Liberia Restarts Diamond Industry
MONROVIA, Liberia -- Liberia's president formally opened 10 diamond screening and evaluation offices across the country on Tuesday, marking the first step toward restarting the industry following the end of a six-year ban by the United Nations.
The ban on Liberian diamonds, imposed in 2001 when so-called "blood diamonds" were being used to fuel civil wars in west Africa, was lifted by the United Nations three days ago. The U.N. cited steps taken by the country toward joining an international program to certify the diamonds' origin and ensure they were mined legally.
Miners are seen diamond mining in the small village of Sembehun 17, near the town of Bo, Sierra Leone, Saturday, April 8, 2006. The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Friday, April 27, 2007, to lift a ban on Liberian diamond exports imposed in 2001 when so-called "blood diamonds" were being used to fuel civil wars in west Africa. Liberia submitted its application on March 27 to join the Kimberley Process, a voluntary 71-nation group created out of the furor over diamond-funded wars in Sierra Leone and Angola. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam) (Schalk Van Zuydam - AP)
At a ceremony in the northwestern town of Tubmanburg on Tuesday, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf urged Liberians to keep the sanctions lifted by embracing the international certification system, called the Kimberley Process. Group members agree to trade only certified diamonds.
Wracked by more than a decade of fighting and insecurity that ended only in 2003 with the ouster of warlord-turned-President Charles Taylor, Liberia was one of the countries whose unregulated diamond industries prompted the creation of the certification system.
Both Taylor's forces and rebel fighters have been charged with looting Liberia's small diamond reserves to buy arms, along with smuggling gems from the more expansive diamond fields of neighboring Sierra Leone for export through Liberian ports.
An internal moratorium on mining and export of diamonds is still in place, said Kpandeh Fayia, a deputy minister at Liberia's Ministry of Land, Mines and Energy and a point person for the country's push to join the Kimberley Process, a voluntary 71-nation group.
Fayia said Liberia is waiting for notice by the Kimberley review board that they are now considered "Kimberley-compliant" before restarting operations.
The regional diamond offices opened by Sirleaf will be responsible for recording any diamonds purchased under the new scheme, and for taxing the transactions.
"The sanctions were lifted under certain conditions. We have to ensure that we meet those conditions if those sanctions will remain lifted or we run the risk of having them re-imposed," Sirleaf said in a speech broadcast on Liberian radio. She has made the lifting of sanctions a major goal of her administration since taking office in January 2006.
Liberia's diamonds came under U.N. sanctions in May 2001 when Taylor's government was accused of using revenue from diamonds to fuel the war in Sierra Leone. Taylor, who went into exile in August 2003, faces war crimes charges stemming from his alleged backing of Sierra Leone's rebels who terrorized victims by chopping off their arms, legs, ears and lips.
Liberia is still subject to an arms embargo, a travel ban on named individuals, and an asset freeze against Taylor and his top officials.
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