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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 3901. Findings
Congress finds the following:
(1) Funds derived from the sale of rough diamonds are being
used by rebels and state actors to finance military activities,
overthrow legitimate governments, subvert international efforts
to promote peace and stability, and commit horrifying atrocities
against unarmed civilians. During the past decade, more than
6,500,000 people from Sierra Leone, Angola, and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo have been driven from their homes by wars
waged in large part for control of diamond mining areas. A
million of these are refugees eking out a miserable existence in
neighboring countries, and tens of thousands have fled to the
United States. Approximately 3,700,000 people have died during
these wars.
(2) The countries caught in this fighting are home to nearly
70,000,000 people whose societies have been torn apart not only
by fighting but also by terrible human rights violations.
(3) Human rights and humanitarian advocates, the diamond trade
as represented by the World Diamond Council, and the United
States Government have been working to block the trade in
conflict diamonds. Their efforts have helped to build a consensus
that action is urgently needed to end the trade in conflict
diamonds.
(4) The United Nations Security Council has acted at various
times under chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations to
address threats to international peace and security posed by
conflicts linked to diamonds. Through these actions, it has
prohibited all states from exporting weapons to certain countries
affected by such conflicts. It has further required all states to
prohibit the direct and indirect import of rough diamonds from
Sierra Leone unless the diamonds are controlled under specified
certificate of origin regimes and to prohibit absolutely the
direct and indirect import of rough diamonds from Liberia.
(5) In response, the United States implemented sanctions
restricting the importation of rough diamonds from Sierra Leone
to those diamonds accompanied by specified certificates of origin
and fully prohibiting the importation of rough diamonds from
Liberia. The United States is now taking further action against
trade in conflict diamonds.
(6) Without effective action to eliminate trade in conflict
diamonds, the trade in legitimate diamonds faces the threat of a
consumer backlash that could damage the economies of countries
not involved in the trade in conflict diamonds and penalize
members of the legitimate trade and the people they employ. To
prevent that, South Africa and more than 30 other countries are
involved in working, through the "Kimberley Process", toward
devising a solution to this problem. As the consumer of a
majority of the world's supply of diamonds, the United States has
an obligation to help sever the link between diamonds and
conflict and press for implementation of an effective solution.
(7) Failure to curtail the trade in conflict diamonds or to
differentiate between the trade in conflict diamonds and the
trade in legitimate diamonds could have a severe negative impact
on the legitimate diamond trade in countries such as Botswana,
Namibia, South Africa, and Tanzania.
(8) Initiatives of the United States seek to resolve the
regional conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa which facilitate the
trade in conflict diamonds.
(9) The Interlaken Declaration on the Kimberley Process
Certification Scheme for Rough Diamonds of November 5, 2002,
states that Participants will ensure that measures taken to
implement the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme for Rough
Diamonds will be consistent with international trade rules.
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