Adotei Akwei, Africa Advocacy Director, Amnesty International USA¹

Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Trade
of the House Committee on Ways and Means

Hearing on Conflict Diamonds

October 10, 2001

Mr. Chairman, and other distinguished members of the Ways and Means Committee on behalf of the 380,000 thousand members of Amnesty International USA and the million members of Amnesty International worldwide I would like to thank you for holding these hearings and for giving me and my colleagues the opportunity to testify.

I am also here representing a coalition of over 100 organizations that come from a broad spectrum of society. The Campaign to Eliminate Conflict Diamonds includes faith-based organizations, unions, environmental, humanitarian and human rights organizations. These groups in turn are made up of students, retired persons, young professionals, recently engaged women and men, newly married couples and yes, mom and pop jewelry store owners. Over the last year these individuals have written letters, held vigils and teach-ins and communicated with their congressional representatives to raise awareness about the issue of conflict diamonds and to try to push the United States government to lead the international community toward taking effective action against conflict diamonds. On their behalf I would also like to express our appreciation to you for holding these hearings. The members of the Campaign understand that in these difficult and extraordinary times it is not as easy to continue to work on other issues when so much remains to be done here in the United States. It is a tribute to you and strong reassurance to the rest of the global community to see that even in this period the Untied States will not disengage from international affairs or shirk its responsibility to be a leader on human rights issues.

I would like to stress this last point, "to be a leader on human rights issues" because this is what the issue of conflict diamonds is about, an effort by the United States government, the diamond industry and the non governmental sector to take on and end one of the most painful and avoidable human rights abuses being inflicted on millions of children, women and men in sub-Saharan Africa. The misappropriation of a valuable natural resource like diamonds, the use of revenues acquired from the sale of that resource to purchase weapons, drugs and supplies by armed opposition groups and then commit human rights abuses is unacceptable and avoidable. The conflict diamond crisis is unacceptable because in addition to the horrific suffering that continues to be inflicted to innocent persons in these conflict zones is the incalculable lost developmental opportunity that the legitimate and efficient use of this resource represents.

It is avoidable because we sitting here in Washington can make a difference by helping build an international certification system that would ensure a clean stream of diamonds from the point of extraction to retail sale and that would be transparent and independently monitored. HR 2722 which compliments and helps build up to ongoing Kimberley process, does this by empowering the US Customs Service to permit diamond imports only from those countries that have adopted strong and effective controls on the exportation and importation of rough diamonds to ensure that conflict diamonds do not enter the international stream of commerce.

For the last two years, various parties in this initiative have worked to try to cut off the revenue flows from the illicit sale of diamonds to armed groups like the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone and the break the linkage between the innocent American consumer, the legitimate diamond industry and RUF atrocities.

• Congressman Hall, and his staff who more then anyone else deserve the credit for making this an issue here in Washington and getting us to where we are today, introduced the CARAT Acts (H.R. 3188 and H.R. 5147) and the Conflict Diamond Elimination Act (H.R. 5564) in the year 2000. He and Congressman Frank Wolf were also key architects in building the blocs of support on the Hill for H.R 918, the Clean Diamonds Act, the Clean Diamonds Act of 2001 in the Senate (S. 1084), which was introduced by Senators Durbin, DeWine and Feingold, and finally the bill were are discussing here today H.R. 2722, the Clean Diamonds Trade Act which was introduced by Congressmen Houghton, Rangel, Hall and Wolf.

• In the spring of 2000, the NGO community here in the United States launched a grassroots campaign to pass legislation in Congress that would help end the trade in conflict diamond and support the Kimberley process.

• In July of 2000 the international diamond industry meeting in Antwerp to try and address the problem of conflict diamonds launched the World Diamond Council and presented its Antwerp Resolution. Following the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly Resolutions # on conflict diamonds, the diamond producing countries, led by South Africa, initiated the Kimberely process to develop a global system to regulate and prevent the trade in conflict diamonds.

In other words Mr. Chairman this bill, H. R. 2722, represents the coming together of a broad variety of groups, individuals and companies all with the same goal: ending the brutal and avoidable human rights abuses that are linked to conflict diamonds. This is why I am sitting here before you today along with my colleagues from the diamond industry, and with members of Congress, to urge you to take this legislation and the energy and support of all of the actors I have mentioned and make a difference: pass H.R. 2722 before you go out on recess.

As there are other persons on this panel who I know will address both the international Kimberley process and some of the technicalities of the bill, I would like to take this opportunity to review why we are here and why this legislation is needed now.

The Cost of Conflict Diamonds

The conflict diamonds crisis has been linked to wars in three African states, Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. My testimony will focus on the conditions in those countries in an effort to show the impact of the unfettered trade in diamonds. I would like to add that while these may be the most visible casualties of conflict diamonds, the negative impact of this trade is much broader: it affects other countries that act as transshipment centers, many of which outside of Africa. As the following details highlight the damage done by conflict diamonds in these three countries alone is justification enough to pass this legislation.

Sierra Leone

The ten year war in Sierra Leone has been waged through extremely brutal tactics by the opposition Revolutionary United Front (RUF) that has yet to communicate a cause beyond securing control over the country's diamond producing areas. The RUF has both fought for and been able to continue fighting because of diamonds. The link has been documented by a number of groups apart from AI including the UN panel of experts (detail)

Amnesty International has been monitoring and trying to protect fundamental human rights in Sierra Leone from well before the current 10 year civil war began. All armed groups have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, including RUF forces, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), government forces, including the Sierra Leone Army and the Civil Defense Forces (CDF), and international peace-keeping forces of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS referred to as ECOMOG.

The RUF forces have been responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity throughout a conflict during which civilians have borne the brunt of the violence.  According to the US Committee for Refugees (USCR) that as of August 1, between 900,000-1.4 million Sierra Leoneans had been uprooted, a figure that included both refugees and internally displaced persons.

AI estimates that thousands of men, women and children have been deliberately and arbitrarily killed or had their hands, arms or other limbs brutally cut off. Rape and other forms of sexual violence against girls and women have been widespread and systematic. Most of the 10,000 children -- both boys and girls -- estimated to have been associated with fighting forces in Sierra Leone have been abducted by the RUF and more than half of those have been used as combatants. The RUF sustained and continues to sustain itself through the sale of conflict diamonds, using the revenues from those sales to purchase weapons, supplies and drugs, despite UN sanctions diamond exports from areas of Sierra Leone not controlled by the government.

Human rights abuses linked to the fighting with the RUF go back to the period of rule by the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC), headed by Captain Valentine Strasser, which came to power following a military coup in April 1992 and ruled until parliamentary and presidential elections and the return of a civilian government in March 1996. Government forces were responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture and ill-treatment of captured or suspected rebel forces. They were also implicated in serious abuses against civilians, including deliberate amputations of hands, in the period leading up to the elections in February 1996. No one -- from either government or rebel forces -- alleged to have committed serious violations of international humanitarian law during the period of NPRC rule has yet been brought to justice.

Abuses were committed by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, headed by Johnny-Paul Koroma, who overthrew the elected government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in a military coup in May 1997 and ruled until February 1998 when it was removed from power by forces of the Economic Community of West African (ECOWAS) Ceasefire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) and the government of President Kabbah was restored. Shortly after the military coup, the RUF joined forces with the AFRC. The rule of law collapsed completely. Hundreds of people were arbitrarily arrested and detained; many were tortured and ill-treated. Physical assault, amounting to torture or ill-treatment, of civilians by AFRC soldiers and RUF members was routine. There were also reports of extrajudicial executions of those suspected of opposing the AFRC. Victims of human rights violations included people associated with the government of President Kabbah, journalists, students and human rights activists.

Following the removal of the AFRC and RUF from power, their forces unleashed a campaign of terror against civilians. War crimes and crimes against humanity reached unprecedented levels. Several thousand civilians were brutally killed or mutilated. Hundreds of others, including children, were abducted from their villages and forced to join their attackers as either combatants or laborers, in conditions amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Hundreds of abducted girls and women were forced into sexual slavery.

An incursion by rebel forces into Freetown in January 1999, which the RUF termed ''Operation no living thing'', brought to the capital the crimes that had been committed in the north and east of the country in the previous eight years. Although it was impossible to ascertain the exact numbers of civilian deaths during the incursion, the UN body UNOMSIL (the predecessor of UNAMSIL) estimated that up to 5,000 people, at least 2,000 of them civilians were killed. Medical authorities in Freetown later put the figure of those killed at over 6,000.

Several hundred civilians, including children, were admitted to hospitals in Freetown after having their limbs cut off or suffering from other forms of mutilation. In February 1999 medical staff at hospitals in Freetown were reported to be treating some 500 victims of amputation and mutilation who required surgery. There were likely to be many other victims who did not reach medical help and who died from their injuries.

Rape and other forms of sexual violence were systematic and widespread during the incursion. Women and girls were rounded up and gang-raped by rebel forces. Rebel forces abducted large numbers of civilians, including children, from Freetown. Some were selected for training as fighters, others used as porters to carry looted goods from Freetown to other parts of the country. Women and girls were used for sexual purposes. Some 4,000 children were reported missing after the rebel incursion. In the eastern part of Freetown, about 90 per cent of buildings were destroyed.

ECOMOG forces, together with the CDF, also committed human rights violations, including war crimes, during the incursion by rebel forces into Freetown. There were reports of large numbers of extrajudicial executions by ECOMOG forces and the Civil Defense Forces (CDF) of captured or suspected rebels, often after the most cursory interrogation and without any real attempt to establish whether the captive was guilty or innocent of any crime. In mid-January 1999 at least 10 Sierra Leonean staff of humanitarian aid organizations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were arrested and detained by ECOMOG forces. They were accused of cooperating with rebel forces although there was no evidence to substantiate these allegations. Most were reported to have been beaten. Aid organizations' communications equipment was also confiscated. Ill-treatment or torture, including by being beaten, whipped, tied extremely tightly and subjected to various forms of public humiliation, was common at ECOMOG and CDF checkpoints in Freetown.

Angola

The linkage between the sale of diamonds and the ability of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) to wage its brutal insurrections has been extensively documented by numerous sources. In 1998 Global Witness released its report entitled Rough Trade: The Role of Companies and Governments in the Angolan Conflict. In 2000, the Fatal Transactions: An investigation in to the Illicit Diamond Trade report was released by experts linked with Global Witness. On March 10 2000 the Report of the Panel of Experts on Violations of Security Council Sanctions Against UNITA was released by the UN. All of the reports documented UNITA's use of revenues from diamond sales to purchase weapons, wage war and commit systematic human rights abuses. The cost to the Angolan people has been enormous and sadly has not ended yet.

Since gaining independence in 1975, there has been conflict between government forces of the MPLA and UNITA. Both government forces and UNITA have been responsible for large-scale human rights violations including killings of civilians, torture and the use of landmines.

• In 1991 AI reported that violations occurred against prisoners, including captured combatants and others suspected of political opposition. In 1993 we estimated that 1,000 people were dying every day as a result of the conflict. The 1993 report also stated that there were reports of targeted killings on both sides and that prisoners were "disappearing" from their cells.

• While no universally accepted figure has been presented, it is estimated that tens of thousands of people have died as a result of fighting.

• In our 2000 report we found that UNITA was responsible for mutilating and abducting hundreds of civilians including women and children.

• In its 2001 World Refugee Survey report, the USCR noted that "anywhere from 1 to 3.5 million Angolans had been displaced as a result of the war. In 2000 alone 300,000 persons were uprooted. Thousands of people were displaced by the armed conflict and increased insecurity."

The Democratic Republic of the Congo

Amnesty International is continuing to investigate details of the linkages between conflict diamonds and the conflict in the DRC. In our September 2001 report entitled Democratic Republic of Congo: Rwandese-controlled east: Devastating human toll, AI stated that

"Many of the killings are occurring in areas rich in minerals, where economic exploitation of minerals and other natural resources continues. While this economic exploitation has directly enriched and motivated some individual RPA commanders, it is also financing the Rwandese war effort and sustaining the Rwandese military presence in the region. Such exploitation is allowing the Rwandese to continue a war in which human rights are dramatically violated."

In the same report we also state that:

"During the first year of the war, many influential governments, including the UK, the US, and Belgium, supported the Rwandese Government's stance. However, fighting between Rwanda and Uganda in Kisangani exposed to the international community that the illegal exploitation of DRC resources was a significant objective of the war. Since then, Rwanda's motives for the continuing occupation of part of DRC are increasingly being questioned."

If natural resources such as diamonds and coltan and timber (those that are mentioned most often) are in any way involved in fueling or facilitating the military efforts of the warring parties, then the details on human rights abuses listed below underscores the critical need for this legislation to be enacted.

AI has reported on the serious and systematic human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo prior to the outbreak of the war that started in 1996. However we would agree the conflict has caused a dramatic deterioration in the protection of human rights. While we continue to investigate the details of role played by diamonds and other natural resources in the DRC conflict we can already report on the scale of the abuses that the conflict has caused.

According to our colleagues at the USCR at the end of 2000, 2.1 million persons had been displaced. Of these 1.8 were internally displaced and 350,000 had been forced in to refugee status. USCR also estimates that 200,000 civilian deaths had been caused by violence and that another 1.5 million deaths had been caused by war-induced malnutrition and diseases.

AI has detailed information about torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment committed by all warring parties. Human rights abuses included:

• torture by the DRC government forces - security forces routinely used torture against known or suspected government opponents, particularly those thought to threaten the authorities' hold on power, government critics, journalist -who have been particularly targeted to intimidate and prevent them from writing or publishing articles that criticize the government, its senior officials or its policies, human rights defenders in an attempt to intimidate them and cause them to desist from carrying out their work.

• rape by security forces - many women in the DRC have been subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence by members of the security forces. Details on the number of incidences of rape are thought to be seriously under-reported as investigations into cases of rape are extremely difficult particularly because of the social stigma associated with it,

 Abuses have also been committed by the forces opposing the DRC government.

Rwandese and Ugandan government forces have committed:

•  torture - scores of people were subjected to severe forms of torture to dissuade the disgruntled population from joining an armed uprising against Congolese armed political groups and the governments of Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda seeking to overthrow the DRC Government.

Congolese armed opposition groups are also guilty of:

• torture - like the DRC Government, its armed Congolese opponents, particularly the RCD-Goma and the RCD-ML, have used torture as a weapon against their critics or those suspected of or known to support their opponents. In the same way that human rights abuses such as deliberate and arbitrary killings have been carried out with their allies from Rwanda and Uganda, torture is also reported to be carried out together with or even at times ordered by the allies.

• rape and other forms of sexual violence by armed opposition groups - girls and women of all ages has been extensively used by armed opposition groups and foreign government forces supporting them in eastern and other parts of the DRC. Rape has effectively been used as a weapon of war against sections of the population that are known for or suspected of supporting their opponents, including by humiliating them. Women and girls of all ages are the most vulnerable to this form of torture, but it is also used by the armed groups as a reprisal against their male opponents, as well as a demonstration of their military superiority over their opponents who are shown to be unable to protect the women.

Conclusions

Mr. Chairman, legislation before you would require the Customs Service to permit diamond imports only from those countries that have adopted strong and effective controls on the exportation and importation of rough diamonds to ensure that conflict diamonds do not enter the international stream of commerce. We believe that this bill, HR 2722, will buttress and encourage the international Kimberley process along in its efforts to create an international certification system. The Kimberley system would remove conflict diamonds from legitimate channels of commerce by ensuring a clean stream of diamonds from the point of extraction to retail sale. The system would be transparent and independently monitored.

I will end by saying that both the non-governmental groups and the diamond industry share the view that the US legislation should be drawn as tightly as possible, so as to exclude every possible conduit for the entry of conflict diamonds into the United States and prevent any group like UNITA, rebel groups in the DRC or the RUF from benefiting from diamond sales made here in the US market. This can only happen if HR 2722 is passed. On behalf of Amnesty International USA and the Campaign to Eliminate Conflict Diamonds I urge this Committee to support HR 2722.

Thank You.

¹ This testimony could not have been prepared without the help Amanda Blair, Eileen Welch and Juliana Phillips