[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 14]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 20841-20843]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                     PASS THE CARAT ACT: H.R. 5147

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. TONY P. HALL

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, October 4, 2000

  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, many of us are gravely concerned about 
the role the trade in diamonds has in fueling some of the most brutal 
wars in Africa. Much is made of the fact that the number of these 
diamonds is small--between 4 and 15 percent. The reality is that blood 
diamonds account for 30 percent of the profits the industry earns.
  The link between diamonds and war is well-documented, and I urge our 
colleagues to get the complete story by requesting a briefing by U.S. 
intelligence agencies. In the meantime, I am submitting for the Record 
a selection of excerpts from respected publications. This is by no 
means exhaustive, and it omits reports on the industry's recent efforts 
to repair its damaged reputation.
  I hope this selection is useful to the American public--which buys 
two-thirds of the world's diamonds. And I urge my colleagues to review 
this situation and join in efforts to combat this terrible trade.

       ``The flow of uncut diamonds from rebel-held mines to 
     market centers around the

[[Page 20842]]

     world--valued at hundreds of millions of dollars a year--is 
     keeping rebel armies in Angola, Congo and Sierra Leone 
     supplied with tanks and assault rifles and even uniforms and 
     beer, American and European officials say.'' U.S. May Try to 
     Curb Diamond Trade That Fuels Africa Wars, New York Times, 8/
     7/99.
       ``The brutal war in Sierra Leone, which left thousands 
     maimed and mutilated, was prolonged by at least 18 months 
     because of the ability of the rebels to quickly trade 
     diamonds for arms, an Administration official said. . . .'' 
     U.S. May Try to Curb Diamond Trade That Fuels Africa Wars, 
     New York Times, 8/7/99.
       ``In many African nations, the natural resources that 
     should be used to feed and educate people are instead being 
     used to destroy them. . . . Loot, not better government, has 
     motivated the psychotically brutal guerrillas of Sierra 
     Leone.'' The Business of War in Africa, New York Times, 8/8/
     99.
       ``Sierra Leone was founded in the 18th century as a safe 
     haven for freed slaves. At the close of the 20th century, its 
     people are enduring horrors at the hands of their countrymen 
     and bearing scars from a civil war of atrocities perpetrated 
     by an army of thugs and desperadoes.'' The Amputees of Sierra 
     Leone: Civil War's Brutal Legacy, Washington Post, 10/18/99.
       ``The eight-year conflict that has shattered this country 
     and brutalized its 5 million people has been fueled by 
     foreigners' hunger for diamonds. . . . These conflicts are 
     singularly brutal, scholars say, because many of their 
     sponsors are outsiders with little motive to limit 
     destruction.'' Diamond Hunters Fuel Africa's Brutal Wars, 
     Washington Post, 10/16/99.
       ``. . . a prosthetics specialist for Handicap International 
     . . . said he had never seen a double-arm amputee until he 
     came here. `It was shocking,' he said. `I don't think you 
     will find double amputees of the upper limbs anywhere else in 
     the world--maybe isolated cases, but not like in Sierra 
     Leone.' In the Amputee and War Wounded Camp. . . . the double 
     amputees are considered the unluckiest. Those without arms . 
     . . openly express envy of those with a missing leg, who will 
     one day wear trousers over an artificial leg, or those with 
     at least one good arm. . . . a psychologist who treats the 
     amputees, said the Revolutionary United Front appeared to 
     have selected men whose maiming would most profoundly affect 
     the social order. `It was the goal of the rebels to take away 
     their role as men, fathers and husbands.'' Sierra Leone 
     Measures Terror in Severed Limbs, Washington Post, 8/22/99.
       ``The residents of this camp [for amputees] lost their arms 
     and feet to a rebel force that spread terror among Sierra 
     Leoneans not by killing but by leaving people . . . as 
     living, limbless symbols of its savage power. The 
     campaignSierra Leone Measures Terror in Severed Limbs, 
     Washington Post, 8/22//99.
       ``That dazzling diamond necklace you buy for that special 
     someone at a swank Fifth Avenue jewelry store may be funding 
     the activities of a canibal gang in Sierra Leone. . . . It's 
     the dark side of the diamond industry. . . . and the 
     profits--estimated to be $2 billion a year--are funneled back 
     to some of the worst mass killers this century has ever seen. 
     The money is used to buy arms and military hardware, and to 
     hire private mercenary firms to keep these internal African 
     conflicts raging, according to a recent report by the State 
     Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research.'' Dirty 
     Diamonds, New York Post, 11/9/99.
       ``. . . are New York diamond dealers worried about having 
     their glittering product follow in the footsteps of the fur 
     coat and labeled parish products? `No . . . We've weathered 
     many storms before. We'll weather this one too.' '' Dirty 
     Diamonds, New York Post, 11/9/99.
       ``Some of Africa's worst violence--in Angola, in Congo, in 
     Sierra Leone--where hundreds of thousands have died or lost 
     arms and legs: This turmoil has been financed in large part 
     by stolen diamonds that end up in jewelry stores around the 
     world. . . . There is so much money at stake, it won't be 
     easy to stop rebels who have used the beauty and value of 
     diamonds to create misery and death in Africa.'' ABC World 
     News Tonight, 11/26/99.
       ``In an African tragedy, the world's purest gems are 
     funding one of the diriest wars in history.'' Diamonds in the 
     Rough, Time, 12/6/99.
       ``More than 10,000 people had been murdered, raped, 
     abductted or maimed by rebels in a campaign of calculated 
     terror. In their vividness sand gratuitous cruelty, the mass 
     amputations epitomized the powerlessness of ordinary Africans 
     a the turn of the millennium. They also marked a climactic 
     spasm in a grinding eight-year civil war shaped by familiar 
     patterns. Outsiders exploited Sierra Leone's diamonds and 
     other resources. . . . The international media paid little 
     attention. And the great power stood aside, numbed by 
     Africa's wars and poverty.'' Peace Without Justice: The Other 
     War, Washington Post, 1/9/00.
       ``Rebel armies in Angola, the Congo, and Sierra Leone wage 
     brutal civil wars funded by an extensive, smuggled diamond 
     trade. The rebels take control of a diamond mine, falsify a 
     few documents, and then sell the diamonds in the 
     international markets. . . . Rebels in Sierra Leone used 
     their diamond money, funneled through dealers in Liberia, to 
     build an army that started with just 400 volunteers, into a 
     fighting force with more than 20,000 paid soldiers.'' Is Your 
     Engagement Ring Funding a Civil War?, Shewire, 2/23/00.
       ``In many parts of Africa, diamonds don't mean glamour, 
     purity or eternal love. Instead, they mean slaughter and 
     sadistic brutality. In civil wars in Angola, Congo and Sierra 
     Leone--among the world's bloodiest yet most ignored 
     conflicts--guerrilla groups earn hundreds of millions of 
     dollars annually from mining and exporting diamonds. They use 
     the money to buy huge arsenals and terrorize enormous 
     expanses of countryside.'' Glittering Currency of African 
     Warfare, San Francisco Chronicle, 3/6//00.
       ``The diamond-financed escalation of war in Angola in the 
     last decade has cost the lives of about 500,000 people while 
     displacing about four million others, according to human 
     rights groups and the United Nations,'' U.N. Sees Violation 
     of a Diamond Ban by Angola Rebels, New York Times, 3/11/00.
       ``. . . the glittering stones have become agents of slave 
     labor, murder, dismemberment, mass homelessness and wholesale 
     economic collapse.'' New York Times. 4/6/00.
       ``Sierra Leone remains one of the poorest countries, 
     despite its diamond wealth. Or rather because of it. `The 
     diamond mines are central to the conflict in two ways. One, 
     they provide the spoils. Two, providing the RUF with the 
     money to continue waging war.' '' A Conflict Rooted in Rebels 
     and Diamonds, Christian Science Monitor, 5/15/00.
       ``Clausewitz called war `the pursuit for politics by other 
     means.' But war is just as often a device for the pursuit of 
     business. In Sierra Leone, war is caused by diamonds. The 
     limb-chopping rebels of the Revoluntionary United Front (RUF) 
     started out in 1991 as a small band. Then they captured the 
     diamond region, got rich and became a very big band. . . . 
     They fight not to win but to keep hold of the diamond 
     trade.'' Diamonds are for Killers, Washington Post, 
     5/16/00.
       ``The international diamond trade needs to be regulated . . 
     . Better accountability is not too much to ask of an industry 
     with annual retail sales worth $56 billion. Western 
     governments can carry on financing peacekeeping missions 
     while their consumers finance mayhem.'' Diamonds are for 
     Killers, Washington Post, 5/16/00.
       ``Sierra Leone is being ripped apart because of diamonds. 
     The Revolutionary United Front, or RUF, the leading rebel 
     group, controls the country's richest diamond areas . . . 
     refugees have no hope of profiting from their hometown's 
     natural wealth so long as the RUF remains there. `I am living 
     like this all because of diamonds,' [a refugee] said, 
     surveying a crush of humanity at the camp's food distribution 
     center.'' A War Driven by Diamonds, Los Angeles Times, 5/26/
     00.
       ``That a criminal economy can eat away at the heart of 
     states and whole nations is nothing new. But recent events in 
     Lierra Leone have shown that it can also divert to its own 
     advantage an entire peacekeeping operation run by the United 
     Nations and supported by the main foreign powers . . . We 
     must be clear about who is involved. Barbaric, drug-crazed 
     and dragooned by the warlords as they may be armed and 
     desperate young men could not have brought UNAMSIL to it 
     knees all on their own. The UN has been ensnared by something 
     different, something newer and more insidious; by a struggle 
     between two rival groups supported by businessmen intent on 
     gaining control of mineral wealth.'' Sierra Leone's Diamond 
     Wars, Le Monde, 6/00.
       `The Kalashnikov lifestyle helps our business,' sing the 
     child-soldiers of the RUF. When these kids with guns--doubly 
     cursed by a war in which they are born to live as killers and 
     then die young--watched the blue berets moving towards the 
     diamond fields last March, they did not see them as 
     representatives of an international community intent on 
     disarming them and generously giving them an education, 
     health, social protection and work. This is just one more 
     faction that wanted to take their territory away from them so 
     as to deprive them of their source of wealth . . . '' Sierra 
     Leone's Diamond Wars, Le Monde, 6/00
       ``At least three wars in Africa are `fueled' by diamonds . 
     . . A campaign partly financed by Britain, is seeking to 
     alert consumers to `conflict' diamonds.' Seeing what animal-
     rights campaigners did to fur, this has terrified the whole 
     industry.'' Losing Their Sparkle: How to Stop Diamonds Paying 
     for Nasty African Wars, The Economist.6/3/00.
       ``When they chop off people's hands, they will say to the 
     victims, `Let's see how you're going to vote now,' [Sierra 
     Leone's Ambassador] Liegh explained. `In Sierra Leone, people 
     re in a state of shock. Nobody throughout the fellow Africans 
     could be this vicious' The extreme violence, he said, is 
     explained by the diamonds, which the rebels--who have 
     received support from Libya and neighboring Liberia--seek to 
     control. `The greedier you are, the more violent you are,' he 
     said.'' An African Ambassador Battles Terror and 
     Indifference, New York Times, 6/5/00.
       ``As the people of Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic 
     Republic of the Congo have found to their cost, diamonds from 
     rebel-

[[Page 20843]]

     controlled mines are the perfect currency to discreetly buy 
     arms, bribe officials and keep soldiers fed and fighting. 
     Stones smaller than a fingernail can be easily hidden and 
     sold for thousands of dollars with no question asked.'' 
     African Diamonds are a Rebel's Best Friend, Reuters, 6/8/00.
       ``DeBeers is stepping up its attempts to make such Robin 
     Cook and others do not stigmatize diamonds as `the new fur' 
     through constantly associated them with wars in Africa. 
     Diamonds are commonplace in some parts of the [African] 
     Continent and their high value is dependent on a pure image 
     and DeBeers' restricting supply. The company has always had a 
     huge marketing arm and `diamonds are forever,' coined in 
     1947, is one of the most successful advertising slogans of 
     all time.'' African Images Could Hurt Diamond Trade, Daily 
     Telegraph, 6/12/00
       ``The [United Nations'] main objective is to take the 
     diamond fields in the east, which finance the rebels' war 
     chest . . . From the diamond fields, the threats of the 
     conflict lead over the border. The RUF smuggles diamonds into 
     neighboring Liberia, where President Charles Taylor (who 
     helped launch the RUF) is, according to the British, swapping 
     them for weapons and ammunition.'' Sierra Leone: Staying On, 
     The Economist, 6/17/00
       ``Many rebel leaders inciting civil conflict are really 
     more interested in lucrative commodities such as diamonds, 
     drugs, timber and coffee than in the political grievances 
     they espouse, the World Bank says in a report release last 
     week...When the main grievances--inequality political 
     repression, and ethnic and religious divisions--are measured 
     objectively, Report Links Conflicts with Commodities, UN 
     Wire, 6/22/00.
       ``In Sierra Leone, the Revolutionary United Front, a rebel 
     outfit seeking to conquer diamond fields in the eastern part 
     of their country, routinely chops off the limbs of citizens 
     to force evacuations of the countryside surrounding the 
     mines. The rebels barter diamonds for weapons and fund their 
     movement with illicit diamond trade. . . . While the vast 
     majority of diamonds come from conflict-free zones in Africa 
     and are traded legitimately, enough diamonds are mined in 
     conflict zones to create a reasonable doubt about any stone's 
     origin.'' Rights Groups Take the Stick to Carat of Conflict 
     Diamonds, Congressional Quarterly Daily Monitor, 6/26/00.
       ``. . . public perception of diamonds has been marred by 
     the gems' links to such armed conflicts as the one in Sierra 
     Leone, reports the Karachi Dawn. `Suddenly, instead of being 
     glamorous and eternal, the precious stones are shooting to 
     the top of the political hate list,' wrote Doug Alexander. 
     `Their sparkle has faded in a matter of weeks.' '' Diamonds 
     Becoming Unpopular Due to Ties to Conflict, UN Wire, 6/29/00.
       `` `We have always maintained that the conflict in Sierra 
     Leone is not about ideology, tribal or regional difference,' 
     [Sierra Leone's Ambassador] Kamara added. ``It has nothing to 
     do with the so-called problem of marginalized youths or . . . 
     an uprising by rural poor against the urban elite. The root 
     of the conflict is and remains diamonds, diamonds and 
     diamonds.' '' New York Times, 7/6/00.
       ``Two weeks ago the World Bank reported that the struggle 
     for diamonds and other commodities had overtaken politics as 
     the biggest cause of civil war globally. The deaths of 
     countless Africans are now inextricably linked to the 
     glittering object that has symbolized the promise of a 
     lasting marriage.'' In Search of Hot Rocks, Newsweek, 7/10/
     00.
       ``By far the most potent symbol of the suffering `conflict 
     diamonds' can inflict are the amputees of Sierra Leone. 
     [Foday] Sankoh's rebels cut the hands off defenseless 
     civilians in order to sow terror and clear people out of 
     diamond-rich areas. Later, long after a peace agreement had 
     been signed, Sankoh's forces attacked U.N. peacekeepers just 
     as they were preparing to move into rebel-held diamond zones. 
     That audacious assault clearly demonstrated just how 
     important diamonds had become to the RUF.'' In Search of Hot 
     Rocks, Newsweek, 7/10/00.
       ``Rather quickly, the world is waking up to the role of 
     diamonds in fueling Africa's civil wars.'' Africa's Death 
     Stones, 7/15/00.
       ``Diamonds have long conjured the most romantic notions. . 
     . . In parts of conflict-ridden Africa, however, diamonds 
     inspire little sentimentality. African warlords have taken 
     control of some of the most valuable diamond mines on the 
     continent, using the proceeds to buy guns and machetes. Their 
     involvement in the international diamond trade has given 
     birth to a new gemstone: the blood diamond.'' A Rebel's Best 
     Friend, Washington Times, 7/23/00.
       ``Consumers have begun to ask where their diamonds come 
     from, prodding the industry to start certifying that it does 
     not finance civil wars, merchants said. . . . The diamond 
     merchants say they are working under pressure from their 
     customers.'' Diamond Industry Makes Proposals, Washington 
     Post, 9/7/00.
       ``Buyers would be appalled to learn that money paid for 
     diamond rings and bracelets may ultimately support politico-
     criminal bands which exploit child-soldiers and survive by 
     atrocities and terror. The business would be ruined overnight 
     if the barbarous crimes committed in Sierra Leone--and 
     wholesale atrocities against civilians in the struggles over 
     control of diamonds and minerals in the Congo, Angola and 
     elsewhere--became associated by the Western public with 
     luxury jewels.'' How Pressure on the Diamond Trade Can do 
     Good for Africa, International Herald Tribune, 8/25/00.
       ``The diamond trade is hard to control since the stones are 
     so easily concealed and transported. . . . On the other hand, 
     nearly all traded jewel diamonds pass by way of four 
     countries: South Africa . . . Belgium and Israel, . . . and 
     the United States. All are serious countries that can 
     suppress much of the illicit trade, if they want.'' How 
     Pressure on the Diamond Trade Can do Good for Africa, 
     International Herald Tribune, 8/25/00.
       ``DeBeers was rocked by disclosures that in 1992 the 
     company bought $14 million worth of diamonds from Angolan 
     rebels and has since scrambled to burnish its public image . 
     . .  [its] strategy may prove a spectacularly profitable act 
     of reinvention.'' A Gem of a New Strategy, Time, 9/25/00.
       ``Nine years of civil war . . .  has devastated the 
     civilian population of Sierra Leone. The conflict has killed 
     over 75,000 people, displaced one-half of the country's 4.5 
     million people, and resulted in egregious human rights 
     violations. . . .  The RUF, however, has continued to finance 
     its military operations through the illegal sale of 
     diamonds.'' Sierra Leone: Diamonds for Arms, Human Rights 
     Brief, Spring 2000.
       ``The photographs of sad-eyed babies whose hands were 
     hacked off by a vicious rebel force have shocked the world's 
     conscience. So too have reports that the wealth and weaponry 
     of Sierra Leone's insurgents come from their control of their 
     country's diamond fields. The horrifying juxtaposition of 
     severed limbs with twinkling gems has even riveted the 
     attention of the diamond industry. U.S. consumers have a 
     particular reason to deplore the link between diamond 
     purchases and the funding of the psychotic rebel forces in 
     West Africa. Americans reportedly account for 65 percent of 
     the world's diamond jewelry sales. But at present there is no 
     way for those buying this symbol of love to make an ethical 
     choice.'' Deadly Diamonds: Gems Sold in the United States Pay 
     for Atrocities in West Africa, Legal Times, 9/11/00.

     

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