Cracking Down on Conflict Diamonds

Former Liberian president Charles Taylor’s trial at the International Criminal Court in the Hague enters its second week. He’s facing war crimes charges for allegedly masterminding the brutal 11-year civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone in order to appropriate its diamond wealth. Taylor is being tried for murder, rape, mutilation, and conscripting child soldiers.

Taylor’s presidency ended in 2003 – and that same year the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme was created to regulate the sale and transport of rough diamonds, and to ensure the gems are not associated with human rights abuses. Lately, however, civil groups have criticized the scheme as ineffective in Zimbabwe and other diamond-producing African nations.

Annie Dunnebacke is a campaigner with the group Global Witness. She joins us from London to discuss the crackdown on conflict diamonds.

Global Witness and the Combating Conflict Diamond Campaign

(Photo by AdamCohn via Flickr/Creative Commons)