Connect the Dots

Event

UN embargo on Sierra Leone rough diamonds, 2000

Security Council ban on imports of rough diamonds from Sierra Leone, with an exemption for diamonds under a government certificate of origin.

6 links, 4 backed by primary records

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Dates
5 Jul 2000
How each side tells it

According to Kimberley Process

According to Edward Jay Epstein

Connections 6

involved

  • United Nations Security Council adopted resolution 1306 on 5 July 2000 Primary record 1
  • Sierra Leone Primary record 1
  • De Beers its chairman, Nicholas Oppenheimer, said of the company's stand on conflict diamonds that it came from "the moral imperative and also the fear of what might happen to the diamond industry" Scholarship & press 2

led to

benefited

  • De Beers According to Edward Jay Epstein Scholarship & press 2

    The New York Times gave Epstein's view in its own words; he is quoted only as calling it "another brilliant coup". De Beers gave other reasons.

influenced

Timeline 1 date
  1. 5 Jul 2000 UN embargo on Sierra Leone rough diamonds, 2000
Proof 3 sources
  1. Security Council resolution 1306 (2000) on Sierra Leone, S/RES/1306 (2000), United Nations Security Council (text via the University of Minnesota Human Rights Library), 5 Jul 2000. Primary record
    Decides that all States shall take the necessary measures to prohibit the direct or indirect import of all rough diamonds from Sierra Leone to their territory;
    Expressing its concern at the role played by the illicit trade in diamonds in fuelling the conflict in Sierra Leone
  2. Controversy Over Diamonds Made (headline as saved from the reprint; the page title is cut off), Alan Cowell, The New York Times, 22 August 2000 (reprint by Global Policy Forum), 22 Aug 2000. Scholarship & press
    "It was the moral imperative and also the fear of what might happen to the diamond industry," Nicky Oppenheimer said
    by supporting United Nations embargoes on illicit diamond sales in Angola and Sierra Leone, the company has effectively enlisted the United Nations as a policeman
    Another brilliant coup, in my opinion,
  3. Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, Kimberley Process (copy lodged with the World Trade Organization), 2002. Primary record
    RECALLING all of the relevant resolutions of the United Nations Security Council under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, including the relevant provisions of Resolutions 1173 (1998), 1295 (2000), 1306 (2000), and 1343 (2001)
    CONVINCED that the opportunity for conflict diamonds to play a role in fuelling armed conflict can be seriously reduced by introducing a certification scheme for rough diamonds designed to exclude conflict diamonds from the legitimate trade;
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