(Rapaport…July 17, 2000) At the World Diamond Congress in Antwerp on July 17, Gary Ralfe, managing director of De Beers, urged the diamond industry to create and implement ethical standards to protect the industry’s worldwide reputation by ensuring ways to end conflict diamond trade.
Ralfe said that even though conflict diamonds account for less than 4 percent of the world trade, this was a figure that had to be reduced.
“We cannot, must not, allow this symbol of love and purity to be tainted or eroded by a connection with conflict, brutality, and human suffering no matter how slight that connection may be,” said Ralfe.