14 maart 2005
Blood still stains Angolan diamonds

Murder, torture and arbitrary detention by the authorities have become the norm in the rich diamond fields of Angola's northeast, according to a new report by Angolan human rights activists.

The report, entitled Lundas – the stones of death, examines patterns of human rights abuses in the provinces of Lunda-Norte and Lunda-Sul during the course of the year 2004. The reports' authors, journalist Rafael Marques and lawyer Rui Falcão de Campos, link the violence to lawlessness and corruption that ensure only a privileged few benefit from the region's diamond wealth.
Searching for precious little stones in a pool of mud

While the trade in "conflict diamonds" from Angola and elsewhere has been diminished by international co-operation – including the Kimberley Process agreement that links diamond-producing governments and companies – the report argues that such measures have done nothing to ease the suffering associated with the diamond industry in the Lunda provinces.

It calls on the international community to "reconsider the objectives of the Kimberley Process, so as to include within the category of 'conflict diamonds' all those diamonds that come from areas where diamond mining is based on the systematic violation of human rights."

It further recommends that foreign countries should "consider imposing sanctions on the international trade in Angolan diamonds until the Angolan state guarantees a labour and social standards compatible with the human rights values of the UN system, namely the prohibition of slavery and of inhumane and degrading conditions, and basic standards of freedom of movement and communication, and of personal security."


Murder, torture and rape

The report focuses in particular on two cases in the Lunda-Norte diamond towns of Muxinda and Cafunfo, both involving multiple deaths as a result of police action.

In Muxinda, 12 people died in December 2004 as the result of imprisonment in an unventilated cell described as "a cupboard", attached to a police station.

The report quotes a police commander who admitted the presence of "10 people in the cell, where there should only be four or five", and that "the place is small, without ventilation". He attributed what happened to the "negligence of the guards who had left."

The failure of the police to produce case records both demonstrated the arbitrary nature of the detentions, and meant that the police themselves had no accurate account of either the numbers or the names of the dead. Many of those who died were Congolese migrants who worked as informal diamond diggers in Angola.

In the Cafunfo case, 11 people died as a result of police action, while 18 were wounded by shooting or beating. A further 18 people arrested at the time have been in "preventative detention" without trial for more than one year.

Police claimed that most of the shootings and detentions were the result of an attempt to quell a riot, which had been sparked by attempts by diamond company security guards to remove electrical generators that supplied electricity to the town. However, the report reveals that some of the detentions occurred before the riot started, and that several of the dead were bystanders unconnected with the protest action.

In addition to these two specific incidents, the report documents 11 cases of murder, and three cases of sexual assault. In all of these cases, the perpetrators were Angolan police, or the employees of the private security companies employed by the large diamond concessionaires to guard their workings.

One of the sexual assault cases involved the rape of four young teenage girls by two policemen.

The report also documents more than 30 cases involving arbitrary detention, shooting, and / or beating; again, the perpetrators are invariably police or security company operatives.


System favours the rich

The report argues that while the Lunda region offers few economic opportunities other than diamond mining, the outlawing of informal mining forces most diggers to operate on the margins of the law, vulnerable to extortion, imprisonment and even murder. Evidence is presented to show how private security companies employed by the large mining concession holders operate with impunity as a paramilitary force.

At the same time, the report argues, opaque and monopolistic practices in the diamond marketing system mean that diggers receive only a fraction of their diamonds' worth. A 2003 agreement gave the exclusive purchase and export rights over Angolan diamonds to SODIAM, a company associated with Lazar Kaplan International, although ASCORP, the previous concession-holder controlled by Lev Leviev, continues to buy diamonds from informal diggers in the Lundas.

Diamond transactions take place in cash, and the lack of accurate data on the value of diamonds mined in the Lundas provides a smokescreen for the government's failure to invest in a region that still lacks even the most basic infrastructure.

Supported by the Fundação Mário Soares, Open Society – Angola and the Netherlands Institute for Southern African (NIZA), the report draws on the testimony of the victims and witnesses of incidents, and research done by activists based in the Lundas, and by the authors during six weeks of fieldwork in the region.

Full report