US public relations firm to save diamond trade

The Botswana government has hired a US public relations firm and dispatched senior government officials to "spread the word" that most diamonds are mined in peaceful countries like Botswana and not war zones, news reports said on Friday.

"We are fearful of a consumer boycott of diamonds, being honest producers and at the same time being more dependent on diamonds than most," President Festus Mogae told foreign journalists who had been invited as part of the "diamonds for development" campaign against such a boycott. Mogae did not name the US firm that had been hired.

Human rights groups have in recent years charged that diamonds mined in conflict zones have helped finance brutal wars in countries such as Angola and Sierra Leone. "If you are an American housewife ... and you are shown little girls with their arms amputated and you are told that this is because of diamonds, the natural reaction is to have a revulsion against diamonds. And that's what we are afraid of," said Louis Nchindo, managing director of Botswana's national diamond company, Debswana. Botswana is one of Africa's most stable countries and accounts for one-third of the world diamond trade. Diamonds account for 75 percent of all export earnings, one half of government revenues and one-third of Botswana's gross domestic product.

The country has joined in efforts to devise a certification process to help weed out diamonds fuelling wars and strongly supported UN resolutions condemning conflict diamonds.