Rapaport…November 28, 2000) Congressman Tony Hall (D-Ohio) and human rights activists Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), Physicians for Human Rights and World Vision, will be participating in a protest on Saturday, December 2, 2000, in front of the Tiffany & Co., store at 5500 Wisconsin Avenue in Chevy Chase, Maryland, between 2pm and 4pm. According to organizers, the protest is geared toward highlighting the role American consumers may unknowingly play in funding some African wars.
The protest, will focus on distributing educational leaflets on conflict diamonds to consumers. Congressman Hall will speak at the press conference where he will be joined by the U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Ambassador Leigh; Adotei Akwei, Amnesty International lobbyist on Sub Saharan Africa; and a representative for the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers.
Hall takes a harsh stand on the issue and says: “At long last Tiffany’s and other jewelers are talking about doing their part to end this blood trade – but there has been little action to implement their pretty words.
I do not ever want to see the kind of suffering that Congressman Frank Wolf and I saw last year. I am convinced that Americans – who buy 65 percent of the world’s diamonds – will share our revulsion, and will join us in pressing the diamonds industry to lend its support to efforts to stop these diamond wars.”