Companies must not profit from blood diamonds | Amnesty International

Companies must not profit from blood diamonds | Amnesty International

CAR: Companies must not profit from blood diamonds 

The Central African Republic’s (CAR) biggest traders have purchased
diamonds worth several million dollars without adequately investigating
whether they financed armed groups responsible for summary executions, rape, enforced disappearances and widespread looting, Amnesty International said in a report published today.

The report, Chains of Abuse: The global diamond supply chain and the case of the Central African Republic, documents several other abuses in the diamond sector, including child labour and tax abuse.

CAR’s
diamond companies could soon start exporting diamonds stockpiled during
the on-going conflict in which 5,000 have died. An export ban in place
since May 2013 will be partially lifted once the government meets
conditions set in July 2015 by the Kimberley Process, which is
responsible for preventing the international trade in blood diamonds.
Before the conflict, diamonds represented half the country’s exports.