CHLOEÕS
BLOOD DIAMOND
ANGOLA
ROCK SOLD FOR $16 MILLION
TO
GUESS JEANS FOUNDER
18 November 2007
keith harmon snow
www.allthingspass.com
A huge flawless white diamond was sold on November 14 for
nearly 18.2 million Swiss francs ($16.21 million) to Guess Jeans founder
Georges Marciano, who named it the ÒChloe DiamondÓ after his daughter,
Sotheby's auctioneers said.
While the hot Chloe rock is certified as a ÒcleanÓ
diamond, it was purchased from AngolaÕs state mining company, Endiama, a
company involved in blood diamonds. No rock of desire of this
stature—84.37 carats—comes out of Africa without organized
bloodshed and suffering behind it.
ÒFor the past 20 years, bloodshed and diamond mining have
been two sides of the same coin,Ó said Rafael Marques, a human rights activist
from Angola, Òviolence being explained either in the name of war or of
combating illegal activities.Ó
Marques gave a lecture titled ÒRinsing the Blood from
AngolaÕs DiamondsÓ at Oxford University Africa Society in January 2007. ÒToday,
I am here to share with you a reality of blood, and contempt for human rights,
in the diamond fields [of Angola].Ó
AngolaÕs state firm
Endiama is tied to the Lazare Kaplan diamond company owned by the
Israeli-American Tempelsman diamond cartel. Maurice TempelsmanÕs diamond
interests were established in the Congo in the early 1960Õs with the help of
the CIA.
Sotheby's luxury conglomerate identified the seller of the
ÒChloeÓ diamond as Ron Cohen, chief executive officer of Los Angeles-based
company Clean Diamonds Inc. ÒThe stone was from Angola,Ó Ron Cohen reportedly
told Reuters. ÒIt has gone through the Kimberley Process and has all the
certificates, it is a clean diamond.Ó
Most media reports described Ron Cohen Òas CEO of Clean
Diamonds Inc. of Los Angeles,Ó but Reuters identified Cohen as an Israeli
diamond dealer. The company ÒClean Diamonds Inc.Ó is not found in the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission database. Clean Diamonds Inc. also lists New
York and Belgium operations on its web site.
ÒThe Kimberley Process is an organization set up by the
diamond industry expressly to police trade in gems,Ó reported Reuters, Òto
prevent so-called Ôblood diamondsÕ used to finance rebel groups and civil wars
from coming on the market.Ó
However, Reuters is a mainstream international news
service that supports the diamond industry by covering up crimes and structural
violence that keeps Africa poor. Reuters de-links the suffering and bloodshed
caused by diamond cartels in major diamond producing countries like Angola,
Sierre Leone, Congo, Namibia, Botswana, Liberia, Central Africa Republic, and
South Africa.
At the 2007
Oxford lecture, Rafael Marques described the response of the diamond industry
to accusations of atrocities. ÒThere have been shifts by the central and
local authorities to address the accusations, either for damage control or
simply to make more sophisticated the methods of abuse by outsourcing violence
to private security companies,Ó he said.
The brilliant-cut ÒChloeÓ diamond, which weighs 84.37
carats, is the second most expensive stone ever sold at auction. SothebyÕs
press releases describe how Cohen held the 385-carat rough stone in his hand
two years ago, before it was cut, when he allegedly bought it from Endiama.
BLOOD DIAMOND CARTELS
SothebyÕs is another company
involved in blood diamonds. In 2005 SothebyÕs partnered up with the
Israeli-American Steinmetz Diamond Group to form SothebyÕs Diamonds. Beny
and Danny Steinmetz of the Steinmetz Group are partnered with Dan Gertler, a
new White House insider considered the unofficial ÒAmbassadorÓ to the
Democratic Republic of Congo, a country cursed by diamonds and other minerals,
where at least seven million people have died since 1996.
SothebyÕs sold 385 gems at the
auction, for a total of 64 million Swiss francs, many being diamonds from the
blood diamond economy. With the ÒChloeÓ diamond sale the 2007 total for
ÒMagnificent Jewels sold at SothebyÕs SwitzerlandÓ hit $106,019,622. French
billionaire Francois Pinault owns ChristieÕs (London) and SothebyÕs (Delaware).
The Steinmetz/Gertler
partnerships between them have controlling interests in Dan Gertler Industries,
Steinmetz Global Resources, Nikanor and Global Enterprises Corporate (GEC),
companies with massive diamond concessions in Kasai, and copper/cobalt
concessions in Katanga, two provinces in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Israeli-American diamond
cartels involved in Congo are seeking to displace the diamond interests in
Angola run by Israel-American Lev Leviev and Maurice Tempelsman, top-level
partners of the Angolan state diamond companies.
Belgian-born Maurice Tempelsman
has a long and bloody history in Africa. When CongoÕs first Premier, Patrice
Lumumba, pledged to return diamond wealth back to the newly independent Congo
in the early 60Õs, Tempelsman, who began with De Beers in the 1950Õs, helped
engineer the coup dÕetat that consolidated the dictatorship of 29 year-old Colonel Mobutu, and
the coup
against GhanaÕs Kwame Nkrumah; diamonds were at stake in each.
ÒI believe this was the
beginning of what we now know of as conflict diamonds in the Congo,Ó says blood
diamond expert and investigative journalist Janine Roberts, author of the book Glitter
and Greed: The Secret World of the Diamond Cartel. ÒFrom then on diamonds would
be extensively used to discreetly fund wars, coups, repression and
dictatorships, in Africa.Ó
Maurice Tempelsman is Chairman
of the American Jewish Congress, a Zionist pressure group that claims it works
closely with the Israeli military. SEC filings show that LKI directors are
high-rolling Zionist lawyers and investment bankers: one director belongs to
the law firm that once represented President Kennedy—another Tempelsman
friend. LKI is also connected to the euphemistically named United States Agency
for International Development (USAID).
The Tempelsman empire remains
rock solid behind Leon Tempelsman & Sons, De Beers, and Lazare Kaplan
International—supplier of TiffanyÕs and CartierÕs diamonds.
THE KIMBERLEY SCANDAL
In 2003 the Òinternational communityÓ—a
conglomeration of Group of Eight (G-8) executives ÒpartneredÓ with the diamond
industry—established a formal mechanism ostensibly to control the flow of
conflict diamonds. The United Nations mandated Kimberley Process is a voluntary self-regulation scheme where the
industry crafts ÔpassportÕ documents certifying all stones as conflict free.
Also in 2003 the international World Diamond Council was
created by the diamond industry and the U.S. Congress passed the ÒClean Diamond
Act.Ó These three formal processes falsely assure consumers that more than 99%
of rough stones today come from conflict-free sources.
Since at least 1996, the campaigns of Russ
Feingold (D-WI), who co-sponsored the Senate version of the U.S. ÒClean Diamond
ActÓ passed in 2003 have been heavily funded by Leon Tempelsman & Son.
Late in 2006, as the Christmas diamond rush was
approaching, the film Blood Diamond starring Leonardo DiCaprio provoked
the World Diamond Council to launch a blitzkreig advertising campaign—full-page ads in the New
York Times, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, the International
Herald Tribune—touting the self-policing successes of the Kimberley
Process. The campaign was presumably coordinated to counter the supposed
Ònegative publicityÓ of the Blood Diamond film.
The Kimberly Process was launched under the narrow
definition that Òconflict diamondsÓ only originate from conflicts between
ÔrebelsÕ and ÔgovernmentsÕ: it refers to smuggling by militias antagonistic to
ÔlegitimateÕ member governments.
After the film Blood Diamond opened in the U.S.,
diamond sales were never been better.
ÒI'm wearing diamond ear rings today because they are
conflict free," actress Jennifer Connelly, who stars in Blood Diamond, reportedly said. "It would be fantastic if
some of these natural resources benefited more people but until that can happen
we can certainly make a stand and insist that the diamonds we wear are conflict
free, which doesn't mean boycotting diamonds. It just means making sure we
support a more accountable Kimberly Process."
ENDIAMAÕS BLOOD DIAMONDS
Artisanal diamond miners in Angola called artisanos or garimpeiros are forced into ÔillegalÕ mining
because AngolaÕs mining security companies push people off their own land.
While agriculture and commerce in the region require the direct authorization
of the Provincial Governor, not one artisano has been granted a license for
diamond exploration or subsistence agriculture. The ÔlegitimateÕ government of
Angola forces desperate people to resort to ÔillegalÕ activities to survive but
according to Rafael Marques, garimpeiros contribute more to the profits of some of the state
diamond mining firms than big industrial operations.
Three private military companies (PMCs) have been
targeting garimpeiros
in Angola. The mercenary firms Alfa-5, Teleservices, and K&P Mineira defend
AngolaÕs big name diamond firms like Sociedade de Desenvolvimento
Mineiro (Sodiam), Sociedade
Mineira de Cuango, and Sociedade
Mineira Luminas. Human
rights researcher Rafael Marques has recently documented more than 50 cases of
PMCs arresting, beating and torturing garimpeiros. They stop garimpeiros from fishing in their rivers,
growing their own food, or living traditional lives; they have forced sexual
relations on family members, including same-sex rape and sodomy.
The PMCs operate behind AngolaÕs public diamond company,
Endiama, and have exclusive rights to AngolaÕs diamonds. Endiama owns 99% of
shares in Sodiam, which has a joint venture with Lazare Kaplan International
(LKI) of the Israeli-American Maurice Tempelsman family.
Sodiam works with the Russo-Israeli Lev Leviev Group.
Endiama owns part of Alfa-5, one of the PMCs that exploit and torture garimpeiros. Alfa-5 and K&P Mineira
provide security for ASCORP—the Angola Selling Corporation—another
Angolan monopoly.
One of ASCORPÕs controlling investors, Lev Leviev, runs a
global commercial empire that includes: Leviev Group of Companies; Lev Leviev
Diamonds; Africa-Israel (commercial real estate in Prague and London); Gottex
(swimwear) Company; 1,700 Fina gas stations in the Southwest U.S.; 173
7-Elevens in New Mexico and Texas; a 33% stake in Cross Israel Highway
(IsraelÕs first toll road); and more. Leviev partner Arcady Gaydamak, an arms
dealer, also reportedly works with Danny Yatom, a former MOSSAD (Israeli secret
service) chief and security advisor to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Barak. Leviev is connected to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and to Sandline
International, a U.K./South African mercenary firm operating in the war-torn
areas of Eastern Congo and Uganda.
While participants in the Kimberley Process complained of
the criminality of UNITA, the infamous rebels once supported by the CIA, but
they gave the ÒlegitimateÓ Dos Santos government a sparkling bill of health. Angola
exemplifies the process whereby an international certification scheme enforced
by the United Nations rubber stamps boxes of rough stones according to their
Ôcountry of origin.Õ Stamped ÔAngolaÕ the public is assured that these diamonds are now
Ôconflict free,Õ because these nations are members of the Kimberley
certification.
The Kimberley Process was partially instituted through the
work of Robert Rotberg at Harvard University. Maurice Tempelsman chairs the
International Advisory Council at the Harvard AIDS Institute (HAI) of the
School of Public Health. Rotberg and Tempelsman shared a panel at the Council
on Foreign Relations with people like Walter Kansteiner, National Security
under Bill Clinton and current director of a gold company involved in CongoÕs
bloody eastern zone.
Maurice Tempelsman was for decades the unofficial ambassador
to Congo/Zaire; Dan Gertler has usurped that role. In 2000 Gertler was named
Honorary Consul to the Congo. Beny Steinmetz may be the biggest De Beers ÒsightholderÓ. Africa Confidential called President KabilaÕs 2003 visit to the Bush
White House a ÒcoupÓ for Gertler and Steinmetz. GertlerÕs best friend is
Brooklyn-born Chaim Leibowitz, a personal friend of Condoleeza Rice.
BLOOD DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER
Tempelsman and Steinmetz bought diamonds from both sides
during AngolaÕs thirty-year war. Israeli diamond tycoons Gertler and Leviev are
reportedly jockeying for power with Isabel Dos Santos, the high-rolling
diamond-studded daughter of the President of Angola.
The Israel Diamond Exchange in
Tel Aviv, which today brings Israel $13 billion annually in commerce, and is
the countryÕs second-largest industry. Israel buys some 50% of the worldÕs
rough diamonds, and the U.S. buys two-thirds of these.
Diamonds are
IsraelÕs top export. In 2005 figures, exports to the EU totaled
$10.7 billion in 2004, including $2.5 billion in diamonds (23.3%); exports to
the US totaled $14.2 billion in 2004, including $7.3 billion in diamonds
(51.4%); exports to Asia totaled $7.1 billion in 2004, including $3.2 billion
in diamonds (45.0%); exports to the rest of the world totaled $6.6 billion in
2004, including $800 million in diamonds (12.1%).
Dan GertlerÕs grandfather, Moshe Schnitzer, is known in
Israel as ÒMr. Diamond,Ó founder of the Israel Diamond Exchange in Tel Aviv.
Moshe SchnitzerÕs son and Dan GertlerÕs uncle is Shmuel Schnitzer,
Vice-Chairman of the Belgian-based World Diamond Council—the entity that
promotes the false image of
ÒcleanÓ or Òconflict-freeÓ diamonds.
In June 2002, as the Kimberley Process was unfolding,
Daniel Horowitz, CEO of IDH Diamonds, gave a speech at the 3rd World
Diamond Conference titled ÒRough Diamonds in a Brave New World.Ó IDH works with
Endiama, BHP-Billiton and De Beers, another of the big diamond cartels.
ÒLadies and gentlemen, it would be irresponsible to
circumvent the fact that it is highly problematic, if not unfeasible, to work
out a system in order to control the flow of rough diamonds around the world,Ó
Horowitz said. ÒThe reality is that once diamonds are mined there is almost
nothing one can do in order to prevent them from reaching the market. No
certification scheme can truly be reliable, not only because war-torn areas are
by definition disorganized, but mainly because it is intrinsically impossible
to distinguish between good and bad diamonds. Misguiding traders and consumers
with untrustworthy guarantees would inevitably be demystified over time. As
opposed to this, it is critical to publicize that the mainstream diamond trade
is legitimate. It needs to be said again and again that conflict diamonds are
an irrelevant portion of world production. And as far as humanitarian issues
are concerned, the added value the industry generates worldwide particularly
benefits the developing world.Ó
Angola remains a war-torn country selling billions of
dollars worth of diamonds annually. In the past four years the government of
Angola has waged a permanent war against poor people, destroying thousands of
homes and taking the land in mass forced evictions. People were beaten,
tortured and arbitrarily arrested. At least 1000 people die in eastern Congo
every day.
Millions of blood diamonds from past and current wars
remain locked in the vaults of the Belgian, Russian, New York, London and
Israeli diamond bourses to insure the artificially high, monopoly-fixed, prices
of diamonds.
Rafael
Marques outlined cases torture, brutalization and assassinations—cases of
personal brutality he investigated—that characterize diamond mining by
state firms in Angola today.
ÒShould
one, after this brief explanation,Ó Marques asked, Òsay that the extraction of
diamonds in Angola is OK? What the Kimberley Process, which was designed to
drive blood diamonds out of the market, is doing is to rinse the blood from the
gems, extracted in [Angola] and certify them as clean.Ó
*
See:
keith harmon snow and Rick Hines: ÒBlood Diamond:
Doublethink and Deception Over Those Worthless Little Rocks of Desire,Ó Z Magazine, June and July 2007, and Blood
Diamonds at <http://www.allthingspass.com/journalism.php?catid=48
>.
Also:
Rafael Marques, Rinsing the Blood from AngolaÕs Diamonds,
Oxford University Africa Society,
January 26, 2007.