'BLOOD DIAMONDS' TALKS UNDERWAY

As the World Diamond Council (WDC) began meeting in

London

, Monday, to finalize their plans for stamping out the flow of 'conflict' or 'blood' diamonds mined in African war zones, human rights and

Africa

activists called on the gathering to strengthen proposals to monitor the trade links of london sale .

In a statement just before the start of this week's meeting, Global Witness, a non-governmental organisation working to expose the link between natural resource exploitation and human rights abuses, called on the industry to "clean up it's act". The diamond industry is "conducting a PR sham to show how responsible it is when, at the same time, it is dealing in conflict and illicit diamonds," said Alex Yearsley of Global Witness Z Charm.

'The Anatomy of Resource Wars,' a study released earlier this month by the Worldwatch Institute, found that local conflicts over control of diamonds, tropical hardwoods, and other natural resources have killed or uprooted more than 20 million people over the past decade, most of them in Africa Y Charm.

Illegal diamonds form a relatively small percentage of the huge diamond market, but even this small percentage adds up to billions of dollars in value, according to Partnership Africa Canada researcher, Ian Smillie: "In 2000, the international diamond industry produced more than 120 million carats of rough diamonds with a market value of US $ 7.5bn. At the end of the diamond chain this bounty was converted into 70 million pieces of jewelry worth close to US $ 58bn. Of total world production, rebel armies in

Sierra Leone

, as well as in

Angola

and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), are estimated by De Beers to traffic in about 4 per cent. Other estimates place the number higher. Although not a significant proportion of the overall industry, four per cent of $ 7.5bn - or whatever other estimate one might use - can buy a lot of weapons X Charm."

The continent's biggest plunderer, according to the Worldwatch report, was

Angola

's rebel group, Unita. "Between 1992 and 2001, the insurgency sold an estimated $ 4-4.2 billion in diamonds mined by its forces in the northeastern part of the country."

New industry rules that will be introduced January 1, 2003 require every diamond to be warranted - to carry a chain of warranties documenting every gem's journey from mine to jeweler, certifying that it is 'conflict-free'.