Global Witness
From 7-12 July 2003, President Bush will visit five African countries (Botswana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda) to demonstrate the United States’ commitment to helping the continent address its most pressing problems, including regional conflicts, economic development and promotion of democracy. Global Witness believes that if the US is serious about tackling conflict and human rights abuses and promoting development, the misappropriation of Africa’s natural resources must be top of Bush’s agenda.
The diamond industry has launched 'real is rare', a new slogan aimed at millennials: But if the most socially conscious generation ever want something really rare, they shouldn't be asking if a diamond is real.
Press release George Soros and NGOs call for rules to require corporations to disclose payments
Today British Prime Minister Tony Blair will announce an international initiative aimed at preventing mismanagement of revenues paid to developing countries by oil, gas and mining companies. The initiative to build global support for greater transparency in the extractive industry’s dealings with governments in the developing world calls for full disclosure of all payments to governments and national authorities.
Zimbabwe’s diamonds and natural resources ownership
Le Processus de Kimberley résiste au changement Un rapport au Conseil de sécurité des Nations Unies, qui sera publié cette semaine, révèle qu'une importante quantité de diamants de guerre pénètre dans le marché légitime des diamants, en provenance de la région de la Côte d'Ivoire qui est sous l'emprise des rebelles. Cela va à l'encontre de l'objectif fondamental du Processus de Kimberley, créé il y a trois ans dans le but de garantir que tous les diamants bruts commercialisés sur la scène internationale ne soient pas des diamants de guerre.
Representatives of the international diamond industry are meeting in Antwerp this October 7th and 8th for a high profile conference to discuss International Diamond Policies and Strategies. Former Vice President Al Gore and the President of Botswana Festus Mogae are to attend. However Global Witness, after nearly four years of proposals and industry rhetoric wonders whether the diamond industry has any strategy or policy for implementing the Kimberley Process regulations on January 1st 2003, especially the much-discussed industry run and audited system of warranties.
Industrialized countries have two standards where terrorism is concerned: one for themselves, and another for Africa. That is the concern of NGOs that have been participating in the inter-governmental ‘Kimberley Process’, initiated by the Government of South Africa 18 months ago in an attempt to end diamond-fuelled wars in Angola, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Following nearly four decades of conflict, the death of UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi on Friday offers a window for peace in Angola in which to address the role of oil and diamonds in funding the civil war.
On Tuesday 26th February, President Bush will meet with the unaccountable leader of a country that “tolerates starvation” and is “not transparent”. However, he is not from North Korea but from oil-rich Angola. When they meet, President Bush must call President dos Santos of Angola to account over Angola’s failed state and the full-scale embezzlement of oil money by its ruling elite. Global Witness director Simon Taylor said, “this is a great chance for President Bush to provide a clear message about the importance of corporate transparency in the post-Enron era”.