D I A M O N D S S U M M E R

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26 C A N A D I A N D I A M O N D S S U M M E R Conflict: 2 0 0 6 The Sixth Hollywood blockbster The Blood Diamond is training a poorly focsed microscope on jstice isses in the global diamond indstry.

1 26 C A N A D I A N D I A M O N D S S U M M E R Conflict: The Sixth Hollywood blockbster The Blood Diamond is training a poorly focsed microscope on jstice isses in the global diamond indstry. Will anybody see beyond the Kimberley Process? C By Michael Ganley In May of 1996, Lansana Gberie spent two hors in a hotel room in Yamossokro, Ivory Coast, with Foday Sankoh, the leader of the notorios Sierra Leone rebel faction the Revoltionary United Front. Sankoh had come to the relatively prosperos West African contry for peace talks, one of contless attempts to end the brtal, five-year-old war in Sierra Leone. It was awfl, says Gberie, a Sierra Leonean jornalist now living in Toronto. He was so absoltely charismatic in a way: He clearly believed in what he was doing althogh yo didn t get a sense of what exactly he wanted. He had lots of grievances bt no bleprint, and he had no conception of the sffering he had cased or people. Contined...

28 S U M M E R 2 0 0 6 C A N A D I A N D I A M O N D S 29 Sven Torfinn/Panos Pictres The man behind some 50,000 deaths, and whose followers became known for hacking off the hands of their victims,

The talks in Yamossokro wold fail. Sankoh s nidentified grievances wold drive him and his rebels some wold say a more apt term is bandits to contine their insrrection for another five years.

And the world wold also come to know that mch of the money to fnd the conflict to by the bllets and the gns for the child soldiers came from diamonds plled from the mddy edges of Sierra Leone s lakes

The world caght a glimpse of the diamond indstry s bloody nderbelly an nsavory image it has worked to shed ever since.

2 28 S U M M E R C A N A D I A N D I A M O N D S 29 Sven Torfinn/Panos Pictres The man behind some 50,000 deaths, and whose followers became known for hacking off the hands of their victims, carried with him a small bag of clear white rocks. He wold tell yo the war was not abot diamonds, Gberie says, bt mining the allvial mines was one of their core preoccpations. The talks in Yamossokro wold fail. Sankoh s nidentified grievances wold drive him and his rebels some wold say a more apt term is bandits to contine their insrrection for another five years. Dring that time, eventally, the savagery of the conflict wold shock the world. And the world wold also come to know that mch of the money to fnd the conflict to by the bllets and the gns for the child soldiers came from diamonds plled from the mddy edges of Sierra Leone s lakes and rivers, sold into the global diamond pipeline, many to ltimately wind p on somebody s ring finger. The world caght a glimpse of the diamond indstry s bloody nderbelly an nsavory image it has worked to shed ever since. Kimberley at a glance PREVIOUS PAGES: A rare red diamond fond in the Kono district of Sierra Leone in ABOVE: The wars in West Africa were foght largely by child soldiers. Commander Babi (centre) was the leader of nearly 1,000 Model rebels in Liberia. RIGHT: Children store and hide diamonds in their moths and only show them when they find a potential byer. The wars in West Africa for dring the 1990s fighting washed across border regions of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ginea and, frther to the soth, Angola, with tidal reglarity were first broght to the pblic s attention by non-governmental organizations in the late 1990s. Campaigns by Global Witness and Partnership Africa Canada in particlar prompted indstry, national governments and the UN into action. Sven Torfinn/Panos pictres ABOVE: The diamonds being mined in West Africa and Soth America are allvial, meaning erosion has, over millions of years, gathered them in rivers and lakebeds. All it takes to find them is a sieve and endless backbreaking work. LEFT: One estimate pts the nmber of allvial diggers in the world at more than 1.3 million. Many are little more than forced labor. The diamonds are mostly small, bt the diggers operate in the hope of a big find. The UN was first off the block, targeting sanctions against rebels in Sierra Leone and Angola in 2000 and banning trade in their diamonds. Bt indstry, government and the NGOs realized that the real soltion lay in grabbing control of the international trade in diamonds and ensring that diamonds of sspect origin wold not be able to enter the diamond distribtion system. The global indstry, hmbled by the thoght of a poplar backlash against their prodct, moved to formlate and implement the Kimberley Process. By the start of 2003, Kimberley was in effect, obliging national governments to develop internal controls on diamond mining and reqiring all shipments of rogh diamonds to be accompanied by a Kimberley Process certificate. Withot sch a certificate, no other signatory contry was to accept the diamonds. All of the major international players Soth Africa, Israel, Belgim, Canada, Rssia, Botswana, and the U.S. signed on. So did big indstry, recognizing that their prodct mst have an ntarnished image to be worthy of representing love. Now, six years after the war in Sierra Leone ended and a little over three since the Kimberley Process was implemented, a spotlight is again being thrown on the West African diamond indstry, this time the reslt of a Hollywood blockbster movie. The Blood Diamond stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Connelly and is set against the backdrop of the Sierra Leonean war. It tells the story of a Soth African diamond smggler (DiCaprio) who befriends a man forced to work the diamond fields who has fond and hidden a large pink stone. The movie is set in the late 1990s, when war was raging. It wold have been nice if they d made the movie then, says Ian Smillie, research coordinator with Partnership Africa Canada. In the meantime, things on the grond in Sierra Leone, and indeed in all the contries that had been torn by war, have changed dramatically for the better. Bt there remains concern in the diamond indstry that the pblic will have some difficlty separating Hollywood fiction from present-day fact. Contined... The Kimberley Process is an international certification scheme that reglates the trade in rogh diamonds. Its aim is to prevent the trade in conflict diamonds while helping to protect the legitimate trade in rogh diamonds. The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme otlines the provisions by which the trade in rogh diamonds is to occr. It reqires participants there are 45 altogether, 44 sovereign nations and the Eropean Union to certify that shipments of rogh diamonds crossing their borders are free from conflict diamonds. The scheme has no police powers, bt the national legislation on which it is based often involves criminal penalties for activities that breach the provisions of national Kimberley Process legislation. Canada has been heavily involved in the Kimberley Process, and served as chair for a year. Tim Martin of Foreign Affairs Canada led the team: The KPCS has led to endring reforms to the international trade in rogh diamonds, to national legislation arond the globe and to higher expectations of pblic opinion respecting ethical standards for trade in natral resorces. These are major achievements which have been secred qickly and efficiently in comparison to many other initiatives of international cooperation, he said at the end of his term in Some US$32-billion dollars in rogh diamonds were traded in 2004, according to data compiled by the Kimberley Process. Participant contries issed nearly 57,000 certificates in 2004 to accompany rogh diamond shipments. Liberia, Cote d Ivoire and the Repblic of Congo are crrently nder sanction and not allowed to trade rogh diamonds as a reslt of failing to have adeqate controls in place. The Repblic of Congo was removed from the process in Jly 2004 for having issed certificates for 5.2 million carats of rogh despite the absence of visible prodction capacity. A Kimberley Process review team fond that Congo s internal system of controls was inadeqate, poorly enforced and nable to prevent conflict diamonds from entering the legitimate diamond trade. The Kimberley Process claims that 99.8 percent of the global prodction of rogh diamonds is Kimberley certified, bt smgglers don t leave paper trails and De Beers grop chairman Nicky Oppenheimer recently warned the indstry not to let p. We cannot be complacent or allow conflict diamond fatige to gain hold, he said at the 32nd World Diamond Congress in Israel in Jly. There is evidence to sggest some diamantaires are still prchasing rogh [diamonds] of dbios provenance directly in Africa and others bying at second hand in the ctting centers withot condcting de diligence into the origin of the rogh. Two pcoming reviews of the process, one by the United Nations and one by the United States Government Accontability Office, will likely highlight shortcomings of the Kimberley Process.

30 S U M M E R 2 0 0 6 C A N A D I A N D I A M O N D S 31 Sven torfinn/panos pictres Freetown, Sierra Leone.

3 30 S U M M E R C A N A D I A N D I A M O N D S 31 Sven torfinn/panos pictres Freetown, Sierra Leone. Thosands of innocent citizens had limbs brtally amptated by the RUF dring the decade-long conflict. in the wake of the movie the global diamond indstry is amassing an all-ot PR campaign to blitz the pblic. Front and centre in the campaign will be the Kimberley Process, which indstry and governments, and NGOs to a nanced extent, will say has closed the tap on conflict diamonds or at the very least severely crtailed the flow. Participants in the Kimberley Process 44 nations and the Eropean Commnity claim to prodce 99.8 percent of the world s rogh diamonds, and infer that the same percentage is conflict free. As Gberie points ot, it is at best a gestimate as smgglers by their very natre do not leave a paper trail. Nonetheless, nobody dobts that the illicit diamond trade has shrnk considerably, and that it is not fnding wars today. The Kimberley Process has been qite inflential in ending the Angolan war and the Sierra Leonean war, says Smillie, a veteran of the negotiations leading to the Kimberley Process and not a man given to fiddling while something brns. The fact of the discssion, the spotlight on conflict diamonds, the UN sanctions in concert with the Kimberley Process, all of that helped to choke off the spply of bllets and it probably also choked off the spply of gns to some of the rebel movements. The Kimberley Process has had a tremendos beneficial effect on Sierra Leone, says Usman Kamara, depty director of mines with Sierra Leone s Ministry of Mineral Resorces. From there has been a tremendos increase in the export of diamonds from Sierra Leone. In the official vale of the contry s exports of rogh diamonds was US$2-million. In 2005 it was US$142-million. The seemingly paltry $5.2-million dollars raised by Sierra Leone s government in 2004 throgh fees and taxes on the diamond indstry is still a significant percentage of the national revene. And the smggling that does go on does not fnd war. The Kimberley Process has had other nintended bt welcome effects, critics say, by stemming other illicit diamondrelated behavior. Concentrated wealth in an anonymos prodct has always made diamonds a favorite among criminals. I did a paper abot for years ago where I calclated that abot 25 percent of the trade in rogh diamonds was illicit in one way or another: money-landering or tax evasion or sed for moving drgs or gns, Smillie says. Nobody arged with me and I don t think anybody in the indstry wold have denied very strongly that I was far off the mark. The rotes along which illicit diamonds flowed made an easy home for conflict diamonds, which didn t have to invent ways into the ctting and polishing factories of the world. Bt yo can t pt a net in the sea and not catch a variety of fish, so when Kimberley came in and sddenly diamonds were being certified, many smgglers and dealers opted to go legitimate. Smggling is still going on, Gberie says. Bt the Kimberley Process has had had an effect on the biggest smgglers who have big bsinesses and a lot to lose. Contined...

4 32 S U M M E R C A N A D I A N D I A M O N D S 33 SIXTH C Contined from page 30. If the Kimberley Process catches a smggler, he is in breach of international law and stands to lose his diamonds. Combined with the very low three percent export tax on diamonds, there is less to lose by going throgh the official, Kimberley Process-defined rote. The weakness of the Kimberley 6450-A003 EGL NEW AD FTP Process is its necessary reliance on national governments to enforce internal controls. In Sierra Leone s case, no government, beginning with the British colonial government before independence in 1961, has been able to effectively control the contry s allvial mining regions in the remote interior areas. Not only are they remote, they can be mined with nothing more than a shovel and a sieve. It s no coincidence that the allvial diamond prodcers have the wars, Smillie says. These diamonds are only a foot or two below the srface. Yo jst need mscles and a willingness to work endlessly. Foday Sankoh s Revoltionary United Front (RUF), spported by Liberian strongman Charles Taylor, had control of most of the diamond fields throgh mch of the 1990s. By the end of the decade, Sierra Leone was a wreck, the poorest contry on earth, according to the UN. In the five years since the war ended, civil control of the fields has gradally grown, bt even today some mines monitors operate in the prodcing regions withot sch basics as phone service or vehicles. Sch circmstances inevitably lead to low-level corrption and there is no qestion smggling between Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ginea still occrs. Controls today, however, are probably the best they ve ever been, says Gberie, who wrote a book abot the war and is in the process of writing another abot reaching peace. Earlier this year he was in Sierra Leone for six weeks and went to most of the mining areas. The mines monitors are poorly paid and some are crap, he says. Bt at least they are visible on the grond and are trying to do the work. The national police force and jstice system have done their bit to shore p anti-smggling efforts and taken some catios steps to decrease high-level corrption. Last April the son of Sierra Leone s minister of mineral resorces was arrested trying to smggle diamonds from Sierra Leone into Ginea. To arrest the son of a senior minister in a contry like Sierra Leone is something, Gberie says. It is not nothing. Bt to acknowledge the efficacy of the Kimberley Process is not to say that there are not dirty little secrets in the allvial diamond fields of West Africa, Soth America and elsewhere. The Kimberley Process does not address environmental, labor or hman rights isses, and it was not intended to do so. Contined on page 48.

5 48 sixth c contined from page 32. At the same time hndreds of thosands of diggers toil in abysmal conditions. One stdy by Global Witness fond abot 1.3 million artisanal diamond diggers in Africa and another 300,000 in Soth America. They earned on average less than a dollar a day. As a reslt the NGOs have trned their attention to these broader jstice isses, and indstry has shown signs of willingness to look into them. There have been a nmber of initiatives springing p from varios sorces. One of the more prominent is the Diamond Development Initiative, lanched in Janary 2005 by Partnership Africa Canada, Global Witness and De Beers. Under the DDI banner, governments, indstry and NGOs met twice in 2005 to hammer ot the isses. The goal of the DDI is to get the large international aid agencies USAID, CARE, CIDA onside and make diamonds a development isse in an attempt to bring this hge informal sector into the formal economies of the varios contries. If yo don t fix this bottom end of the diamond bsiness it will always be troble, Smillie says. Contries like Sierra Leone and the Congo, which have never really benefited from diamonds, will contine to be festering sores. Despite the terrible havoc diamonds have helped wreak in Sierra Leone and elsewhere, and despite the crrent conditions of the diggers, nobody involved is asking the pblic to stop bying diamonds. I m from Sierra Leone and I know that Sierra Leone depends to a very large extent on its diamond resorces, Gberie says. And other contries, sch as Botswana, even more so. The answer is not to boycott diamonds, says Smillie, bt to trn diamonds into the engine of growth that they have been in places like Botswana and the Northwest Territories. We d like people who are sddenly becoming aware of all the horrors of the diamond wars to ask what s the soltion? Let s not lament the horrible past, let s talk abot what can be done.

From The AIS Bookshelf: Chapter 4: Initiating and Conducting Internal Investigations

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