NOTES
Prologue
1 Human Development Report (New York: United Nations Development Programme, 2001).
2 CIA World Factbook (Washington, D.C.: Brassey’s, 2001).
3 Report of the Panel of Experts Appointed Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1306 (2000), Paragraph 19, in Relation to Sierra Leone, S/2000/1195, presented to the UN Security Council at the Global Policy Forum, New York, December 20, 2000.
4 U.S. Rep. Tony Hall (D-Ohio), “Congressional Leaders Urge Action on Conflict Diamonds,” press release, Washington, D.C., July 3, 2001.
Chapter 1
1 Jacques Legrand,
Diamonds: Myth, Magic, and Reality, edited by Ronne Peltsman and Neil Grant (New York: Crown Publishers, 1980), p. 7.
2 Kevin Krajick,
Barren Lands: An Epic Search for Diamonds in the North American Arctic (New York: Times Books, 2001), p. 29.
4 Douglas Farah, “Al-Qaeda Cash Tied to Diamond Trade.”
Washington Post, November 2, 2001, p. A1.
Chapter 2
1 Mary Fitzgerald,
West Africa (Footscray, Australia: Lonely Planet, 1998), p. 837.
3 Matthew Hart,
Diamond: A Journey to the Heart of an Obsession (Marble Falls, Texas: Walker Publishing Co., 2001).
5 Report of the Panel of Experts Appointed Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1306 (2000), Paragraph 19, in Relation to Sierra Leone, S/2000/1195, presented to the UN Security Council at the Global Policy Forum, New York, December 20, 2000.
6 The Heart of the Matter (Ottawa, Canada: Partnership Africa Canada, 2000).
7 Douglas Farah, “Al-Qaeda Cash Tied to Diamond Trade.”
Washington Post, November 2, 2001, p. A1.
8 Report of the Panel of Experts Appointed Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1306 (2000), Paragraph 19, in Relation to Sierra Leone, S/2000/1195, presented to the UN Security Council at the Global Policy Forum, New York, December 20, 2000.
Chapter 3
1 Member-states of ECOWAS are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
2 Report of the Panel of Experts Appointed Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1306 (2000), Paragraph 19, in Relation to Sierra Leone, S/2000/1195, presented to the UN Security Council at the Global Policy Forum, New York, December 20, 2000.
8 The Heart of the Matter (Ottawa, Canada: Partnership Africa Canada, 2000).
9 Ibrahim Abdullah and Patrick Muana, “The Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone: A Revolt of the Lumpenproletariat,” in Christopher Clapham (ed.),
African Guerillas (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1998).
10 Kevin A. O’Brien, “Military-Advisory Groups and African Security: Privatised Peacekeeping?”
Royal United Services Institute Journal, August 1998. Undoubtedly, Executive Outcomes’s work in Angola must have been very impressive to Strasser. Similar to the Sierra Leone government, the Angolan government was under siege by UNITA, a rebel force that had total control of the country’s oil fields and diamond mines. EO was hired to take back the town of Soyo, the location of a major oil field, in 1993. A small force succeeded in doing so, but Soyo was later recaptured once the South Africans left. The government returned to the company requesting a larger force and offering oil concessions as payment. To facilitate this arrangement, a Canadian oil company called Ranger (which has close associations with top EO officials) put up $30 million for the operation. UNITA was thoroughly routed by 500 mercenaries, some of whom had fought on the rebels’ behalf in the 1980s. The company also retrained the Angolan Army, which began inflicting heavy casualties on the rebels, and helped them retake the diamond fields of Saurimo and Cafunfo in Luanda Norte Province. The operation led to the signing of the Lusaka Protocols, which effectively ended the civil war, at least for a time. EO, through its subsidiaries and its gray network of affiliate companies, was paid with lucrative oil and diamond concessions.
11 “Mercenaries Grab Gems.”
Weekly Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg)
, May 9, 1997.
12 J. A. McGregor,
Due Diligence Report on Branch Energy Diamond Properties, Sierra Leone and Angola, 1997 (Toronto, Canada: Watts, Griffis & McOuat Consulting Geologists and Engineers, 1997).
Chapter 4
1 Andrew Rawnsley,
Servants of the People (London: Hamish Hamilton, 2000), pp. 176–184.
2 Ibid. Ominously, the solicitor’s fax said that Sandline was innocent of sanctions-busting because it was pursuing the deal with Peter Penfold’s encouragement. An arms scandal would be a death blow for Cook. He wasn’t aware that at the time he learned of the brewing tempest, customs had already raided the Foreign Office in a search for evidence. The
Sunday Times printed his worst nightmare on May 3, 1998, with the headline: “Cook Snared in Arms for Coup Inquiry.”
3 Bill Berkeley,
The Graves Are Not Yet Full: Race, Tribe and Power in the Heart of Africa (New York: Basic Books, 2001), p. 55. One ECOMOG faction stationed in Liberia dealt with an armed band of men loyal to the country’s former despot, Samuel Doe, by partnering in an ore-mining deal near the Sierra Leone border. But when the ECOMOG command replaced the officers involved in the dealings, the new leaders didn’t want to participate in the profit-sharing arrangement and attempted to disarm the insurgents. The rebels duly attacked, killing sixty ECOMOG soldiers. The fight over the mines spiraled and, over the course of a few months, eventually led to another round of slaughter in Monrovia.
4 Report of the Panel of Experts Appointed Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1306 (2000), Paragraph 19, in Relation to Sierra Leone, S/2000/1195, presented to the UN Security Council at the Global Policy Forum, New York, December 20, 2000.
5 According to the article “UN Monitors Accuse Sierra Leone Peacekeepers of Killings,”
New York Times, Feb. 12, 1999, p. A10, “A United Nations human rights mission has charged that regional peacekeepers in Sierra Leone have summarily executed dozens of civilians. Numerous reports of rebel violence against civilians in Sierra Leone have circulated, but in a report the mission describes systematic rights violations by both insurgents and peacekeepers. . . . the report accuses the monitoring group established by the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOMOG, of executing groups including children and some 20 patients at Connaught Hospital on Jan. 20. The report says that ECOMOG forces bombed civilian targets, shot at ‘human shields’ formed by the rebels and mistreated the staffs of the Red Cross and similar groups.”
6 John Bolton, testimony before the International Relations Committee, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., Oct. 11, 2001.
9 Sebastian Junger,
Fire (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001), pp. 192–193.
11 Matthew Hart,
Diamond: A Journey to the Heart of an Obsession (Marble Falls, Texas: Walker Publishing Co., 2001).
12 Global Witness, “Conflict Diamonds: Possibilities for the Identification, Certification and Control of Diamonds,” June 2000, London.
Chapter 5
1 Timothy Green,
The World of Diamonds: The Inside Story of the Miners, Cutters, Smugglers, Lovers and Investors (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1984), p. 23.
2 Kevin Krajick,
Barren Lands: An Epic Search for Diamonds in the North American Arctic (New York: Times Books, 2001), p. 104.
3 Matthew Hart,
Diamond: A Journey to the Heart of an Obsession (Marble Falls, Texas: Walker Publishing Co., 2001).
5 De Beers Group, Annual Report 1996, Johannesburg, South Africa.
9 Interview with Tom Shane, December 19, 2001, Denver, Colorado.
10 Report of the Panel of Experts Appointed Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1306 (2000), Paragraph 19, in Relation to Sierra Leone, S/2000/1195, presented to the UN Security Council at the Global Policy Forum, New York, December 20, 2000.
11 De Beers Group, written testimony before the U.S. Congress, House Committee on International Relations Subcommittee on Africa, Washington, D.C., May 9, 2000.
15 De Beers Group, Annual Report 2000, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Chapter 6
1 Interview with Margaret Novicki, UNAMSIL spokeswoman, June 2001, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
2 Foday Sankoh, “Footpaths to Democracy,” 1994, Kailahun, Sierra Leone.
Chapter 8
1 This account is recreated from a
Washington Post article, “Al Qaeda Cash Tied to Diamond Trade,” Nov. 2, 2001, and interviews with the author,
Washington Post West Africa Bureau Chief Doug Farah, in December 2001.
2 Interview with Doug Farah, via e-mail, December 2001.
3 In 1985, Doug Farah was a correspondent for UPI in El Salvador and Honduras at the height of the Contra revolution and then became a stringer in the region for the
Washington Post, the
Boston Globe, and
U.S. News and World Report once UPI sank in 1987. In 1990, he started covering the drug war in Colombia and became a staff reporter with the
Post in 1992. He kept his beat in Latin America until 1997, when he was promoted to international investigative correspondent, specializing in drugs, overlords, organized crime, and money laundering. He was invited to apply for the West Africa bureau position when it came open and moved to Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in March 2000 with his wife and 8-month-old son.
4 Report of the Panel of Experts Appointed Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1306 (2000), Paragraph 19, in Relation to Sierra Leone, S/2000/1195, presented to the UN Security Council at the Global Policy Forum, New York, December 20, 2000.
5 In fact, Taylor’s NPFL invaded Liberia from Ivory Coast on Christmas Eve in 1989. Like many cities in West Africa, Abidjan is a dense, decaying slum of violent crime, disease, and poverty. Many media organizations base their West African bureaus there simply because it’s roughly in the middle of the region to be covered, not because of any perceived degree of relative safety. Most upper-class homes feature armed private security forces and “rape cages” in the bedrooms. A rape cage is an iron security device in which female residents lock themselves in case of a criminal siege on their home. The presence of such things also speaks to the quality of the security forces.
6 U.S. Rep. Tony Hall (D-Ohio), “Congressional Leaders Urge Action on Conflict Diamonds,” press release, Washington, D.C., July 3, 2001.
Chapter 9
1 UNAMSIL Press Briefing, Mammy Yoko Hotel, Freetown, Sierra Leone, December 14, 2001.
2 “Canadian Firm Resumes Diamond Mining in Sierra Leone.”
Daily Trust (Lagos, Nigeria)
, Jan. 23, 2002, p. 16.
Chapter 10
1 Alexandra Zavis, “As Peace Returns to Sierra Leone, Many Live with Legacy of the Brutal Past.” Associated Press, May 28 2002.
2 Alex Yearsley, “For a Few Dollar$ More: How Al Qaeda Moved into the Diamond Trade.” April 17, 2003, at
www.globalwitness.org. Global Witness, London.
3 United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone, UNHCR spokesperson Maya Ameratunga, press briefing, February 15, 2002, Freetown.
4 United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone, UNAMSIL spokesperson Margaret Novicki, press briefing, March 22, 2002, Freetown.
5 International Crisis Group, “Sierra Leone: The State of Security and Governance.” September 2, 2003, at
www.intl-crisis-group.org. ICG, Brussels.
7 Christo Johnson, “A Very Large Stone from Sierra Leone.” Freetown, Reuters News Agency, April 26, 2002.1. Interview with Michael Owen, U.S. ambassador to Sierra Leone, August 15, 2011, via telephone.
Coda
1 Interview with Michael Owen, U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Aug. 15, 2011.
2 International Monetary Fund Country Report No. 11/195, “Sierra Leone: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper—Progress Report, 2008–10,” Washington, D.C.
5 Chair of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1572 (2004), concerning Côte d’Ivoire, to the President of the Security Council, April 20, 2011, S/2011/272, items 289–290.
6 Greg Campbell, “Blood Diamonds Are Back: Why the U.N.-Sanctioned System That’s Supposed to Ensure That Gemstones Aren’t Mined at Gunpoint Is Backfiring,”
Foreign Policy, Dec. 24, 2009.
7 Human Rights Watch, “Zimbabwe: Rampant Abuses in Marange Diamond Fields; Police, Private Security Guards Attacking Miners” (New York, Aug. 30, 2011). See also
http://www.hrw.org/africa/Zimbabwe.
8 Quoted in Campbell, “Blood Diamonds Are Back.”
9 Human Rights Watch, “Zimbabwe.”
11 Ian Smillie,
Blood on the Stone: Greed, Corruption, and War in the Global Diamond Trade (London: Anthem Press, 2010).
12 Interview with Annie Dunneback, from her office in London, Dec. 6, 2011, via telephone.
13 IMF, “Sierra Leone: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper—Progress Report, 2008–10.”
14 “Witness to Truth: Report of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Vol. 2,” Oct. 2004, Freetown.
15 Koidu Holdings press release, “Koidu Kimberlite Expansion Project Gains Momentum,” June 17, 2011, via email to the author.
16 National Advocacy Coalition on Extractives, “Sierra Leone at the Crossroads: Seizing the Chance to Benefit from Mining,” March 2009, Freetown.
17 Report of the Jenkins-Johnston Commission of Enquiry, March 2008, Freetown, pp. 85–89.
18 “Koidu Kimberlite Expansion Project Gains Momentum.”
20 “Koidu Kimberlite Expansion Project Gains Momentum.”
21 Mark Doyle, “Sierra Leone ‘Riddled with Corruption,’” BBC News, Freetown, Nov. 14, 2007.
22 Sierra Leone Anti-Corruption Commission, Annual Report, 2009, Freetown.
23 “Corruption in Sierra Leone: Rich Pickings; Bad Apples Are Still in the Barrel,”
The Economist, March 17, 2011.
25 “Corruption in Sierra Leone.”
26 “Witness to Truth: Report of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Vol. 1.” 2004. Freetown.
27 “Sierra Leone’s Corruption Problem, a Mortal Enemy: The government is having some rare success in trying to eradicate an old sore,”
The Economist, Nov. 19, 2009.
28 I paid this office a visit on my way back to Freetown, asking what the FSU was doing about the child laborers I’d witnessed just up the road. The administrator I spoke to said she had no knowledge of children breaking rocks in the quarries, but said she would investigate.