[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 87 (Thursday, June 21, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1179-E1180]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           CONFLICT DIAMONDS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. TONY P. HALL

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 21, 2001

  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to advise our colleagues 
about progress made in recent days in building the consensus needed to 
end the trade in conflict diamonds. Today, Senators Dick Durbin, Mike 
DeWine and Russ Feingold introduced a companion to H.R. 918, the Clean 
Diamonds Act, that incorporates a compromise among American jewelers 
and the legitimate global diamond industry on the one hand, and 
Senators, Members of Congress, and the 100-plus-member human-rights 
organization dedicated to eliminating the trade in conflict diamonds, 
on the other hand.
  This compromise brings together elected representatives of the nation 
that is world's largest consumer of diamonds, the industry that markets 
those gems, and the respected human rights advocates who have brought 
the role that conflict diamonds play in the legitimate trade to 
American's attention.
  These diverse groups united in supporting this bill in the hope that 
leaders of the global initiative, under way for the past year, will see 
in our unity a call to move beyond debating this problem, and actually 
devise a system capable of ending the trade in conflict diamonds--a 
system that many of us here today have been calling for since early 
2000.
  I think we all have great respect for the 30-plus countries working 
through the African-led ``Kimberley Process'' to end this blood trade; 
their task is a challenging one. The compromise legislation aims to 
spur to action those who want to continue exporting diamonds to our 
market, but the road they take must be one charted by the Kimberley 
Process. However, the time for more talk, more meetings of this august 
body, and more delay is past.
  Seven months ago, the United Nations General Assembly voted 
unanimously to act to eradicate this scourge. Coming together was not 
easy for all of the world's nations. It has not been easy for those of 
us here today. And it won't be easy for participants at July's 
meetings. But a coordinated, global approach offers the only real hope 
of ending a trade that has fueled the wars devastating countries that 
are home to 70 million Africans--and that surely will spark more 
violence if this problem is left to fester. Today, some of the most 
significant stakeholders in the Kimberly Process' work banded together 
to call for swift follow-through on December's unanimous directive from 
the United Nations.
  I hope history will judge this to be a turning point--the moment that 
Americans' representatives in the faith, humanitarian and human rights 
communities, as well as their elected officials, joined hands with the 
industry that brings us one of the many African resources that make our 
lives sweet; the point at which we began working together on an issue 
of life-or-death importance to African people and communities.
  This work entails more than introduction or a passage of the 
legislation, and more than implementation of a global regulatory 
scheme. To achieve lasting success, this work requires us to find a way 
to not merely break the curse that diamonds too often have been--but to 
transform diamonds into a blessing for all of the communities that mine 
them.
  Diamonds are the most concentrated form of wealth mankind has ever 
known--so it is an intolerable irony that they do precious little to 
enrich many of the communities where they are mined: places which are 
located atop diamond-rich soil but nevertheless rank among the poorest 
and most miserable in the world, places like Kenema in Sierra Leone, 
where nearly one child in three dies before his first birthday, even in 
years that see little fighting for control of its diamonds. As long as 
conditions like this persist, as long as there are few alternatives for 
Kenema's people to careers begun as child soldiers, as long as diamond 
mines are an easy target for criminal takeovers, it is doubtful that 
stricter customs laws alone will be capable of holding back the 
violence bred of this despair.
  I am heartened that the Diamond Dealers Club of New York is 
continuing an initiative launched by my friend, Mayer Herz. It will 
directly link Sierra Leone miners with American retailers, and reinvest 
more of the dollars American spend on diamonds in the African 
communities that produce them. I would like to see more joint ventures 
like that, and I encourage other responsible members of the legitimate 
diamond industry to follow this example.
  I want to express my appreciation for the work that today's 
compromise represents to the Senate leaders, who bring tremendous 
energy and capabilities to this work, to the diamond industry, and to 
the non-governmental organizations.
  Matthew Runci, of Jewelers of America, and Eli Izhakoff, of the World 
Diamond Council have done superb work bringing together the very 
different members of the
  As valuable as the industry's efforts have been, the Campaign to 
Eliminate Conflict Diamonds is the real father of this success. The 
human rights activists and members of the humanitarian and faith 
communities who launched that campaign, along with the organizations 
they represent, have done heroic work that has brought us to this 
point.
  First, they have catapulted this issue into the consciousness of 
Americans who never give Africans a thought otherwise--and made many 
people think for the first time about what our sparkly tokens of love 
and commitment symbolize to many people at the other end of the supply 
chain.
  Second, they have worked with the industry at every level to convince 
jewelers and industry leaders alike of the urgent need for an effective 
and immediate solution. That required standing up to a powerful 
industry while simultaneously remaining flexible enough to work with it 
when the situation warranted that.
  Third, they have persuaded a quarter of our nation's elected 
representatives, one by one, to support this call for clean diamonds--a 
call that until today put Members of Congress on the side of faraway 
African victims and at odds with jewelers in every Congressional 
district.
  And last, they have done all this without resorting to the easy 
answers and hype that could destroy consumer confidence in diamonds and 
devastate the economies of the countries they benefit.
  It took too long to get to this day, but it would not have come 
without these organizations and individuals, particularly Holly 
Burkhalter, Adotei Akwei, Amanda Blair, Rory Anderson, Bernice Romero, 
Ann Wang and Danielle Hirsch. They are a dedicated and tireless group, 
and I commend their commitment to this compelling human rights cause.
  It is with pleasure that I submit for inclusion in the Congressional 
Record the joint statement by the World Diamond Council and the 
steering committee of the Campaign to Eliminate Conflict Diamonds. It 
calls on Congress to pass the Clean Diamonds Act this year, and on 
President Bush to sign it into law, and I commend it to my colleagues' 
attention.
  If we heed this call, we can make today the milestone it has the 
potential to be, the moment history marks as the beginning of diamonds' 
transformation, from a curse on too many Africans, to a blessing for 
all the people whose lives they touch. I urge my colleagues to give 
this call the serious consideration it deserves, and to seize this 
historic opportunity.

Joint Statement by the World Diamond Council and the Steering Committee 
             of the Campaign To Eliminate Conflict Diamonds

       The World Diamond Council and the non-governmental 
     community represented by Physicians for Human Rights, Amnesty 
     International, OxfamAmerica, World Vision, World Relief and 
     the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism support the 
     Clean Diamonds Act being introduced today in the Senate. This 
     legislation will create a system to prohibit the U.S. import 
     of conflict diamonds and impose serious penalties on those 
     who trade in them.

[[Page E1180]]

       Our collaboration represents the shared commitment of the 
     NGO community and the diamond industry to work together to 
     secure passage of this legislation sponsored by Senators Dick 
     Durbin, D-Ill., Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Michael DeWine, R-
     Ohio. We thank the Senators for introducing this bill, which 
     accommodates the concerns of both the diamond industry and 
     the NGO community. We also wish to thank Reps. Tony Hall, D-
     Ohio, and Frank Wolf, R-Va., for their commitment to ending 
     the conflict diamond trade.
       We are determined to work together to secure rapid 
     enactment of this legislation, which represents the best 
     efforts of the NGO community and diamond industry to develop 
     a workable system for keeping conflict stones out of the 
     United States.
       The conditions placed on the importation of diamonds and 
     diamond jewelry in the legislation are designed to support 
     and encourage the work of the 38 countries that are part of 
     the Kimberley Process, which is developing an international 
     system to stop trade in conflict diamonds. The standards 
     being developed by participants in the Kimberley Process, 
     which includes governments, NGOs and the diamond industry, 
     are expected to be presented in final form to the United 
     Nations General Assembly by the end of this year.
       Passage of this legislation also will enhance the 
     confidence of U.S. jewelers and consumers that American 
     purchases of diamonds and diamond jewelry are not unwittingly 
     benefiting abusive insurgencies in Africa.
       We collectively call upon the U.S. Congress to pass the 
     Clean Diamonds Act in this session of Congress and urge 
     President Bush to sign it into law.

     

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