The UN is under charter obligations to deny rebel organizations funding and help to stabilize any conflict-affected region.

The importance of combining the efforts of the international community, governments, business and NGOs has been highlighted over the past four and a half years by the need to find sustainable solutions to the trade in so-called conflict diamonds.

Whilst accounting for only a small proportion of the world's production of rough diamonds (De Beers estimated 3 per cent for 2000), the dire social and political effect the trade was having on countries such as Sierra Leone, commanded - and deserved - urgent attention. At the same time, the economic development of countries like Botswana needed to be protected, as did the interests of the 2 million people employed in the legitimate diamond industry worldwide.

SHARED OBJECTIVES, DIFFERING NEEDS
The UN is under its charter obligations to deny rebel organizations, such as UNITA (Angola) and the RUF (Sierra Leone), funding and help to stabilize

any conflict-affected region. The NGO community - along with various western governments - was spurred on by the moral dimensions of this issue. Affected governments, such as Sierra Leone, urgently needed to control the trade in this valuable resource and recoup vital lost revenue.

No one party was able to overcome the problem on its own. The UN had already failed, following a decade-long attempt at reconciliation in Angola. The NGOs and foreign governments were unable to intervene and the diamond industry could not take action to any real effect without the necessary legal support from governments and the UN. What did emerge from the efforts, however, was a potent and highly effective partnership - one so far unparalleled on the international stage.

The charge was that the diamond industry had allowed rebel organizations to fund their conflicts through the illegal sale of rough diamonds.

In June 1998, after the imposition of political and economic sanctions on UNITA, De Beers immediately began co-operating with the UN. Soon after, we appreciated the need to engage with Global Witness and Partnership Africa Canada, the two NGOs that brought conflict diamonds to the attention of the world, for us, and them, to understand better the complexities of the issue.

KIMBERLEY PROCESS AND THE WORLD DIAMOND COUNCIL
During this time, De Beers also sought to galvanize the international diamond industry. A difficult task, as the industry is a highly disparate and competitive constituency comprising hundreds of small businesses around the world. These efforts eventually achieved success in July 2000, and industry leaders sanctioned the creation of the World Diamond Council (WDC), which today represents the entire diamond industry (from mining to retail), on the issue of conflict diamonds.