RUF still controls diamond areas

The former rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) is still in control of diamond-rich areas in eastern Sierra Leone, according to Lansana Gberie, who co-authored a report on the role played by diamonds in Sierra Leone's conflict.

"We have aerial photographs to prove this," Gberie told IRIN on Wednesday.

Ian Smillie, another author of the report published in January, said that the war in Sierra Leone would not end unless the diamond industry was controlled. "The government has no power to control diamond areas and the RUF has shown bad faith in preventing UN forces from deploying to these areas," Smillie told IRIN in New York on Wednesday.

Although more than 7,000 UNAMSIL (United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone) peacekeepers as well as about 260 military observers have been deployed to 12 major population centres and their satellite villages in Sierra Leone, peacekeepers have been unable to deploy to diamond-rich Kono despite regular missions by military observers.

The report, titled "The Heart of the Matter: Sierra Leone's Diamonds and Human Security", is the product of research conducted in and outside Sierra Leone in February - December 1999. Its recommendations include the deployment of "special long-term UN security forces" to diamond areas in Sierra Leone, and that the government ensure transparency, high standards
and rigorous probity in its diamond purchasing, valuation and oversight activities.

In another report called 'Fatal Transactions,' published in April, a group of European NGOs said that the illegal export of Sierra Leonean diamonds generated US $200 million per year between 1991 and 1999.