Global Policy Forum

By Jeevan Vasagar

The diamond industry has begun a campaign to safeguard its lucrative Christmas trade from what it fears will be a blitz of negative publicity resulting from a forthcoming Hollywood film about the trade in African "conflict diamonds".De Beers, the world's biggest diamond company, plans to spend $15-million (R110-million) on publicity this autumn, in advance of the release in December of Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, which threatens to make diamonds as unfashionable as fur.

In the film DiCaprio plays a South African mercenary who goes on a quest in pursuit of a rare pink diamond through rebel-held territory in Sierra Leone, a West African country whose civil war was fuelled by diamond smuggling, and resulted in 75 000 deaths. In real life, DiCaprio has become the poster boy for those who believe the diamond industry is wrecking lives. The film has inspired a band of Kalahari Bushmen to advertise in the Hollywood magazine Variety, attacking the diamond business.

The Bushmen, who claim they have been expelled from ancestral land in Botswana to make way for diamond mining, appealed for DiCaprio's support. In an open letter to the star, they said: "After diamonds were found on our land we were evicted ... Those diamonds are a curse for us. We hope you will use your film to let people know that we too are victims of diamonds and we just want to go home."

In turn, Hollywood has been accused of trivialising the truth about African diamonds by some in the gemstone trade. Eli Izhakoff, chairperson of industry body the World Diamond Council, said: "This movie, drawing attention to this subject, is something that happened years ago, something that was remedied."

The industry has set up a website aimed at countering a backlash from the film. Diamondfacts.org tells of the benefits the industry has brought to its workers and enlists the unimpeachable sainthood of former South African president Nelson Mandela, who describes the diamond industry as "vital" to Southern Africa's economy. In Botswana, 25% of jobs are directly or indirectly linked to diamonds, while in Namibia the diamond trade is the second biggest employer after the government, the industry says.

The Bushmen are not the only African voices drawn into the debate. Patrick Mazimhaka, a Rwandan diplomat who is now deputy chairperson of the African Union, wrote in a United States newspaper recently that blaming diamonds for fuelling conflict "misses the fact that plenty of good can be accomplished with earnings from natural resources. With the right ingredients ... good governance and careful leadership ... commodities have been a tremendous force for continental good."

The diamond trade's campaign is meant to safeguard a market worth $2,2-billion in Britain last year. Diamond retailers make a fifth of their sales at Christmas, when the film is due for its US release. It is expected to come out in Britain in the New Year. "We don't see [the film] as damaging so long as it's dealt with in a historical perspective," Izhakoff said.

The industry claims conflict diamonds now make up less than 1% of those sold, compared with 4% in the late 1990s, the period in which the film is set. Conflict diamonds have been virtually eliminated by the Kimberley Process, a scheme which requires governments to track rough diamonds from mines to the polished stage, the industry says.

"This system that we've put together is not perfect, but we are making every effort to make it so," said Izhakoff. "We don't want one stone out there that's a conflict stone."

But not everyone agrees the problem has been solved. After peace deals ended several African civil wars, the main source of conflict diamonds is Cí´te d'Ivoire, where rebels control some mining areas. According to the pressure group Global Witness, gems smuggled out of Cí´te d'Ivoire into Mali are being sold on to international dealers. Congo-Brazzaville has been prohibited from diamond trading because of suspicions that it is a hub for smuggling, and though the civil war is over in its neighbour, the Democratic Republic of Congo, there is still occasional fighting for control of diamond mines and other minerals.

Susie Sanders, Global Witness campaigner, said: "We're pushing for stronger internal controls to make sure that conflict diamonds can't be smuggled into countries that are [in the] Kimberley Process and exported. There is lots of cross-border smuggling. The control systems just aren't strong enough."

Jewellers in London's Hatton Garden diamond district said they had been approached directly by smugglers offering West African diamonds. Malcolm Park-Carpenter, manager of Channings jewellers, said: "The only thing we can do is make sure they're non-conflict through our sources. We don't buy from Angola or anywhere that it can be turned into arms.

"Sierra Leone is one of the countries we don't touch. We get people coming in from there [saying]: 'Do you buy rough diamonds?'. We say: 'Where are they from?' -- [they say] 'Sierra Leone', and we say 'Get out'. We're doing everything we can to make sure we don't end up funding AK-47s."

The shop manager's answers revealed good intentions but inaccurate knowledge. Angola and Sierra Leone have peace deals and can legitimately trade in diamonds, but illicitly offered gems may be conflict diamonds from Cí´te d'Ivoire.

There is a fear that controversy around the film will provoke a backlash against all African diamonds, an outcome both the industry and the campaigners want to avoid. "It would be terrible if the film led to Sierra Leone being seen as a pariah," said Sanders of Global Witness. "Quite a few African countries with artisanal mining have weak control systems. It's [the case] in West Africa and the Congo.

"What we really hope doesn't happen is that people say 'I'm not going to buy African diamonds'. What we want to do is protect the legitimate trade from Africa."

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