kimberley Process's current head office in Botswana were not returned. The World Diamond Council represents the diamond industry in Kimberley Process working groups. Only a few countries now are considered sources of conflict diamonds. Ivory Coast and Liberia are banned from exporting diamonds by U.N. resolutions. Liberia — which now has an elected government — hopes to have the sanctions lifted soon. Ivory Coast is struggling to hold elections; the sanctions aim to prevent rebels from profiting from the stones. When Ivory Coast diamonds were found being sold by Ghanians with Kimberley certificates this year, the information came not from one of the Kimberley Process's periodic reviews, but from reports by activists and a U.N. commission. A recent report by the U.S. General Accounting Office said U.S. systems for controlling diamonds were "vulnerable to illicit trade." The report said that while diamonds arrive with Kimberley Process certificates, officials do not inspect shipments to make sure the contents match the paperwork. Rights groups say the Kimberley Process has seldom initiated disciplinary action. But Izhakoff said credit should be given for actions that have been taken. Even critics acknowledge that the program has started bringing order to a previously unregulated industry. The group kicked out the Republic of Congo in 2004 because the small central African country couldn't account for exporting significantly more diamonds than it mined. And last month, the Kimberley Process told Ghana it had three months to clean up its diamond industry. Partnership Africa Canada said in a recent report that the Kimberley Process was taking the right steps and commended the World Diamond Council's request for government oversight as "a first in the annals of government-industry regulatory discourse." Despite the successes, there are countries that belong to the Kimberley Process whose governments still can only aspire to control their diamond industries. Matt O'Keefe, a diamond analyst in Toronto, said two major areas for new mining are Angola and Congo. "Those two places are known to have some great resource potential, but for a long time now the countries have been too unstable for companies to go into." Angola has cracked down on illegal diamond mining and smuggling, but much of the industry there is outside government control, the State Department said. Local activists have said small miners are being pushed out in favor of big corporations. Congo produces about 8 percent of the world's diamonds, and the industry has long operated with few government controls. Even as an elected government takes power in Kinshasa, sporadic fighting persists — often with army troops battling on behalf of warlords. Rights groups have accused soldiers of intimidating diamond miners; the government says it cannot confirm the accounts and is investigating army conduct. Leave a Comment: Advertisement: Advertisement: Paid Advertising Inkjet Printers Student Loans Water Filter Helzberg Diamonds Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Advertisement: Copyright © 2006 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers. All Rights Reserved.