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Gold/Mining/Energy : SOUTHERNERA (t.SUF) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GEORGES who wrote (4038)	7/16/1999 1:27:00 PM
From: PHILLIP FLOTOW	Respond to of 7235

News from Angola: Unita Still Open For Business In Diamonds And War The Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) July 16, 1999 By Chris Gordon Johannesburg - One-million dollars. That is the amount the United Nations has allocated for a six- month investigation into the failure of sanctions against Jonas Savimbi's Unita rebels. Two panels of experts will soon begin work on the full implementation of the UN's three sets of sanctions. They have to penetrate the universes of illicit diamonds, money laundering and arms trafficking. A million dollars is very little compared to what Unita can afford to spend to conceal its sanctions-busting operations. It has made more than $2,5-billion from diamonds in the past five years, and another $255-million last year, according to an industry analysis. Azevedo d'Oliveira Kanganje, Unita's representative in Brussels, admits that Unita has been mining throughout 1998 and 1999. He says Unita is still trading diamonds in spite of UN sanctions imposed last July. "Yes we do mine diamonds we have to survive economically," Kanganje told the Mail & Guardian, but he refused to give details about the group's operations. The Angolan Minster of Defence, Kundi Payhama, recently told the Angolan Parliament that Unita has concentrated its main forces - at least 20 000 men - in the central part of the country to protect diamond mining interests and to expand military control over the zone. Unita is known to have moved a large workforce from Kuando Kubango province to Kwanza Sul to mine kimberlites in the area. The region has also become an important logistical base for Unita, with three airstrips serving as reception and distribution points for diamonds and supplies. Diamonds extracted from kimberlite are easier to identify than alluvial diamonds. Because of this, the UN is able to trace Unita's diamonds and has learned that dealers in industrial diamonds are now also buying gems from Unita. De Beers has confirmed that experts are able to tell if diamonds originate from Unita-held territory, making interception by customs more probable. Robert Fowler, the Canadian ambassador to the UN and head of the Angola sanctions committee, has proposed measures to impede Unita's capacity to sell diamonds and so finance its war. He said the two panels would investigate the role of the open markets, and the regulations or lack thereof, that allow illicit diamonds from war zones to enter trading centres unchecked. Fowler wants to place monitors with the expertise to identify Unita gems in the key diamond trading centres. He also wants to place UN civilian customs monitors at key points in Africa, where Unita may be moving diamonds or weapons. Unita's diamonds were traded openly through Johannesburg, Antwerp and Tel Aviv until sanctions were imposed. But by the end of 1998, dealers in Antwerp were no longer able to track volumes of illicit Angolan rough diamonds. They were not appearing on the open market. The routes and amounts of Unita's diamonds were well known among dealers until the diamond embargo. Now the diamonds are being picked up before they hit the market, either being bought by trading companies or sold directly to cutters. Unita's control of 5% of the world's diamond trade allows it to carry out its war against the towns and villages of Angola, according to the United States's State Department representative, Jeffrey C Murray. Fowler also plans to target the arms supplies. He has paid a visit to Kiev to ask the government about allegations of Ukrainian arms and mercenaries reaching Unita, and the diamonds said to be reaching the Ukraine in return. Fuel and Unita's bank accounts and investments are the remaining targets for the panels. But they will need outside help. Fowler wants UN member states to provide the expert personnel to carry out monitoring tasks on the ground. He has pleaded for intelligence reports from the major agencies in the US and Europe. PHIL