More from Mail & Guardina: Angola Diamond Sales Threatened?
mg.co.za
RONWEN ROBERTS, Johannesburg | Friday 11.00am.
THE world's leading diamond producer, De Beers, could
suspend its buying operations in west and central Africa to
"take diamonds out of conflicts" there, it said on Thursday.
De Beers's chairman Nicky Oppenheimer told some 500
delegates at the Commonwealth Business Forum in
Johannesburg that his company does not want the profit from
diamonds sales to be used to fund wars.
The three-day forum, attended by business and government
leaders from the 54-nation Commonwealth, ended Thursday,
the day before the Commonwealth summit was to open in the
east coast city of Durban.
Oppenheimer said De Beers is part of global efforts to "break
the link between the guns and the gold which warlords receive
from their exploitation of mineral wealth."
The company has adhered to the diamond sanctions
announced in June last year against Angola's National Union
for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) rebels, he
said.
"We are considering suspending our buying operations in west
and central Africa," Oppenheimer said, without specifying
which countries could be affected by the move.
At the same time MD of the government diamond valuator,
Claude Nobels, rejected reports that he has halted diamond
exports until a set of demands is met by De Beers.
He has also denied he asked De Beers for additional
payements before exports will be allowed to continue, the
Business Day reports.
DVIC Valuations said a series 97 which has yet to be
exported, has in fact been approved for export but that De
Beers had chosen not to export. |
