Diamonds Update

India has become a party to an international campaign to reject conflict diamonds. With reports that several terrorist organisations like Al Qaeda and various civil war groups are continuously getting funds from diamond trade proceeds in Africa, India supported a proposal to ban import of diamonds from Ivory Coast. A section of the traders in the tiny African nation is reportedly using diamond trade proceeds to fund wars.

The decision was endorsed in a closed door meeting of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB). WFDB controls majority of trades through the structured exchanges. Diamond bourses representing 17 nations supported the move.

The ban was further encouraged by a recent discovery that the terrorist organisation Al Qaeda has a stake of $20m from conflict diamonds from Sierra Leone. Recently, it was also reported that rebel groups in Angola financed its wars against the country’s legitimate government by trading in rough diamonds. Then it became clear that Sierra Leone, Congo, and many other African states were engaged in the trade of so-called “conflict diamonds.”

Read the rest of the story at http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1296523.cms