UN Council passes embargo on S Leone diamond trade

UN Council passes embargo on S Leone diamond trade
AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

UNITED NATIONS, JULY 6: The UN Security Council imposed an embargo on Wednesday on trade in diamonds mined from rebel-held areas of Sierra Leone, in a bid to cut off the rebels' main source of revenue.

Resolution 1306, passed with 14 votes and one abstention by Mali, places an 18-month ban on trade in diamonds from regions controlled by the Revolutionary United Front of Foday Sankoh. But many diplomats here doubted whether the United Nations could effectively ban the diamond trade that has fueled Sierra Leone's bloody civil war since 1991.

The 15 Council members also called on Liberia, a transit point for many of the RUF diamonds, and the diamond industry to comply with the resolution. The resolution, proposed by Britain, said the Council decided "that all states should take the necessary measures to prohibit the direct or indirect import of all rough diamonds from Sierra Leone to their territory".

Exempted from the ban are diamonds mined from government-controlled areas of Sierra Leone, but only after Freetown develops a system to provide certificates of origin for the diamonds. An amendment added at France's request puts an 18-month limit on the ban, but allows for its renewal at the end of that period.

Sierra Leone's main diamond-producing areas are in regions under the control of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), along the border with Liberia. The embargo passed with 14 votes and abstention from Mali, which objected to language referring to Liberia as a transit point for diamonds mined by Sierra Leonean rebels. The RUF has gained worldwide notoriety during the course of Sierra Leone's eight-year civil war for the murder, rape and mutilation of civilians, including children. "This is a robust and imaginative response by the Security Council to that tragedy," said British Ambassador to the United Nations, Jeremy Greenstock.

"It will immediately make it more expensive and more difficult for the traders to deal conflict diamonds, some call them 'blood diamonds,' from Sierra Leone," he said. Mali, one of the three Africa countries currently on the Security Council, opposed the mention of Liberia in the resolution. Liberian President Charles Taylor, once a rebel leader himself, is believed to have supported the RUF. But Greenstock said: "It's well known that diamonds, by one means or another, are leaving Sierra Leone through Guinea, through Liberia, and the export of diamonds by Liberia by far exceeds the production of Liberia." The Financial Times has reported that Liberia exports 60 Times as many carats as its own mines are capable of producing. The Security Council also underlined the need for Sierra Leone's government forces to retake the diamond mines, and asked UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to create a five-member panel to study links between the diamond trade and arms trafficking in the West African nation. The panel isalso to study violations of a 1998 UN arms embargo on Sierra Leone and report back to the council by October 31. The Security Council is due to vote later this month on increasing the number of peacekeepers in Sierra Leone from 12,000 to 16,500 and on creating a war crimes tribunal for Sankoh and others suspected of atrocities. Sankoh was arrested in mid-May in Freetown.