US introduces legislation to end “conflict diamond” trade

Members of the US Congress joined with human rights organisations and diamond industry leaders on Thursday with the introduction of a bill aimed at ending trade in diamonds from areas of conflict, AFP reported. The “Clean Diamonds Act” bill, which strives to accommodate the concerns of both the diamond industry and human rights advocates, requires US diamond imports (rough, polished and jewellery) to come from countries which can prove their origin and legality, and imposes serious penalties on those who trade in “conflict diamonds”. Under the bill, violators would be subject to civil and criminal penalties while US assets of significant violators may be frozen. “Conflict” or “blood” diamonds have been defined as those used by warring parties to finance their activities or those obtained by coercion, force, or the threat thereof. According to AFP, the US imports 65 percent of the world’s diamonds, which come from both legitimate diamond-producing countries such as Australia, Botswana, Russia and South Africa, as well as from conflict zones in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Angola, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.