Remarks to the Annual Luncheon of the Jewelers Vigilance Committee
NEW YORK CITY
JANUARY 12, 2001
SYLVIA A. FLETCHER
U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Thank you very much for this opportunity to meet you, and share some
reflections on the work the United States Government, and in particular
the Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) of the U.S. Agency for
International Development, USAID, has been doing to address the scourge of
"conflict" diamonds in Sierra Leone.
USAID is part of a set of government offices engaged in United States
foreign policy. We take our lead from the State Department, coordinating
with the National Security Council, when appropriate. It is USAID that
engages both foreign governments and members of civil society of countries
overseas in activities to advance their own efforts of political, social,
and economic development. OTI is a relatively new office of the Bureau for
Humanitarian Response, in USAID, created out of frustration that the
life-saving efforts of our massive and growing humanitarian relief in the
early nineties did not seem to be making a difference in the resolution of
conflicts. OTI has a mandate to engage programmatically in countries that
suffer war, or are extremely conflict-prone, where we determine that there
is a foreign policy or humanitarian priority, and where we think with
limited resources, appropriated by Congress, we can make a difference.
Sierra Leone is such a case.
You are all familiar with the suffering of civilians in Sierra Leone,
victims of unspeakable atrocities, with violations of human rights used as
tactics of war. This is a conflict that has dragged on since 1991. About
50% of the Sierra Leonean population of 4.5 million fled their homes,
including about half a million refugees to neighboring countries. The
international community has reported with horror the atrocities against
civilians, most of them children and women, with cruelty unequaled in any
recent war in Africa. The refugee population is the largest in Africa, and
the United Nations peace-keeping operation is now the largest such UN
force in the world.
The link between diamonds and armed conflict in Sierra Leone is
obvious, and has been exposed, investigated, and deplored by
humanitarians, journalists, politicians, and diamond industry leaders.
Less obvious are the complex, entrenched relationships between
exploitative systems of diamond digging, credit and financial
intermediation, resource management, poverty, and the spectacular,
mysterious wealth of the diamond trade.
Diamonds have facilitated, not caused, armed conflict. Degradation of
good governance and the social and economic systems by which diamonds have
been mined and marketed are among the root causes of the conflict. Their
manifestations are poverty, alienation of youth, corruption, and the
breakdown of law and order, culminating in the nine years of conflict and
suffering inflicted by relatively small groups that disrupted the life of
the entire population.
In 1996, groups of citizens brokered an agreement with the military
government to permit elections and hand over power to the democratically
elected government of President Ahmed Tejjan Kabbah. President Kabbah
negotiated the first peace agreement in late 1996, only to be overthrown
by a military coup. The alliance of the military with the brutal RUF ruled
ruthlessly for almost a year, until the ECOMOG West African military
forces expelled the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council and the RUF from
Freetown. ECOMOG was backed up by Civil Defense Forces loyal to the
Constitutional government of President Kabbah, who contributed by securing
most of the southern part of the country. During the period of the coup,
the RUF occupied most of the diamond-producing regions of Sierra Leone,
giving them unlimited access to the alluvial wealth. With forced labor and
smuggling they have converted rough diamonds into armament for continuing
the brutal subjugation and exploitation of the people and territory of a
large part of Sierra Leone.
At the time of the second peace agreement, in July 1999, known as the
Lome Agreement, there was little prospect for a military victory over the
RUF, who finally agreed to a negotiated settlement that upheld the
integrity of Constitutional government. The agreement granted the RUF a
chance to mainstream themselves as a political party, hold appointed
office, and begin a process of reconciliation and reconstruction, starting
with their voluntary disarmament and demobilization, and the permissive
entry of government authorities and international peace-keepers into the
areas occupied by the renegade coup members and the RUF rebels.
The peace agreement did save innocent civilians from further violence,
and by and large there has been compliance with the cease-fire within
Sierra Leone. Almost all of the renegade coup members disarmed and
demobilized. However, the RUF did not disarm, and continue to occupy and
exploit large areas of the country, including diamond-rich Kono District.
The United Nations peace-keepers are in dialogue with the RUF to obtain
the promised permissive entry into all RUF-occupied areas, and their full
disarmament and demobilization. The British government has been training a
newly reconstituted Sierra Leonean army to enforce the peace, and the
United States has been training and equipping ECOMOG forces to enhance
their capabilities and professionalism as part of the international
peace-keeping effort. The war may soon be over.
But I don't want to talk about the war and its atrocities today. I want
to talk about globalization, and the reason you as jewelers are concerned
about war in Sierra Leone; and, most importantly, your role in building
lasting peace for Sierra Leone.
Globalization in business and financial markets means that events in
one part of the globe have a determinant impact on events all over the
globe. What happens in Asian financial markets affects employment in Iowa,
Oregon, Georgia, and New York. There is diamond production in African
countries undergoing conflict, and when some of that production is
smuggled into mainstream markets of rough diamonds, it makes its way to
legitimate cutting and polishing centers, and becomes the gems and jewelry
sold by you to American consumers. This isn't new. Consumers in rich
countries for decades, maybe for centuries, have been consuming goods that
are the product of exploitative means of production, sometimes even
slavery, crime and piracy. But globalization has made us acutely aware of
where and how our business chains operate, from the primary source,
through its stages of transformation to the final retailer and consumer.
As globalization has been developing as a key definition of business in
today's world, so have we been developing globalism in our political life.
The twentieth century, marked by two World Wars, ended with a resounding
acknowledgement that there is one, inseparable, indivisible global destiny
for our environmental welfare, our health, and our security. The balance
of forces creating the economic prosperity in the United States is also
the hope of poor countries for improved welfare deriving from, and not
divorced from or exploited by, the wealth of the industrialized countries.
I am sure we all acknowledge the trends of economic globalization and
political globalism.
There is, as well, an emerging doctrine of global humanitarianism.
Those inalienable rights, those truths that we hold to be
self-evident in our democracy, we have come to understand are
inalienable human and civil rights for all people, in all countries.
Political and humanitarian globalism is the assertion of a set of uniform,
fundamental inalienable human and civil rights for all people, in all
countries; and globalization is the reality that our destinies and our
markets are inextricably inter-related.
We know this to be true for diamonds. So this is why you, the
industry's guardian of ethics and integrity are the logical leaders
of the U.S. industry's part in converting a system permissive to smuggling
of rough diamonds into a clean market. The transparent business practices
of the tax-paying enterprises of your affiliates cannot be part of a
global system that does not practice the same vigilance over every stage
in the creation of a diamond, from its alluvial source to its jewelry
setting.
Your representatives in the World Diamond Council, including IDMA, GIA,
JA, JDC, and other industry organizations, have taken up this challenge,
and I am proud to say we, in the U.S. Government, are working together
with you and with advocates for human rights of the NGO community.
What have we accomplished so far? In Sierra Leone, we have assisted the
Government of Sierra Leone with policy reforms on licensing, foreign
exchange, and export procedures. The widely publicized Certificate of
Origin is in use, and the electronic tracking, digital photographs, and
other security features are not perfect yet, but are in use between
Freetown and Antwerp. The Government of Sierra Leone should not issue
certificates to any destination that does not have the same electronic
tracking systems, and all of these, as they are installed, need to be
integrated into one global certification system.
The authorities in Sierra Leone have identified some questionable
stones in the last two months: that is, rough diamonds presented for
valuation and certification that are suspected to come from
rebel-controlled areas. A means to have international verification needs
to be established, as requested by the Government of Sierra Leone, with
our technical recommendation. We recently witnessed the identification of
a questionable stone in Freetown, which was then individually photographed
and flagged in a parcel shipped to Antwerp, with the request by the Sierra
Leonean authorities that an opinion be rendered by the importing
authorities as to the possible origin of the stone.
The Government of Sierra Leone can confiscate stones suspected to be of
rebel origin, however the task of making this identification should be
shared by importing authorities, and by the commercial importers, as well.
Only experts can make this identification, therefore it is industry
experts, working with importing authorities that can make these
determinations.
I am happy to report that as part of this new effort, there are new
business opportunities for U.S. companies to participate in the rough
diamond sector in Sierra Leone. The Government of Sierra Leone has awarded
one of the seven umbrella export licenses to the U.S. I believe
that the Sierra Leonean business community will benefit from contact with
a fresh set of business partners from the U.S. diamond and jewelry sector,
whose standards of ethics in business could lead by example.
Your role is crucial as part of the World Diamond Council, and in your
private business transactions. It is you who must insist, until we have
all achieved it, that there is a world-wide, operational and adequate
system for certifying the origin of rough diamonds, so that consumers of
jewelry and gems may have confidence that they are not indirectly aiding
insurgence. It is you who can identify suspected smuggling, and insist on
high standards of ethics and integrity in the global diamond market.
I am proud that our government is playing a lead role in this global
humanitarian endeavor, and I am honored to have met with the Jewelers
Vigilance Committee today. I take this invitation as one demonstration of
your commitment to working together until we have been successful in
eliminating diamonds as a resource for war in Africa.
Thank you very much.
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