"Diamonds are a girl's best friend" - Marilyn Monroe more than 3.7 million lives have been taken away in Africa...because of the diamond that make be on your finger, neck etc....... Quote- Amnesty International 17 January 2007 in the early 1990's Sierra Leone and the illegal diamond trade...made profits from the trade in conflict diamonds, worth billions of dollars, were used by warlords and rebels to buy arms during the devastating wars in Angola,(1998-2002;) the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone. These wars cost an estimated 3.7 million lives. Amnesty International New Zealand Campaigns Manager Gary Reese says that consumers can play a vital role in curbing the trade in conflict diamonds: "Today, diamonds with origins in the Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia, two countries beset by serious human rights calamities, are finding their way from the black market to the legitimate diamond trade." Quote-The Green Guide Institute Efforts to combat conflict diamonds on the retail level may even be taking a step backward—a report by Global Witness found that many U.S. and international retailers, including Bulgari, Cartier, Harry Winston, Van Cleef & Arpels, Wempe, Littman Jewelers, Whitehall Jewelers, Bloomingdale's, Macy's, and Saks Fifth Avenue aren't self-regulating as they promised they would, and many store employees are poorly informed about company policies on conflict diamonds. Tiffany & Co. stood out as a strong counterexample for its excellent sourcing and auditing policies. The World Diamond Council and other trade associations were also found to be at fault. ~ The flow of conflict diamonds has been stemmed through the Clean Diamond Trade Act, passed April 2003, and the provisions of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme which helps monitor the sources and movements of raw stones. However, both the Clean Diamond Trade Act and the Kimberley Process contain large loopholes and according to Nathaniel Raymond, communications advisor at Oxfam America, the expansions in the process controlling conflict diamonds have been stalled for the foreseeable future: an international agreement that encompasses producers, bourses (diamond exchanges), and retailers is no further along than it was a year ago. ....there are still loopholes...... Quote-The Green Guide Institute but most ppl wouldn't want to know that....right? well the deaths it haven't stoped...... Quote-The Green Guide Institute "During the past decade, more than 6,500,000 people from Sierra Leone, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been driven from their homes by wars waged in large part for control of diamond mining areas. A million of these are refugees eking out a miserable existence in neighboring countries, and tens of thousands have fled to the United States. Approximately 3,700,000 people have died during these wars." .......and most of the deaths have been caused by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)....who go around raping and chopping off people's arms and legs mostly children ....infact in In 1998, President Clinton sent Rev. Jesse Jackson as his special envoy to Liberia and Sierra Leone, the latter being in the midst of one of the great horrors of the 20th century -- You may remember the army of mostly young boys, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), who went around raping and chopping off people's arms and legs. African and world opinion was enraged against the RUF, which was committed to protecting the diamond mines they controlled. Taylor was an indispensable ally and supporter of the RUF and Jackson was an old friend of his. Jesse was not sent to the region to try to curtail the RUF's atrocities, nor to hound Taylor about his widespread human rights violations, but instead, in June 1999, Jackson and other American officials drafted entire sections of an accord that made RUF leader, Foday Sankoh, Sierra Leone's vice president, and gave him official control over the diamond mines, the country's major source of wealth. And what was the Clinton administration's interest in all this? It's been speculated that the answer lies with certain individuals with ties to the diamond industry and to Clinton, while he was president or while governor of Arkansas; for example, Maurice Tempelsman, generous contributor to the Democratic Party and escort of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright around this time, whose Antwerp, Amsterdam and Tel Aviv diamond marts arranged for Sierra Leone diamond sales to Tiffany and Cartier.[15] Good ol' Bill? Good ol' Jess? I know, I know, I keep tearing down your heroes. Who will you have left? But remember the words of the two characters in Bertolt Brecht's "Galileo": "Unhappy the land that has no heroes," says the first. "No," says the other, "Unhappy the land that needs heroes." Or as Abbie Hoffman said: "Sacred cows make the best hamburger." .......that is so sad........... ask these four simple questions, what has this world come to? 1. Can I be sure that none of your jewellery contains conflict diamonds? 2. Do you know where the diamonds you sell come from? 3. Can I see a copy of your company's policy on conflict diamonds? 4. Can you show me a written guarantee from your diamond supplier stating that your diamonds are conflict free? or go to these sites: www.amnesty.org.nz http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-5505-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc.mhtml?i=int&s=diamonds PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Diamonds have helped fuel bloody wars including that which ripped apart the Democratic Republic of Congo from 1998 to 2002. New threats of conflict in the Congo make it important once again to watch traffic in these high-value, easily-traded, extremely portable commodities with which rebel groups buy weaponry and support. The money made from the sale of "conflict diamonds" is huge; the UN estimated the market value of diamonds sold by Sierra Leone's rebel army RUF in 1999 at $75 million, though rebel groups may only see 10 percent of that total. Because of their clandestine origins, it is difficult to tell how many conflict diamonds are being sold, but conservative estimates put them at 3% of the global annual diamond trade. Since Americans purchase two-thirds of the world's diamond supply, our consumer choices will have an impact on the industry. -The Green Guide Institute so forget what Marilyn Monroe what said 'Diamonds are not a girl's best friend'. Certainly the diamond industry offers 'good copy' for a consumer campaign. As the report points out, 60 million individual pieces of diamond jewelry are sold every year, indicating a sizeable target audience. To press home that message, the cover of the report has a photograph of the little girl whom President Kabbah took with him to the Lomé negotiations for a peace accord in July 1999. The girl is grinning, but she has been brutalized and her hands cut off. The report says it straight: "Diamonds are a guerilla's best friend." -Ian Smillie: Digging at the causes of African war *God bless* Nat>3 | 
..........
whoaa...lol
