Ambassador J.D. Bindenagel's Quote

Ambassador J.D. Bindenagel, Former U.S. Special Negotiator for Conflict Diamonds, was quoted as saying;

"Diamonds are a unique resource, evoking beauty and eternal love. In recent years, pictures of maimed children have threatened to overwhelm these traditional positive images, when rebel groups in Africa used diamonds to finance their wars and unspeakable brutalities against civilian populations. Aroused by these conflicts, the international community mobilized to ensure people living in countries with abundant diamond deposits receive the benefits of their patrimony.

Outraged in the late 1990's that proceeds from diamond sales financed arms purchases and prolonged insurrections, in Sierra Leone and Angola, which were some of the most brutal of the past decade, the international community acted. By 2003 the international community through the participants in the Kimberley Process, bringing together industry, governments and civil society, mobilized governments to ban trade in rough diamonds funding African conflicts. Called the "Kimberley Process Certification Scheme" the ban ended those African conflicts financed by "blood" diamonds. Based on the respect for human dignity, the negotiators found the following common interests to win support for an international ban on trade in rough diamonds used to finance war and rebellion:

• First, in memory of those who died in Sierra Leone, in Angola, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other African countries in conflicts fuelled by rough “Conflict’ Diamonds;”
• Second, to end the killing in on-going conflicts in Africa;
• Third, to save the children of Africa whose lives would be threatened by future conflicts fuelled by conflict diamonds;
• Fourth, to ensure those countries which depend on diamonds for their development and economic well-being will benefit from their patrimony; and
• Fifth, to assure consumers the diamonds they wish to enjoy are without the taint of conflict.

Through the worldwide implementation of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme we have begun to fulfil the international community's obligation to those who have suffered in Africa's wars by banning the trade in conflict diamonds. We have eliminated conflict diamond financing in Sierra Leone and are committed to bring the proceeds from the diamond trade to benefit the people of Sierra Leone, Angola and Liberia as well as all other diamond producing countries such as Botswana to help themselves support economic development of their countries."

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