Private Groups Denounce Conflict Diamonds

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(Rapaport…July 18 2000) The human rights group, Physicians for Human Rights, will lead a faction of 30 nongovernmental organizations when they send a letter to The World Diamond Congress urging the industry to end conflict diamond trade in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Togo, reported the Financial Times.

“We are joining together to press the diamond industry to clean up its act,” said Holly Burkhalter, campaign director of Physicians for Human Rights.

The proposed six-country embargo follows in the wake of a recent UN embargo on Sierra Leone diamonds, which has spurred worldwide interest in the sale of “blood diamonds” that have fueled much atrocity and strife in African wars.