Opinion

DiCaprio film concern

December 08, 2006 Edition 1

The US State Department moved this week to help prevent a consumer backlash from the Leonardo DiCaprio blockbuster Blood Diamonds that could take the sparkle off jewellery sales this holiday season.

US officials, worried that a new Leonardo DiCaprio film about the trade of "conflict diamonds" to finance African warfare might misinform the public, say international efforts to combat the illicit commerce have been successful.

Some human rights groups say, however, that illegal diamond trade is still fuelling conflict around the world.

The trade in diamonds originating in conflict zones, sometimes called "blood diamonds", has helped pay for wars in Africa that have killed millions in Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Congo.

The film, Blood Diamonds, set amid the brutal civil war in Sierra Leone in the late 1990s, opens in US cinemas today.

State Department officials are eager to point out that the war depicted took place before the establishment of an international initiative to control the trade, known as the Kimberley Process, which aims to force participants to certify the origins of the diamonds being traded.

"We feel the film provides a good historical snapshot of the diamond industry," said Paul Simons, the deputy assistant secretary of state who deals with the issue.

But the Kimberley Process fundamentally changed the rules of the game, he told reporters at a briefing aimed at trying to remove misconceptions about the current situation that the film might cause.

The Kimberley Process, which now covers 71 countries including all the world's major diamond producers, polishers and buyers, certifies the origin of rough diamonds and ensures they are exported in tamper-proof packaging.

The certificates permit tracking of legal diamonds through the polishing stage and up to the customers who buy finished jewellery, Simons said.

Dealers found to be trafficking in illicit gems are subject to legal action.

"There has been a wholesale reform in the way rough diamonds are traded internationally," Simons said.

Simons said that in the late 1990s experts estimated that between 4% and 15% of the world's supply in rough diamonds may have originated in conflict areas. Simons believes that the Kimberly Process, which took effect in late 2002, has reduced the illicit trade to "significantly less than 1%".

A recent report by a South African business association confirmed that figure. At the same time, the report by Business Leadership South Africa also warned that consumer concerns over "conflict diamonds pose a long-term threat to the industry".

Rights groups including Global Witness and Amnesty International say that even the smaller percentages of illegal diamonds need to be reduced.

So, despite the progress, attributable in part to an end to conflicts in Liberia and Sierra Leone, illicit diamond trading continues, with Congo expelled from the Kimberly scheme in 2004 for certifying rough diamonds smuggled in from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

The latest Kimberly Process annual conference in Botswana last month took Ghana to task for certifying diamonds smuggled into the country by rebels in Ivory Coast.

Simons said the continuing illicit trade, and DiCaprio's film, should not draw attention away from the Kimberley Process achievement of ensuring that more than 99% of the world's diamond trade is now clean. "The film is very good, but it does present a picture of what was going on in 1999.

"The story is clear: blood diamonds are still being sold, and consumers cannot completely trust that these blood-soaked gems are being kept out of stores," Charmian Gooch, executive director of Global Witness, said. - Sapa-AP-AFP

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