[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 35 (Thursday, March 15, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H944-H945]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    H.R. 918, THE CLEAN DIAMONDS ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Hall) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak 
for 5 minutes with the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf), my friend.
  Mr. Speaker, a month ago a coalition of 75 respected human rights 
organizations launched a campaign aimed at eliminating the root cause 
of the wars in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Angola and the Congo, the trade in 
conflict diamonds, what we call blood diamonds.
  They took action because the diamond industry reneged on its solemn 
promise that it would do its best to help end this problem. These 
dedicated advocates have reached out to tens of thousands of people 
with a simple message, do something.
  I am here today to echo the call, and I am pleased to be joined by 
the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf), the gentleman from California 
(Mr. Royce), and other dedicated colleagues, certainly the gentlewoman 
from Georgia (Ms. McKinney).
  I appreciate their commitment to Africa and the support of more than 
90 Members in this House that have given their sponsorship to this 
effort by cosponsoring the Clean Diamonds Act, H.R. 918.
  As our colleagues know, for more than a year, we have been looking 
for a way to do something about the innocent African civilians who are 
being viciously attacked, simply because they live on diamond-rich land 
in these countries.
  In Sierra Leone, for example, thousands were senselessly punished for 
voting by having their hand that cast a ballot in the country's first 
democratic election chopped off by a machete, and countless victims met 
similar fates as rebels played cruel games with their victims, like 
betting on the gender of an unborn child and then cutting the 
struggling mother open to learn who won the bet.
  While Sierra Leone's situation has claimed the most headlines, the 
suffering is equally bad in Angola, the Congo, and now Guinea.
  I hope you and our colleagues will take a moment to hear what these 
dedicated people have to say. I commend them for bringing this to the

[[Page H945]]

American people's attention. I also want to specifically point out what 
they are not saying. There have been some pretty wild claims made by 
some African politicians and the army of lobbyists and PR firms that 
they have hired.
  They warn that a boycott of diamonds could hurt some countries that 
depend on the legitimate trade, and they are right. But no one is 
calling for a boycott of diamonds, Mr. Speaker. I am not. My colleagues 
are not. Certainly, the ones who support the Clean Diamonds Act are 
not. Human rights activists are not.
  With that said, any feeling human being knows that if this butchery 
continues, American consumers, who are the primary source of rebels' 
funds, will recoil in horror. I do not know what they might do; at a 
minimum, they probably will think twice before they buy a diamond.
  That is the reality that the diamond industry, African countries and 
U.S. diplomats need to grapple with. They had a good start last summer, 
but that effort has evolved in meetings about when the next meetings 
might be and about what report on the situation they might write up 
before this year ends.
  That is simply not enough, Mr. Speaker. That approach does nothing to 
help the 70 million people of these embattled nations. It does nothing 
to help, for example, this young lady here and people like her who have 
lost their hands and so many people that the gentleman from Virginia 
(Mr. Wolf) and I have seen who have lost their ears and nose and feet, 
because of the horror of what we call blood diamonds. In this instance 
and in thousands of others, diamonds certainly are not a girl's best 
friend.
  The legitimate diamond industry has been complicit in funding these 
atrocities for years and years.
  Without its eagerness to launder rebel diamonds in violation not only 
of human decency but of U.N. sanctions and long-standing international 
trade law, the rebels in Sierra Leone could not have transformed 
themselves from a gang of 400 into a well-equipped force of 20,000.
  Without the help of otherwise honorable diamond dealers, the rebels 
in Angola would not have earned nearly $4 billion in recent years, 
money which has gone into buying land mines and attacking anyone who 
gets in the way of the diamond mining.
  Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of terrible things that are going on in 
Africa and in desperately poor places. Usually, it is hard for us to 
figure out what we can do. The problems are usually so awesome and 
bedeviling and so enormous that we kind of throw up our hands. But this 
is not one of those cases.
  There is something we can do sitting at home in America about diamond 
wars, because we buy two-thirds of all the diamonds in the world, and 
as this industry's biggest consumer, Americans have enormous clout.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues and others who are listening to go 
to their local jewellers and tell them to do something to bring an end 
to these diamond wars and peace to Africa and do it without any further 
delay.

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