When Doesn't It Count?

According to the De Beers website, this is the definition they give for conflict diamonds:

“Conflict diamonds are rough, uncut diamonds used by rebel movements or their allies to finance armed conflict aimed at undermining legitimate governments. In 1998 the Non-government Organisation (NGO) Global Witness brought to the world’s attention the fact that rebel groups were funding their war against the legitimate government in this way.”

This is all fine and dandy, but it implies that De Beers then had no involvement in dealing with rebel trading of diamonds from 1990 to 1998 in Angola.
Here, I’ll let Mr. Campbell explain in a exert from his Blood Diamonds book:

“According to that definition, De Beers didn’t buy rebel diamonds from Angola at all from 1990 to 1998 since a UN-brokered peace process was in effect and UNITA was technically part of the government as a recognized political party under the agreement, even though it engaged in diamond-funded combat almost the entire time” (pg 127).

I guess when De Beers was writing the definition, they conveniently left out the near ten year span of 1990-1998 when conflict diamond trading was in fact going on between the diamond giant and the UNITA of Angola. So De Beers, are you just not counting those years? And incase anyone in the De Beers organization forgot about buying from Angola during the year the RUF began on its amputation rampage and controlled along with UNITA about 70% of the country’s diamonds, let me refresh your memory:

In a 1996 annual report for De Beers published in the book Blood Diamonds, De Beers states that:

“’Purchases in 1996 reached record levels largely owning to the increased Angolan production. Angolan diamonds tend to be in the categories that are in demand, although in the main these buying activities are a mechanism to support the market.’”

Now that’s something to boast about -- Obtaining record levels of diamond purchases in an area where rebels controlled more than half of the diamond production. And I bet not one of the stones purchased from Angola during that time was a conflict diamond. Yeah right.