Mbeki appeals to diamond traders
Matome Sebelebele
17 November 2004
Foreign diamond traders have a responsibility help change perceptions that the precious stone, like oil, is a curse to many African states, says President Thabo Mbeki.
Speaking on Monday at Belgium's High Diamond Council in Antwerp, one of the top diamond trading centres in the world, Mbeki appealed to the council to help make diamonds "Africa's best friend".
He said diamond and oil deposits were abundant in many African countries, and that some foreign dealers were prepared to do everything, including overthrowing governments, to lay their hands on these minerals.
Love of diamonds, Mbeki said, had fuelled and prolonged conflicts in countries such as Angola, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo - with many multinational companies accused of sponsoring rebels by trading arms for raw diamonds.
In 1998, Belgium's High Diamond Council had registered imports of 777 000 carats from Sierra Leone alone.
Diamonds
were important to Africa, Mbeki said, providing employment, foreign exchange and tax revenue. It was thus crucial for foreign dealers to help reconstruct some of these affected countries' economic and social infrastructure.
"It is both incumbent upon, and would be of benefit to the international diamond industry, to support and invest in the beneficiation and value-adding projects in African diamond-producing countries to ensure economic sustainability beyond the depletion of the diamond resources", Mbeki said.
Source: BuaNews
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