Angola: Date of cessation of business dealings between South African-based diamond company De Beers and the government of Angola; whether Angolan government representatives questioned Angolans working at De Beers in London about the company's diamond trade with the UNITA rebel group

A report in the September/October 1999 electronic edition of The Angolan Mission Observer, the bi-monthly publication of the Permanent Mission of The Republic of Angola to The United Nations, states that on 5 October 1999, South African-based diamond company De Beers announced that it was establishing "a worldwide embargo" on the purchase of "all" diamonds from Angola and that the company's buying offices around the world would no longer buy diamonds mined in Angola. The report also states that:

the sole exception to the embargo will be the purchase of diamonds from SDM, a joint venture mining operation controlled by the Angolan government and the Australian mining company Ashton Mining, from which De Beers is contractually obliged to purchase. In support of the new policy, De Beers plans to shut down its buying offices in Angola and is reviewing its buying operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Guinea.

This information is corroborated in a 23 October 1999 report in Drillbits and Tailings, an electronic monthly on the mining and oil industries, housed in the Website of Project Underground, an organization "supporting the human rights of communities resisting mining and oil exploitation." The report states that De Beers would continue to buy diamonds through a joint venture with the Angolan government.

A 19 July 2000 Business Day report states that, in compliance with June 1998 United Nations sanctions on diamonds originating from areas controlled by UNITA, De Beers would only purchase diamonds certified by the Angolan Government. However, fears that certificates could be falsified led the company to stop buying Angolan stones in October 1999 (ibid.).

A 31 March 2000 Financial Mail article quotes a United Nations report (Fowler Report) that ackowledged De Beers efforts to comply with the embargo on trading diamonds with UNITA and recognized that these efforts made it difficult for UNITA to sells its diamonds on world markets.

A 19 February 2001 report in Fortune on the activities of De Beers states that De Beers had closed its buying offices in Angolan but maintained a low-key presence in that country. The report also states that the company had just built a 12-storey sorting house in downtown Luanda and was still prospecting for diamonds in that country.

Information on whether Angolan government representatives questioned Angolans working at De Beers in London about the company's diamond trade with the UNITA could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

The Angolan Mission Observer [New York]. September/October 1999 Electronic Edition. "DeBeers Announces Embargo on Angolan Diamond Purchases." [Accessed 16 May 2001]

Business Day [Johannesburg]. 19 July 2000. Michael Holman et al. "De Beers Diamond Monopoly Is not Forever." (NEXIS)

Drillbits and Tailings [Berkeley, Calif.]. 23 October 1999. Vol. 4, No. 17. "The Angolan Civil War, Part II: Diamonds." [Accessed 16 May 2001]

Financial Mail [Rosebank, S.A.]. 31 March 2000. Patrick Laurence. "Gem Giant Rebuts Charges that its Soft on UNITA." (NEXIS)

Fortune [New York]. 19 February 2001. Nicholas Stein. "The De Beers Story: A New Cut on an Old Monopoly." (NEXIS)

Additional Sources Consulted

IRB databases

Internet sources including:

World News Connection (WNC)

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