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In February 2002, Jonas Sambivi was killed and a ceasefire agreement put in place, although the severe humanitarian crises caused by drought and years of war still threaten this fragile peace. In April 2002 it was reported that large amounts of diamond production still involved UNITA.
The lost children of Sierra Leone
Between January and August 2001 4,000 children were registered as missing in Sierra Leone In 1999 the civil war between the Revolutionary Front (RUF) and government of Sierra Leone ended. The respite was brief, in May 2000 the UN Security Council's disarmament force was taken hostage and hostilities resumed. In July 2000, after international concern that diamonds were funding the war the UN banned all imports of rough diamonds from Sierra Leone.
Despite sanctions, attacks on civilians escalated. Forced labour within the diamond mining areas of Kono continued, as did extortion of food and money by the RUF. Women and girls were tortured and raped, children were abducted for use as sexual slaves and work in the mines, while men and boys were forced to fight.
In January 2002, the ten year civil war officially ended. The recent elections saw the people of the war torn state flocking to the polls to support the re-election of the President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah. While the diamond certificate scheme, introduced in 2000, has stemmed the flow of smuggled gems and created a boom in legal exports, a trickle of illegal diamonds continues to find its way to Antwerp. In 2001, the Sierra Leone Mineral Resource Minister said the country's export of diamonds, helped by the clamp down on rebel trade through the certificate scheme, had gone up 150%, over $26 million dollars. He claimed 25% of the money would go directly to develop local areas and hoped future exports will exceed $30 million. Even so the Sierra Leone Finance Minister, on 25 March 2002, claimed the certificate scheme had not been effective and that the government could not control the illegal diamond trade.
The Al Qaida Connection
Osama bin Laden has also benefited from conflict diamonds, according to the Washington Post. The Liberian government were indirectly funding the Al Qa'ida network with the proceeds from conflict diamonds. A Global Witness letter to Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, stated, Al-Qaida has derived millions of US dollars from diamonds mined by the RUF and carried out in the co-operation of the Liberian government with President Charles Taylor receiving commission on these transactions".
Although, in 1992, an arms embargo was set up to curb arms trafficking to RUF rebels via Liberia, a recent UN report exposed huge illegal arms shipments to Liberia in the past two years. The UN response is muddled, for example, Kofi Annan, in his October 11th report to the UN Security Council, insisted sanctions would hurt ordinary Liberians, yet later that month a panel of 'experts' recommended additional sanctions, stating that while the flow of illicit diamonds from Sierra Leone to Liberia had stopped, RUF rebels had found alternative smuggling routes.
U.S. officials are also investigating Al Qaidas links with Congos diamond, gold and uranium trade and the trade of diamonds in neighbouring Tanzania. "We are beginning to understand how easy it is to move money through commodities like diamonds, which can't be traced and can be easily stored," said a U.S. official. "One thing we are learning is not to ignore the obvious."
It is not only Al Qada exploiting the Congo's diamond resources. All the belligerents in one way or another are benefiting from the conflict," said UN panel chairman, Safiatou Ba-N'Daw, at a recent news conference. "The only losers are the Congolese people.
