Associated Press
January 19, 2000
London - The diamond giant, De Beers, is consistently failing to take the initiative following pressure from NGOs and governments to ensure that diamonds that are fuelling conflicts across Africa do not enter the marketplace.
Tomorrow at the Musee du Louvre in Paris, the 'De Beers International Award', dubbed the 'Oscars of the diamond trade', will be presented to 29 jewellery designers. This is at a time when the image of diamonds is in serious jeopardy following detailed reports that show how the diamond trade has been responsible for funding conflict in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
"Instead of implementing controls to ensure that diamonds that are fueling conflicts do not end up as jewellery, it seems that De Beers executives are too busy promoting diamonds and haute couture instead of working on the solutions to the problem of diamond funded conflict. What is more important to them, helping the global efforts under way to curb this terrible trade or haute couture?", said Alex Yearsley of Global Witness.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C íŸ 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
