Organized crime - trafficking in diamonds

The diamonds from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and recognized governments and are used to fund military action in opposition to governments ... - Compensate for anywhere from 10-15% of the world billions of dollars of diamonds in the industry. "While some" of the diamond trade funds is used to sustain operations (ie armed interventions. Insurrections, terrorist operations, etc.), a substantial amount of profits are channeled to the bank accounts of criminals corporations, corrupt government officials, rebel forces, and a host of others.? Africa has paid a high price for the diamond wars and crime and greed that support them. Millions of Africans have died of diamond-related conflict and millions displaced. However, the "dirty trade 22 extends beyond the shores of? Africa. In the last months of 2001, Farah reported that there is strong evidence that Al Qaeda and Hezbollah have obtained millions of dollars worth of illicit diamonds by Lebanese connection in Sierra Leone. Diamonds are an ideal product for terrorist groups because it is easy to change for cash and are difficult to track by the implementing organizations of the law.

The exploitation of other natural resources such as gold, uranium, copper, cobalt, bauxite, and timber is another transnational crime that has perpetuated the conflict in several African states, particularly the Democratic Republic of Congo. The funds of these natural resources to fill the pockets of greedy and finance terrorist acts and armed factional wars. Few in the Democratic Republic of Congo are left untouched by the fighting and damage the environment. On the surface, the bloody wars for diamonds and other natural resources? Africa does not seem to be very important for the U.S. military and national security. In fact, the opposite is true. Transnational crime, violence and conflict? Africa threaten the stability of the entire continent and, ultimately, economic and military consequences for the world in general. ? African political, economic, and social ills are impressive and transnational crime is worse. During a period of four visits? West Africa, Prime Minister Blair stressed the need for developed states to invest in security and economic prosperity of democracies? Africa. Blair stated emphatically that illicit drugs, terrorism, extremism and come from "failed states, dictatorships, and the economically and politically bankrupt.

Conflict and chaos in the diamond and mineral-rich areas? Africa is a magnet for predators, terrorists and other transnational criminals. Terrorism against U.S. citizens and interests can leave? Africa in the same way he left Afghanistan. Just as terrorists found safe haven in Somalia and Sudan, these same groups may migrate to other states collapsed in the African continent. To think that states can ignore conflict is to see the national and international security in a finite-dimensional and limited. In the spring of 1991, insurgents in Sierra Leone, Liberia fighters and mercenaries from Burkina Faso in Sierra Leone launched attacks to overthrow the ruling government. The rebel group, known as the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), began a campaign of death and destruction against innocent civilians. Hundreds of thousands of refugees fled to neighboring countries and thousands of children were kidnapped and forced to serve as soldiers. "The RUF was based on torture, killings, mutilations and other atrocities as a means to undermine confidence in the Freetown government. Within a year, the Revolutionary United Front took control of the major diamond mines in the southeast.

Like many insurgents, the conflict in Sierra Leone was proclaimed as a rebellion to end a corrupt regime. The movement became a criminal enterprise self-sustaining. RUF leaders exchanged rich in diamonds and arms and equipment during the Civil War. In March 1995, RUF forces captured most of the major mines in the country, but the army of Sierra Leone was able to stop new developments and keep the capital with the help of peacekeepers from Nigeria and Ghana.129 You can not take advantage of the capital, the RUF signed a peace agreement with the government in November 1996. Dissident military overthrew the government in 1997 and formed an alliance with the RUF.130 Nigeria, Cote d 'Ivoire, Guinea and Ghana - the members of the Economic Community of States? African States (ECOWAS) - led government diplomatic straight civil power. The United Nations supported the nonviolent approach and banned arms shipments to Sierra Leone. "

Impatient with the pace of negotiations, Nigeria led a successful coup against in February 1998 and the Security Council established the UN Observer Mission of the United Nations in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL). The following year, the RUF and the government signed the Lomé Peace Agreement. However, the RUF quickly violated several terms of the agreement. The armed rebel group remained and continued their struggle for control of the country's diamond fields. In the early months of 2000, violent clashes with government troops and atrocities against civilians are increasing. In addition, the RUF held several hundred peacekeeping United Nations hostage. In May 2000, the UK military units deployed to Sierra Leone to restore order in Freetown and evacuate its citizens and other foreigners. Although the safety of British citizens and foreigners was the main reason for military intervention, Britain ties to the former colony always the impulse of a force of British peacekeeping. British peacekeepers helped stabilize the country and initiated a training program for indigenous police and military forces.

The U.S. supported the efforts of United Nations peacekeeping by sending military equipment, the study teams, trainers and Special Forces to Nigeria and Ghana. This initiative, "Operation Focus Relief," strengthening the capacity of peacekeepers from Nigeria and Ghana to ensure security, disarming the rebel forces, and facilitate the repatriation of refugees. In September 2001, the rebels agreed to a ceasefire, but a lasting peace is far from certain. National government leadership has changed five times in the last 11 years and presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for May 2002. The United Nations mandate in Sierra Leone is scheduled to end in September 2002, but peacekeepers may be needed until the authority of government and civil institutions are restored in the country. As in the Balkans, peacekeeping has put an end to violent conflict, but a long-term peace based on the rule of law may be many years away. Recent political and ethnic conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo dates back to 1994, when fighting in neighboring Rwanda and Burundi forced hundreds of thousands of refugees in Zaire.

The new demographics of the eastern Congo has contributed to ethnic strife and civil war broke out in 1996.Within a year, the rebel movement supported by Germany, Angola, Rwanda, Uganda and overthrew the government in power and reset the distribution of natural resources in the country. Once the foreign armies established a foothold in the digital rectal examination, which took advantage of the weakness of the Congolese Government and consolidated their control over mineral and other resources. In August 1998 - Congolese activists supported by Rwanda and Uganda, plunged the country into another civil war. Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Chad and Sudan responded to the crisis through the provision of troops and aid to the Democratic Republic of Congo. To further complicate the conflict was the presence of insurgents from Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi. These groups, operating from bases in eastern Congo, often targeted civilians and government forces in their respective countries. A report by Human Rights Watch concluded that the rebels and government forces on all sides killed, raped, tortured, abducted and thousands of civilians. The President of Zambia tried to end the killing in 1999, when he invited the chief combatants in the war to a peace conference in Lusaka, Zambia.

Lusaka Agreement calls for an immediate ceasefire, the withdrawal of foreign troops, except for peacekeeping and peacekeeping force of some 5,500 United Nations troops. "Rwanda and Uganda remained in some parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo to protect its population from attacks by the guerrillas, but also, and perhaps more importantly the motivation of his profession was the control of minerals, agriculture, and wood in the country. "A report published by the United Nations in April 2001 noted that the DRC was" large-scale looting and systematic and systemic exploitation of natural resources. " The report continued: "Top military commanders from various countries, for various reasons, need and continue to need this conflict for its lucrative nature and for temporarily solving some internal problems in those countries as well as allowing access to wealth. They have realized that the war has the ability to sustain itself and, therefore, have created or protected criminal networks to fully accept if all foreign armies decide to leave the Democratic Republic of Conq.

In February 2002, armed fighters have not complied with all provisions of the Lusaka Agreement. Uganda and Rwanda still occupy the eastern Congo and violent clashes between various armed groups have increased in recent months. With so many criminals and corrupt elements benefit from the looting and the Democratic Republic of Congo's natural resources, the economic incentive to keep the conflict and chaos is greater than the desire to establish the rule of law and maintaining peace. Violence and anarchy in the Democratic Republic of Congo remains a threat to stability in at least ten countries that share a border with the giant nation. President Buyoya of Burundi, said during a recent visit to the U.S. that peace and stability in the Great Lakes region depends on the withdrawal of foreign troops from the Democratic Republic of Congo and intra-dialogue involving all parties. "Without a significant change in the conditions, a viable peace process remains problematic. Rebels of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), have battled off and on the government of Angola since the country declared its independence from Portugal in 1975.

Throughout the Cold War, UNITA received arms, training, and equipment of U.S. and South Africa. The warring parties signed the Lusaka Protocol in 1994, but the provisions of this peace agreement was never implemented. "UNITA refused to give the rebels and the diamond fields full-scale hostilities erupted again in 1998. Former leader of UNITA, Jonas Savimbi, admitted in 1996 that the diamond fields in northeastern Angola are essential for the survival of his movement "In an effort to cut the illegal flow of diamonds, which were the funding of UNITA weapons and equipment, the UN imposed an embargo on unofficial diamond exports (ie, diamonds without a certificate of origin of the internationally recognized government of Angola) to act in collusion with corrupt diamond business, the United Nations could ITA enough for the country's diamond smuggling to finance their military operations. Joined the campaign of violence against civilians and government forces continued. Cities and towns that supported the government were destroyed without hesitation.

UNITA rebels were content to kill anyone who refused to accept their demands. Violence against the government and international workers is equally intense. After several rebel attacks against peacekeepers and the suspicious disappearance of two United Nations aircraft on UNIT A-territory, the United Nations became convinced that the country was too unstable and dangerous for the peacekeeping of force. In 1999, after more than a decade of operations, peacekeeping, the Security Council decided to withdraw the UN Observer Mission of the United Nations. Over the next two years, UNITA l deepen terrorism and guerrilla warfare. A recent UN data showed, "... the rebel movement is still conducting guerrilla warfare, attacking mostly civilian targets, destroying infrastructure, killing innocent people and land mines. The continuing civil war in Angola has marked the country and has created a humanitarian crisis. Matanzas, torture, rape, terrorism and other atrocities invaded all sectors of society and left the country in ruins.

As many as 1.5 million civilians have been killed since the beginning of the war.152 more than four million people were displaced in the last two years, 60% of the population lives in poverty, and life expectancy is about 44 years. "The tragedy in Angola illustrates how a transnational crime, including smuggling of diamonds can extend the duration of the conflict, undermine the rule of law and undermine international peace initiatives. Perhaps the recent death of Jonas Savimbi, UNITA's founder, will give both sides of the conflict an opportunity to revive the peace process. Now with Angola and unified UN supervision gives everything will return to normal.

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