March 12, 2000
The illegal diamond trade has been widely blamed for prolonging the Angolan civil war Two African countries, Rwanda and Togo, have denied United Nations accusations that they helped the Angolan rebel group Unita break international sanctions.
The UN report commissioned by the UN Security Council is due for release on Wednesday. The leaked report accuses several African leaders of breaking UN sanctions by helping Unita trade in illegal diamonds.
The denials
The government of Togo dismissed as baseless claims that President Gnassingbe Eyadema helped fuel Angola's civil war by providing Unita with illegal arms and fuel, in exchange for diamonds. Rwanda also denied that its vice-president, Paul Kagame, had allowed Unita leaders into the country to arrange arms deals and diamond sales.
The leaked report accused Mr Kagame of allowing the Unita rebels "to operate more or less freely" in Kigali to arrange diamond sales and meet weapons brokers.
"The government of Rwanda categorically denies these allegations and reserves the right to address them squarely when the report is officially presented to the Security Council," a Rwandan Government statement said on Sunday. President Blaise Campaore of Burkina Faso, whom the UN also accused of collusion with Unita, has yet to respond.
Belgian anger
On Saturday, the Belgian Government protested against the report which accused it of poor control of its international diamond market in Antwerp. The UN report sheds new light on the origins of Unita's arms
The report accused Belgium of being "unwilling or unable" to police the trade in illegal Angolan diamonds, in breach of sanctions against the Angolan rebel movement, Unita. The Belgian Foreign Ministry said it had appointed a task force to tackle the issue of diamond identification, and had a credible authentication system. Diamonds are a major source of revenue for Unita, and the illegal trade has been widely blamed for prolonging the Angolan civil war.
Unita defectors
The report was produced by a panel appointed by the Angola Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council which is chaired by the Canadian UN ambassador, Robert Fowler.
Senior Unita defectors are believed to have supplied part of the information contained in the report. Bulgaria is identified as being Unita's principal source of weapons. Officials in Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa are also accused of breaking UN sanctions.
The report makes a number of recommendations to curb Unita's ability to trade in diamonds, among them that -
States breaking the weapons embargo on Unita should be subjected to a three-year moratorium on arms sales.
Governments should not attend conferences held in countries guilty of sanctions busting.
