|
|
|
Words
in the News |
|
INTRO
|
|
Diamonds
provide a source of wealth for countries such as Sierra Leone. But
illegal exports can also help fund rebel groups. Many diamonds are
traded through Antwerp, in Belgium. |
|
IN
FULL
|
|
 |
Listen
to BBC correspondents Justin Webb and Barnaby Mason |
 |
 |
8th June 2000
The illegal trade in diamonds
|
|
|
NEWS
1
|
|
|
Listen
to Justin Webb |
| |
|
Diamond
traders in Antwerp are sensitive about their international image.
A United Nations report earlier this year criticised what it called
extremely lax controls here and suggested that an existing
UN embargo on diamonds from areas of Angola controlled by UNITA rebels
was being widely flouted. |
|
WORDS
|
|
international
image: the way they appear to countries
lax:
if a system is lax, rules are not obeyed, or standards are not
maintained
flouted:
if you flout a law, you deliberately disobey it
|
|
| NEWS
2 |
|
|
Listen
to Barnaby Mason |
| |
|
At
the heart of the issue is the question of how sure a trader can
be about where a stone is from. Ownership certificates show
the country a diamond is imported from, but that might not be the
country of origin. For example, Liberia has few diamonds of its own.
Most of its exports probably come from the rebels in neighbouring
Sierra Leone. Traders here say it’s impossible to tell apart what
might be regarded as a "clean" Liberian diamond from a "dirty"
Sierra Leonean one. The problem of so-called conflict diamonds
should be addressed, they say, with controls in Africa. |
| WORDS |
|
At
the heart of the issue: Can a trader be sure where a diamond
comes from? If so, how sure? That lies at the centre of the problem
Ownership
certificates : documents which show who the owner is
(i)
"clean" and (ii) "dirty" diamonds:
diamonds which have been bought (i) according to the rules, or (ii)
illegally
conflict
diamonds :
diamonds
which may have come from an area of civil unrest
|
|
| NEWS
3 |
|
|
Listen
to the second part of the report |
| |
|
The
rebels control most of the diamond mining areas and the gems are smuggled
out through Liberia. A UN ban would make dealing in Sierra Leone
diamonds a criminal activity and put brokers on notice; they would
be asked to sign a declaration that their diamonds did not come from
Sierra Leone.To indicate the scale of the problem, the official
said the Sierra Leone diamond trade last year was estimated to
have been worth seventy million dollars, only one and a half million
of that was legitimate. |
| WORDS |
|
smuggled
out through:
the
diamonds are taken illegally into Liberia, and then exported to
other countries
scale:
size
or extent
was
estimated to have been worth: it was estimated that it had a
value of 70 million dollars
that:
refers to the 70 million dollars
legitimate:
only
that part of the trade was according to the law - the diamonds had
not been smuggled
|
|
| |
|
Read
about the background in BBC News Online |
|
|
