US Congressmen say Botswana diamonds not bloodstained

A group of visiting members of the US House of Representatives has confirmed that Botswana diamonds are not tainted with blood, PANA reported on Thursday. Speaking to the Botswana Press Agency in the tourist town of Kasane, delegation leader congressman Donald Payne said they had found that revenue from the country’s diamonds was put to good use to develop the country. Payne said their next move would be to find strategies on how conflict diamonds from strife-torn countries such as Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could be separated from conflict-free ones. The American legislators were on a weeklong fact-finding mission in Botswana, which was intended to boost the campaign to differentiate between the so-called “clean diamonds” and “conflict or blood diamonds.” They were expected to return to Washington on Friday. The congressmen’s visit followed a recent tour by American journalists, also as part of the clean diamonds campaign. Western non-governmental organisations since last year launched a campaign for the boycott of conflict diamonds which finance atrocities and rebel wars in Africa. It is feared that the campaign could adversely affect the economies of diamond producing non-conflict African countries like Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.