[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 29 (Wednesday, March 7, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E305-E307]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE CLEAN DIAMONDS ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. TONY P. HALL

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 7, 2001

  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce The Clean 
Diamonds Act. This bill aims to eliminate the trade in diamonds that

[[Page E306]]

are used to fund conflict in Africa--wars that have killed more than 2 
million people, driven 6.5 million from their homes, and subjected many 
of the region's 70 million people to horrific atrocities.
  The Clean Diamonds Act lends the support of the United States--whose 
citizens buy 65 percent of the world's diamonds--to multilateral 
efforts to sever the link between diamonds and war. It implements the 
diamond industry's July 2000 promise to help block the trade in these 
diamonds, and gives it a year longer than it said it needed.
  Mr. Speaker, I will never forget the two-year-old girl who lost an 
arm to rebels, or what her fellow war victims told Congressman Wolf and 
I when we visited Sierra Leone's amputee camp in 1999. When we asked 
what had happened to each of them, they told nightmarish tales of 
rebels who lopped off their hand to punish them for voting, or their 
legs or ears or arms so they would always remember how much the rebels 
hated the country's elected government. But when we asked why their 
countrymen were suffering, they gave us a one-word answer: 
``diamonds.''
  There is no question that diamonds do a lot of good for a few 
southern African nations that, because of a quirk of geology, have the 
ability to secure their mines against takeover by thieves masquerading 
as rebels. Diamonds also are making the industry wealthy beyond 
imagination: for example, DeBeers, the monopoly which buys the 
overwhelming majority of uncut diamonds, just reported a 73 percent 
increase in profits in 2000.
  But for Sierra Leone, Angola, the Congo, Guinea, and Liberia, 
diamonds are a curse. They are a magnet for bandits, who seize diamond 
mines and trade their production for weapons, narcotics they use to 
numb their fighters to the tasks they demand, and the other materiel 
these big armies need. Diamonds in those countries are close to the 
surface and spread over large regions, so it is much harder to patrol 
mining done there. Because of that, and because the legitimate industry 
is so willing to help rebels launder their stolen gems, neither these 
countries nor the United Nations has been able to fend off these rebel 
forces.
  I am convinced that, until this link between diamonds and war is 
severed, we will continue to see these atrocities--forced amputations, 
brutal murders of innocent civilians, widespread rapes and other sex 
crimes, and a generation of youngsters whose only education is as child 
soldiers. We will see no end to hunger, disease, and the other problems 
of war. For example, a recent International Rescue Committee survey of 
people who live in a relatively peaceful, but rebel-controlled, 
district of Sierra Leone found one in three dies before his or her 
first birthday--more than twice the country's overall infant mortality 
rate. And we will continue to watch billions of dollars in aid pour 
into amputee camps and other humanitarian projects, while tens of 
billions in conflict diamonds pour out of these same countries.
  The Clean Diamonds Act grew out of the diamond industry's own July 
2000 promise that it would move swiftly to end the trade in conflict 
diamonds and establish a system of controls by December 2000. That 
hasn't happened; without some pressure from US consumers, I doubt any 
effective solution will be implemented.
  In these embattled countries, rebels are committing terrible 
atrocities every day--and they are doing it with the complicity of a 
legitimate industry that markets conflict diamonds as tokens of love 
and commitment. Our bill gives the industry a year more than it said it 
needed to take the steps it should have begun years ago. It supports 
the efforts of South Africa and more than 20 other nations, working 
through the Kimberley Process, to devise an effective response to this 
problem.
  The nations and legitimate businesses that supply the US market are 
well able to fulfill the reasonable obligations this bill outlines. 
This bill asks nothing more of our trading partners than that they 
enforce effective laws against the smuggling of conflict diamonds. 
Eight months ago, to great fanfare, the diamond industry agreed it 
would do just that. Three months ago, the U.N. General Assembly 
unanimously voted on the need for immediate attention to this problem--
before it sours consumer interest in diamonds and damages countries 
that rely on diamond production. I hope the Clean Diamonds Act will add 
momentum to these promises of action.
  I am particularly pleased with some key features of the Clean 
Diamonds Act:
  First, it will bring relief to the victims of these wars for the 
control of diamonds because it provides that any contraband diamond 
caught entering the U.S. market shall be seized and sold to pay for 
prosthetic limbs and other relief to war victims, and for micro-credit 
projects.
  Second, it offers a real deterrent, by imposing civil and criminal 
penalties like those that have proven effective in slowing the 
smuggling of other contraband. Among its provisions, it allows U.S. 
authorities to block the assets of significant violators of these laws.
  Third, it offers jewelers and their customers a `seal of approval' 
that gives them independent verification that the money they spend on a 
symbol of love and commitment does not go into the pockets of those 
forcibly amputating the limbs of innocent civilians, or press-ganging 
children into military service and sexual slavery, or committing other 
atrocities. Americans ought to be able to ask for this kind of 
reassurance with confidence they'll get honest answers; this bill gives 
them that.
  Fourth, it makes diamond projects in countries that refuse to 
implement some system of controls ineligible for taxpayer-funded 
Eximbank and OPIC loan guarantees.
  Finally, it requires systems designed to guard against conflict 
diamonds to be transparent and independently monitored. And it insists 
on annual reports to Congress and the American public so that the 
situation never again reaches the point it is at today, where brutal 
thugs earn nearly $20 million each day from this blood trade--most of 
it from American consumers.
  ``I am heartened that such respected organizations as Amnesty 
International, World Vision, Physicians for Human Rights, Oxfam 
America, World Relief, and the Commission on Social Action of Reform 
Judaism are supporting this bill, and I am encouraged by the assistance 
of these champions of human rights, Congressman Wolf and Congresswoman 
McKinney. All of these individuals and organizations are veterans of 
good fights that have been waged on behalf of those who are hurting, 
and I urge our colleagues to join us in resolving this pressing 
problem.''
  A summary of the bill is attached.

            Clean Diamonds Act--Section-by-Section Analysis

  Section 1: The bill shall be called the Clean Diamonds Act.
  Section 2: The bill makes findings about the extent of suffering 
underwritten by the trade in conflict diamonds, including 6.5 million 
people driven from their homes and 2.4 million killed, and on the need 
for an effective solution to this problem.
  Section 3: Diamonds may not be imported into the United States unless 
the exporting country is implementing a system of controls on the 
export and import of rough diamonds that comports with the UN General 
Assembly's Resolution of 12/00, or with a future international 
agreement that implements such controls.
  This system's implementation shall be monitored by U.S. agencies. A 
presidential advisory commission (comprised of representatives of human 
rights organizations, the diamond industry, and others) will develop a 
label certifying that a diamond is clean, having reached the US market 
through countries implementing this system of controls, and will advise 
the President on monitoring issues.
  Section 4: Violators shall be subject to civil and criminal 
penalties, including confiscation of contraband. Significant violators' 
US assets may be blocked. Proceeds from penalties and the sale of 
diamonds seized as contraband shall be transferred to U.S. AID's War 
Victims Fund and used to help civilians affected by wars, through 
humanitarian relief and micro-credit development projects.
  Section 5: Diamond-sector projects in countries that fail to adopt a 
system of controls shall not be eligible for loan guarantees or other 
assistance of the Eximbank or OPIC.
  Section 6: The President shall report annually to Congress on the 
system's effectiveness; on which countries are implementing it; on 
which countries are not implementing it and the effects of their 
actions on the illicit trade in diamonds; and on technological advances 
that permit determining a diamond's origin, marking a diamond, and 
tracking it.
  Section 7: The GAO shall report on the law's effectiveness within 
three years of enactment.
  Section 8: It is the sense of the Congress that (a) the President 
immediately negotiate, in concert with the Kimberley Process, an 
international agreement designed to eliminate the illicit trade in 
diamonds; and (b) the system implementing this agreement should be 
transparent and subject to independent verification and monitoring by a 
U.S. organization.
  Section 9: Definitions.
  Section 10: The law takes effect six months after enactment. Under 
limited conditions, the President may delay applicability of the law to 
a specific country for six months, provided he report to Congress on 
that country's progress toward establishing a system of controls and 
concluding an International agreement.
                                  ____
                                  

                                                February 14, 2001.
       Open Letter to the Jewelers of America and World Diamond 
     Congress: We, the undersigned religious, humanitarian, 
     development, human rights, medical, missionary, and relief 
     organizations write to express our outrage over the continued 
     trade in diamonds from war zones in Africa, including Sierra 
     Leone, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The 
     profits to insurgent forces from their sale of diamonds have

[[Page E307]]

     fueled wars in these countries and contributed to a tidal 
     wave of atrocities by those forces against the unarmed 
     population. We are especially concerned about Sierra Leone, 
     where the Revolutionary United Front controls two-thirds of 
     the country including its most lucrative diamond resources. 
     The RUF continues its practice of abusing, enslaving, raping 
     and mutilating noncombatant adults and children to this day. 
     And the international trade in Sierra Leonean diamonds 
     appears to be undiminished.
       We welcome the South African-led ``Working Group on African 
     Diamonds'' (``Kimberley process'') supported by the diamond 
     industry that led to the announcement of a commitment to 
     establish an international system of ``rough controls'' last 
     year. But we are dismayed by the slow pace of reform and the 
     industry's inability to police its own members who continue 
     to deal in diamonds from Sierra Leone and other conflict 
     areas. We are disappointed that the principal countries 
     involved in the mining, cutting, finishing, exporting, and 
     importing of diamonds have not themselves taken the actions 
     agreed to last year as a means of jump-starting the 
     international rough controls regimen.
       It seems clear that until a major importer of diamonds such 
     as the U.S. prohibits the direct or indirect importation of 
     any and all diamonds and diamond jewelry from any country 
     that does not have the rough controls in place, progress in 
     establishing the international system will proceed at a 
     leisurely pace. For this reason, we strongly support 
     legislation being introduced by Representatives Tony Hall, 
     Cynthia McKinney, and Frank Wolf to enshrine such 
     restrictions in U.S. trade law. We respectfully urge the 
     American jewelry importers and retailers to support this 
     initiative as well. The Hall-Wolf-McKinney bill, if enacted, 
     would provide the diamond industry an inestimable service. 
     Without penalizing the legitimate producers and exporters, 
     the legislation would assure American diamond retailers and 
     consumers of a ``clean stream'' of diamonds and put serious 
     pressure on countries that fail to support the Kimberley 
     rough controls agreement. Moreover, enactment of a U.S. 
     prohibition on imports from countries that do not have the 
     rough controls in place would encourage them to move forward 
     quickly, and hasten the day that the functioning rough 
     controls on diamonds and diamond jewelry would be truly 
     internationalized.
       We respectfully urge you to protect your own product and 
     safeguard unwitting American consumers by supporting tight 
     restrictions against all diamonds that emerge from countries 
     that have not adopted the Kimberley rough controls. This is 
     the approach that you called for in your September testimony 
     before Congress, and it is the approach that Representatives 
     Hall, McKinney, and Wolf have taken in their legislation. We 
     hope that you will support it strongly, and urge its 
     immediate adoption by Congress.
           Sincerely,
         Leonard S. Rubenstein, Executive Director, Physicians for 
           Human Rights; Adotei Akwei, Africa Advocacy Director, 
           Amnesty International, USA; Bruce Wilkinson, Senior 
           Vice President, World Vision; Dr. Clive Calver, 
           President, World Relief; Raymond Offenheiser, 
           President, Oxfam America; Rabbi David Saperstein and 
           Rabbi Dan Polish, Commission on Social Action of Reform 
           Judaism; Rev. Bob Edgar, General Secretary, National 
           Council of the Churches of Christ.
         Rev. John McCullough, Executive Director, Church World 
           Service and Witness; Nancy Aossey, President and CEO, 
           International Medical Corps; Stephen G. Price, Office 
           of Justice and Peace, Society of Affican Missions; 
           Wanjlru Kamau, President, African Immigrants and 
           Refugees Foundation; Al Graham, Air Serv International; 
           Loretta Bondi, Advocacy Director, Arms and Conflict 
           Program, the Fund for Peace; Larry Goodwin, Executive 
           Director, Africa Faith and Justice Network; James 
           Matlack, Director, Washington Office, American Friends 
           Service Committee; David Begg, CEO, Concern Worldwide 
           U.S.; Jaydee R. Hanson, Assistant General Secretary, 
           United Methodist Church, General Board Of Church and 
           Society, William Goodfellow, Executive Director, Center 
           for International Policy; Beverly Lacayo, Missionary 
           Sisters of Our Lady of Africa; Kevin Lowther, Regional 
           Director Africare.
         Kathleen McNeely, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns; 
           Gaspar Colon, Adventist Development and Relief Agency 
           International; Duni Jones, Self Help Initiative; David 
           Beckman, President, Bread for the World; Alex Yearsley, 
           Global Witness; Rev. Seamus P. Finn, Missionary Oblate 
           Society; Roger Winter, Executive Director, U.S. 
           Committee for Refugees; Rev. Leon Spencer, Washington 
           Office on Africa; Tony Doyle, Mid-South Peace and 
           Justice Center; Maureen Healy, Society of St. Ursula; 
           Kevin George, Friends of Liberia; Thomas Tighe, 
           President and CEO, Direct Relief International; Farshad 
           Rastegar, CEO, Relief International; Barry LaForgia, 
           Executive Director, International Relief Teams.
         Keith Wright, Food for the Hungry; Richenda VanLeeuwen, 
           Executive Director, Trickle Up Program; Peter Sage, 
           Program Director, Ananda Marga Universal Relief Teams; 
           Jeffrey Meer, Executive Director, U.S. Association for 
           UNHCR; Ron Mitchell, Sierra Leone Emergency Network; 
           Gay McDougall, Executive Director, International Human 
           Rights Law Group; Lynn McMullen, Executive Director, 
           RESULTS; Dr. Ritchard Mabayo, Chairman, Coalition for 
           Democracy in Sierra Leone; Margaret Zeigler, Deputy 
           Director, Congressional Hunger Center; Alfred L. 
           Marder, President, The Amistad Committee, Inc.; 
           Reverend Alan Thomson, International Liaison, U.S. 
           Peace Council; Carol Fine, Chairman, NGO Committee on 
           Southern Africa; Washington Office, Church of the 
           Brethren; Rachel Crowger, Executive Director, African 
           Law Initiative; American Bar Association.
         Peter Vander Muelen, Coordinator for Social Justice and 
           Hunger Action, Christian Reformed Church in North 
           America; Phyllis S. Yingling, U.S. Section Chair, 
           Womenas International League for Peace and Freedom; 
           Rev. Mark B. Brown, Asst. Director, International 
           Affairs and Human Rights, Lutheran Office for 
           Governmental Affairs, Evangelical Lutheran Church in 
           America; Rev. Phil Reed, Office of Justice and Peace, 
           Missionaries of Africa; Robert Kushen, Executive 
           Director, Doctors of the World; Joel R. Charny, Vice 
           President for Policy, Refugees International; Brian 
           Farenell, Advocacy Director, Friends of Guinea; Merle 
           Bowen, Associate Professor, University of Illinois, 
           William Martin, Professor, Binghamton University, Co-
           chairs, Association of Concerned Africa Scholars; 
           Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk, Presbyterian Church 
           (USA); Kathryn Wolford, President, Lutheran World 
           Relief; Randall Robinson, TransAfrica; Daniel Vollman, 
           Africa Research Project.
         Mel Foote, President, Constituency for Africa; Pharis 
           Harvey, Executive Director, International Labor Rights 
           Fund; Bass Vanderzalm, President, Northwest Medical 
           Teams, International; Rev. Richard Cizik, Vice 
           President for Governmental Affairs, National 
           Association of Evangelicals; Fr. Rick Ryscavage, S.J., 
           Jesuit Refugee Service/USA; Kathy Thornton, RSM, 
           Network: National Catholic Social Justice Lobby; Yael 
           Martin, Director, Promoting Enduring Peace; Billie Day, 
           Friends of Sierra Leone; Hasit Thankey, Project 
           Officer, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative; Reynold 
           Levy, President, International Rescue Committee; Gail 
           R. Carson, Director, Relief and Food Security Programs, 
           Counterpart International, Inc.; Paul Montacute, 
           Director, Baptist World Aid of Baptist World Alliance; 
           Dr. Evelyn Mauss, Physicians for Social Responsibility/
           NYC; Save the Children; Stephen Rickard, Robert F. 
           Kennedy Memorial; Lonnie Turner, Washington Office, 
           Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

           

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