(Rapaport…August 2, 2000) Howard Jeter, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, told a UN panel that the U.S. will pledge one million dollars to fund a commission seeking to regulate diamonds in Sierra Leone.
The panel’s purpose was to find ways to halt the transit of illicit rough diamonds from Sierra Leone and Angola, to Belgium, Israel, and India, major trading centers.
“A solution to the problem of conflict diamonds in Sierra Leone must look beyond the borders of that country as well,” said Jeter.
Liberia and Burkina Faso, which neighbor the war-torn country, were mentioned as conflict diamond conduits that have abetted the trade thereby helping Sierra Leone’s rebel army.