Event Summary
Do diamonds fuel wars? If they do, what should Congress and the diamond industry itself do to prevent those dirty diamonds from continuing to finance the brutal hostilities in Angola, the Congo, and Sierra Leone?
Those policy questions were the focus of an intensive meeting -- "Diamonds in Peace and War" -- Oct. 19-20 at the Kennedy School. Forty experts from Congress, the General Accounting Office, De Beers Ltd., Global Wit ness, and many other interested organizations, and from Angola, Sierra Leone, Botswana, and Belgium, analyzed the world diamond trade, diamonds (and timber exploitation) in the conflict zones, and remedies. Those remedies include central processes and passport schemes devised by the diamond industry and pending legislation in the U.S. Congress. Urged one participant, "Our goal is ''diamonds for development, not for destruction.'' "
The meeting was sponsored by the WPF Program on Intrastate Conflict, the Carr Center for Human Rights, and the Project for Justice, and chaired by Robert Rotberg.
http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/bcsia/wpf.nsf /www/home