U.N. Bans Conflict Diamonds

The UN Security Council Wednesday imposed a global embargo on diamond exports from Sierra Leone, where a thriving gems-for-guns trade is fueling a simmering civil war.

The vote was 14-0 with Mali abstaining because of a reference to Liberia being a conduit for the diamonds.

The resolution bans all rough diamonds until Sierra Leone can set up a proper certification system for the gems—as well as regain access to lucrative diamond-mining areas under the control of the rebel Revolutionary United Front.

The embargo will run for 18 months, as France, Russia and China wanted, rather than 36 months as the United States proposed. In either case the resolution, which includes a tightened arms embargo on the rebels, would expire unless the council took another vote.

Much of the diamond trade goes through Liberia, whose President Charles Taylor was a close ally of RUF chief Foday Sankoh and for years supported the rebels.

The resolution singles out Liberia by referring to reports that the diamonds "transit neighboring countries, including the territory of Liberia."

The document calls for hearings within the year on "the role of diamonds in the Sierra Leone conflict," which may be held as early as this month.

And it asks Secretary-General Kofi Annan to name a panel of experts for an initial period of four months to report to a council sanctions committee on any violations.

The war in Sierra Leone, however, is but one of three African conflict fueled by diamonds.

United Nations sanctions against diamonds from Angola have not stopped the brutal civil war there.

And in the two-year, six-nation civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the DRC president has publicly promised to reward his foreign backers with diamond mines.

In the West, the diamond industry fears that consumers will make the connection between diamonds in the jewelry store and the carnage in Africa. The world's largest diamond seller, De Beers, says it has stopped buying conflict diamonds, but the company worries that the perception that it sells conflict gems will linger.

"If the consumer were turned off, that would clearly present a problem," said Tim Capon, De Beers director.

So-called conflict diamonds represent only 4 percent of the total diamond trade. But Alex Yearsley of Global Witness, an advocacy group that works to publicize the role of diamonds in African strife, says "that 4 percent of global production represents several hundred million dollars. Several hundred million dollars buys you an awful lot of arms in Africa."

Interrupting that exchange of gems for weapons proves difficult because of the culture of the diamond market, reports CBS News Correspondent Tom Fenton.

In thdiamond district of Antwerp, Belgium, for example—through which 85 percent of the world's rough diamonds pass—rough gems are simply a commodity to be cut, polished and sold. Experts can tell customers everything about the quality of a stone, but their certificates say nothing about the country of origin.

Dealers say that anyone with a stone to sell—illegal or otherwise—will find a buyer. It's been a diamond-trading center for centuries, and a place where traditionally not too many questions are asked.