previous | contents |
next 
The following is an unauthorized version of the Report of the Panel of Experts to the United Nations on Sierra Leone.
This is not the official report. The official report has not yet been released. The report posted here is subject to change by the sanctions committee.
PART ONE: DIAMONDS
I. SIERRA LEONE DIAMONDS
A. Background
66. Each year, over 250 million carats of diamonds are mined worldwide. Even in its peak years of production during the 1960s, Sierra Leone never produced more than 2 million carats annually. But a high proportion of Sierra Leone's diamonds are gemstones of very high quality and value, and they are much sought after. During the 1970s and 1980s the Sierra Leone diamond industry fell prey to corruption and mismanagement and many of the country's diamonds were exported illegally. Between 1992 and 1996, average annual exports were less than 200,000 carats and the per carat value was significantly less than the country's known run-of-mine average. Not only were the bulk of the country's diamonds being smuggled out, but the emphasis in smuggling seemed to be on higher value diamonds.
67. Between 1997 and 1999 the situation worsened because of the war. In those three years a total of only 36,384 carats were exported officially.
B. Diamonds in the RUF
68. The Revolutionary United Front initiated the war in 1991. Until 1995, RUF diamond mining and digging was probably done on a sporadic and individual basis. By 1995, however, the RUF and its patrons were clearly taking a much greater interest in the diamond fields of Kono District, and had to be removed forcefully at that time by the private military company, Executive Outcomes. From then on, the RUF interest in diamonds became more focussed, especially with the 1997 imprisonment of Foday Sankoh in Nigeria. During his imprisonment and subsequently, the diamond areas of Kono and Tongo Field became a primary military focus of the RUF, and diamond mining became a major fund-raising exercise.
69. This finding is supported by the tenacious military hold that the RUF has maintained on Kono District and Tongo Field, the two most valuable diamond areas in Sierra Leone. It is borne out in the written and oral testimony of current and past RUF leaders. It is supported by the testimony of Chiefs and elders from Kono District who are in daily communication with travellers from their areas. It is borne out in written reports made by RUF field commanders to Foday Sankoh. And it is supported by current internal communications between RUF leaders inside Sierra Leone, and between RUF leaders in Sierra Leone and in Liberia.
70. At first, RUF fighters did their own mining, or used forced labour. More recently they have developed a modified form of forced labour, allowing local diggers to keep a certain amount of what they find. One system is to make a group of diggers work for the RUF for four days, and allow them to work for themselves for two, with one day off. More common is what is known as the 'two pile system', in which diggers create one pile of diamondiferous gravel for the RUF and another for themselves. The idea is that diggers can then retain what they find in their own pile, although all the washing is watched, and any sizeable diamonds found in a digger's pile are also taken by the RUF.
71. Once the Kono diamond fields were secured by the RUF, they created a mining unit under 'Lt. Col Kennedy'. The RUF have since organized something they refer to today as 'RUFP Mining Ltd.' As of October 2000, the 'Chairman' was 'Lt. Col. Abdul Razak' and the Deputy Chairman was 'Lt. Col. Victor'.
72. In addition to being a source of revenue, diamonds have also been a source of constant friction and confusion within the RUF. In 1999, Sam 'Mosquito' Bockarie, a former diamond digger who became the RUF's 'Battle Group Commander' and 'High Command', complained to Foday Sankoh that during the AFRC/RUF 'marriage' in 1997* Dennis Mingo ('Col. Superman') had sold a diamond to a Lebanese businessman. A portion of the proceeds had gone to the AFRC government and the balance, Le 9 million, was intended for the RUF. Instead, however, Superman embezzled the money, according to Bockarie. (A list of RUF leaders and their pseudonyms is included as Annex 3.)
[* Note: Following a coup in May 1997, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, headed by Johnny Paul Koroma took power. The AFRC invited the RUF to share power with them. A period of violence and anarchy ensued. In February 1999 the West African peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, forced the AFRC from power and returned Tejan Kabbah to the Presidency73. Late in 1998, after the AFRC had been forced out of Freetown by ECOMOG, RUF forces led by Issa Sesay and under orders from Sam Bockarie (then referred to as Chief of Defence Staff for both the RUF and the AFRC), undertook a mission to move former AFRC Chairman Johnny Paul Koroma to the safety of RUF headquarters in Buedu. While they were there, Sesay discovered that Koroma was in possession of a parcel of diamonds, and that he was planning to escape to Ghana with his family. Sesay and Brigadier Mike Lamin confronted Koroma, finding it hard to believe that while they were trying to regroup, Koroma would keep diamonds for his own use and flee, leaving them with a problem he had created. The diamonds were subsequently handed over to the RUF leadership. According to internal RUF reports, the diamonds were then given to Ibrahim Bah and 'Sister Memuna' and taken to Liberian President Charles Taylor.
74. The name of 'Ibrahim Bah' arises frequently in the RUF diamond story. He is said to be a Burkinabe military officer. He is also known as Ibrahima Baldé and Baldé Ibrahima. He was a key player in the RUF-AFRC axis, and has been instrumental in the movement of RUF diamonds from Sierra Leone into Liberia and from there to Burkina Faso.
75. Issa Sesay, the current RUF leader, has had his own problems with diamonds. Late in 1998, Captain Michael Comber of the RUF Mining Unit brought a parcel of diamonds from Kono to the RUF headquarters at Buedu. Sam Bockarie gave the diamonds to Sesay who took them to Liberia where he was to meet Ibrahim Bah. Together they were then to meet a business associate of Foday Sankoh to make arrangements for the procurement of military equipment. Sesay lost the diamonds somewhere in Liberia, claiming he had accidentally dropped the parcel in the mud. This led to a major contretemps between Sesay and Bockarie, although Sesay was eventually forgiven.
76. Dennis 'Superman' Mingo, however, still smarting over the allegation that he had embezzled Le 9 million from a 1997 diamond sale, played up Sesay's loss, fomenting contention within the RUF ranks. In October 1999, he wrote to Foday Sankoh from Liberia, warning him that Sam Bockarie could not be trusted and that Sankoh's life was in danger. He also said that Bockarie and his men had been squandering funds from diamond sales and that Bockarie had bought a house in Liberia and one in France.
77. Shortly thereafter, a military confrontation occurred between forces loyal to Foday Sankoh and those loyal to Sam Bockarie. Several combatants were killed. Sam Bockarie subsequently went into exile in Liberia, where he remains close to President Charles Taylor.
78. Diamonds continue to cause friction. In September 2000, a dispute arose between Lt. Col. Victor, the Deputy Chairman of RUFP Mining Ltd. and some of his associates: Major Bob Vandy, Staff Captain Koroma and Major Morry Gebaru. RUFP Mining Chairman Abdul Razak undertook an investigation, which uncovered stories of diamond embezzlement by 'Capt. Prince Khan' and others who were in conflict with the Deputy Chairman, including 'Lt. Col. Mustafa Sherrif'. This in turn raised the concern of Issa Sesay, who was at the time carrying out a wider investigation into all RUF financial affairs in Liberia.
C. Estimated Volume of Diamonds Mined by the RUF
79. Estimates of the volume of diamonds mined by the RUF vary widely, from as little as $25 million per annum to as much as $125 million. De Beers has estimated that the total was likely $70 million in 1999. Part of the difficulty in estimating what is available to the RUF is the fact that years of illicit mining and export have served to reduce all official historical production figures, providing no reliable statistics for at least two decades on what has actually been mined in Sierra Leone. In the late 1960s, Sierra Leone exported 2 million carats per annum. The RUF holds the richest diamond areas in the country. If 1999 RUF production was one eighth of Sierra Leone's best year (i.e. 250,000 carats), the value would be upwards of $50 million. If it was half of the official average exports in the early 1990s (i.e. 100,000 carats), it would be in the neighbourhood of $20 million.
80. There are arguments in favour of lower estimates: the RUF does not have access to heavy equipment and is thus limited to artisanal mining; many former RUF combatants today live very modest lives and say they never saw diamonds. Arguments favouring higher estimates include the fact that the RUF has been able to support 3,500 - 5,000 armed combatants and as many camp followers for several years, and internal RUF communications regularly refer to the importance of diamonds. Knowledgeable diamantaires believe that a very high proportion of the diamonds being exported from The Gambia (which mines no diamonds of its own) originate in Sierra Leone, some travelling there via a third country such as Liberia. Imports into Belgium of 'Gambian' rough averaged over $100 million per annum between 1996 and 1999.
81. While the total generated by the RUF, whether it is $25 million, $70 million or $125 million, is very small in relation to the global annual output of diamonds, it nevertheless represents a major and primary source of income to the RUF, and is more than enough to sustain its military effort.
D. How the RUF Move Diamonds Out of Sierra Leone
82. Diamonds have always been smuggled out of Sierra Leone, the bulk through Liberia. This historical fact is not in dispute. There have been a variety of reasons for smuggling: to avoid taxes; to avoid the higher cost of corruption in one country over another; to gain access to hard currency; to launder money. Historically, Liberia was the route of choice primarily because of its use of the U.S. dollar as its official currency. Other diamonds found their way to Guinea where they would more likely have been traded for rice and other foodstuffs. And diamonds also travelled further afield to other countries in the region, carried by Madingo and Senegalese traders, known as marakas.
83. Some RUF diamonds have been traded in Guinea. There are reports of one-off deals in which RUF commanders have traded diamonds for supplies, and sometimes for weapons, dealing with individual, mid-level Guinean military officers acting on their own account. One such arrangement in mid 2000 is said to have gone sour, resulting in an RUF attack on the Guinean border town of Pamelap when promised Guinean supplies were not forthcoming. There is no evidence, however, of any official Guinean collusion in such trade.
84. A certain volume of RUF diamonds are being traded in Kenema and elsewhere in Sierra Leone. It is an open secret that RUF traders bring diamonds to Kenema from Tongo Field, only 28 miles away, on a regular basis, and exchange them for food and other supplies. This would account for the continued presence in Kenema of more than 40 separate diamond dealers, many of them Lebanese, even though their main source of supply has officially been out of reach for several years. It is possible that these diamonds could enter the official export system if there is a lack of probity and vigilance in the Government Gold and Diamond Office (GGDO), the Ministry of Mineral Resources and its branches.
85. It is more likely, however, that these diamonds are being smuggled out to neighbouring countries. Many of Sierra Leone's diamond dealers are also major importers of food and consumer goods. The steep mark-up on these goods yields high profits which require a hard currency or its equivalent in order to be repatriated. Diamonds serve this purpose. Many prominent exporters from Sierra Leone are also exporters of diamonds from The Gambia, a country that produces no diamonds at all.
86. As noted in paragraphs 68 through 78, however, the bulk of the RUF trade in diamonds leaves Sierra Leone through Liberia. The diamonds are carried by RUF commanders and trusted Liberian couriers to Foya-Kama or Voinjama, and then to Monrovia.
87. A Liberian is said to be President Taylor's representative in Kono, with a mandate to supervise diamond operations. On the RUF side, during much of 1998, Dennis 'Superman' Mingo was in charge of the diamond operations in Kono. He regularly took diamonds to the RUF headquarters at Buedu and from there they were transferred to Liberia. At various times, diamonds were taken to Monrovia by Eddie Kaneh, Sam Bockarie and Issa Sesay. As noted in paragraphs 72 to 78, there have been frequent disputes over the diamonds, and RUF couriers travel in fear of being robbed by rogue Liberian NPFL (National Patriotic Front of Liberia) fighters. At RUF headquarters in Buedu, concerns have occasionally arisen that diamonds said to be held in safekeeping by President Taylor might actually have been sold. On one occasion in 1998, Sam Bockarie went to Monrovia to see Taylor about this concern, and when he returned, he reported that he had seen the diamonds.
88. Because of time constraints, the Panel could not go into the details of ways and means through which RUF diamonds are moved out of Liberia, however there is sufficient evidence to prove that this trade cannot be conducted in Liberia without the permission and the involvement of government officials at the highest level. In Liberia, uncorroborated stories refer to high-level go-betweens, senior government officials, and financial transactions made in Burkina Faso, South Africa, the United States and Lebanon. (This subject is covered from a different perspective in the Liberia Case Study, below.)
89. Liberian officials thrive on their country's reputation for weak administration, its crippled infrastructure and its 'porous border'. In fact, however, very little trade, whether formal or informal, takes place without the knowledge and involvement of key government officials. This is true of all imports, and where exports are concerned, it is especially true of diamonds and timber. Liberia's own official diamond exports were said to be only 8,500 carats in 1999, valued at $900,000.* Liberia's Minister of Lands, Mines and Energy estimates that this represents only 20 per cent of what is actually leaving the country, and the Ministry of Revenue suggests that it might be as little as 10 per cent of the total.
* [Note: Liberia's estimated production capacity varies between 100,000 and 150,000 carats per annum. In 1988 and 1989, Liberia officially exported approximately 150,000 carats, valued at an average of $8.7 million per annum.90. In a country where most of the diamond traders are foreigners and where the movement of foreigners, money and supplies is as carefully watched, as is the case in Liberia, it is not conceivable that so much of Liberia's own diamond production could avoid the detection of government. Nor is it conceivable that the significantly greater volumes of high-value Sierra Leone diamonds moving through Liberia could avoid detection by government.
E. Foday Sankoh's Post-Lomé Diamond Business
91. The Lomé Peace Agreement appointed Foday Sankoh Chairman of a Commission for the Management of Strategic Mineral Resources (CMRRD). Between the time Foday Sankoh returned to Sierra Leone late in 1999 and the resumption of hostilities in May 2000, members of the Commission never actually met, and the Commission did not function. During his time in Freetown, Foday Sankoh spent money lavishly, although he had no obvious source of income. He imported vehicles, satellite phones and other expensive equipment.
92. In 1999, before Foday Sankoh's appearance in Freetown, Sam Bockarie wrote a 'To Whom It May Concern' letter on RUF stationery, appointing Mohamed Hijazi, a long-time diamond miner and dealer, as the RUF's agent 'to negotiate with any person or company within or outside S/Leone for the prospecting, mining buying and selling of diamonds'.
93. After his arrival in Freetown, Foday Sankoh signed numerous agreements with international business firms and solicited financial favours from others making enquiries in his own name, in the name of the Commission, and in the name of the RUF. His own business files, found in his office after the May 2000 resumption of hostilities, contain correspondence relating to business opportunities he was actively promoting.
94. In November 1999, for example, Foday Sankoh received a visit from Chudi Izegbu, President of the Integrated Group of Companies based in McLean, Virginia. Izegbu had chartered an aircraft to Freetown from Abidjan, and together he and Sankoh discussed a range of investment possibilities for the Integrated Group, which includes a company called Integrated Mining, registered in the Cayman Islands. They discussed possible investments in civilian aircraft services, petroleum imports and a major investment in the Koidu diamond kimberlites. Subsequently, Izegbu and Sankoh exchanged correspondence about 'negotiations and discussions currently going on in the interest of the RUFP'. And they exchanged test messages in a code which would allow them to disguise names - words like 'diamonds' and 'gold', and expressions such as 'everything is OK', and 'things are bad'. In December 1999, Sankoh ordered 14 vehicles from Izegbu with the logo of the RUF Party painted on the side of each.
95. In March 2000, Damian Gagnon of the U.S. company, Lazare Kaplan International (LKI), visited Foday Sankoh, and in a subsequent letter to Sankoh, LKI Chairman Maurice Tempelsman said that Gagnon had reported 'a commonality of views between you and this company on the possibilities of LKI re-entering the Sierra Leone diamond business in a manner beneficial to all the people of that country as well as our company'.
96. Much of the correspondence suggests that Sankoh was encouraging a wide variety of potential investors, many thinking they would reap exclusive benefits from the same things. One much-circulated April 2000 letter from 'Michel' to 'The Leader' talks about how Sankoh should try to get all of the diamonds mined in Kono, rather than the 10 per cent which the author said was the case - the rest being filtered off to Liberia. 'Michel' proposed that his Belgian partner 'Charles' could hire a private jet to take the diamonds out directly from Kono, avoiding 'the Lebanese' and Monrovia - 'We cannot trust those people', he wrote.
97. Michel Desaedeleer, a U.S.-based, self-employed Belgian, made contact with the RUF in Togo during the summer of 1999 while he was doing business with the son of President Eyadema. By October, he and John Caldwell, President of the Washington-based U.S. Trading & Investment Company, had worked up an arrangement with Foday Sankoh which would give them authority to broker rights to all of Sierra Leone's diamond and gold resources for a ten year period. Although refused a visa by Sierra Leone's U.S. embassy, Caldwell and Desaedeleer went to Sierra Leone and Liberia anyway, and signed the agreement between Desaedeleer's BECA Company and the RUF (not with the Government of Sierra Leone or the Commission for the Management of Strategic Mineral Resources). While they were in Liberia, Desaedeleer was given diamonds by Ibrahim Bah (a.k.a. Ibrahima Baldé), which Desaedeleer later discovered in Antwerp were worth much less than he had been told. He also claimed to have been shown 'perhaps hundreds' of diamonds by Sankoh's wife, Fatou, during a 1999 meeting in New York.
98. In February 2000, Foday Sankoh, his wife and other RUF officials travelled to South Africa. Sankoh was in contravention of a United Nations travel ban prohibiting him from leaving Sierra Leone. The trip was sponsored and partially financed by South African businessman Raymond Kramer, who earlier the same month had signed an agreement with Sankoh to 'represent the Commission [the CMRRD, of which Sankoh was Chairman] in all areas relating to mining and mineral resources, including but not limited to strategic minerals and precious stones'. When Sankoh's presence in South Africa was made public, he was forced to return to Sierra Leone and curtail his dealings with Kramer. Fatou Sankoh, who travels on a U.S. passport, visited South Africa again in May 2000, and was again deported.
99. The correspondence presents an image of a double-dealing Leader, clutching at financial opportunities for personal and political gain, outside of the governmental framework in which he was ostensibly working. Much of this related to the diamond trade. It also suggests dissension within the RUF ranks, and an attempt by Sankoh to gain control over diamonds that remained effectively in the hands of his fractious field commanders and their Liberian mentors.
F. Sierra Leone's New Diamond Certification System
100. By resolution 1306 (2000) adopted on July 5, 2000, the Security Council imposed an embargo on the direct and indirect import of rough diamonds from Sierra Leone until a new mining, export and monitoring regime could be developed. With technical assistance from Belgium's Diamond High Council and financial assistance from the United Kingdom and the United States, a certificate of origin system was developed between July and October 2000, including a numbered confirmation certificate printed on security paper, new detailed electronic databases of exports with electronic confirmation at destination, and electronic transmission of digital photographs of the packages being exported.
101. In October, after considering the new measures and ensuring that information about them had been disseminated to importing countries, the Security Council lifted the embargo on official Sierra Leone exports. The first diamonds exported under the new arrangements reached Antwerp at the end of October.
102. The embargo and the new certification system were peripheral to the mandate of the Panel, but during our travel it was the subject of much discussion in Sierra Leone, in other African exporting countries, and in all the major diamond importing centres.
103. The new system is indeed foolproof once diamonds enter the formal system. It will be important for Sierra Leone's Government Gold and Diamond Office to ensure, therefore, that only diamonds mined in government-controlled areas are actually certified. This is especially important, given efforts by the RUF to trade diamonds for food and other supplies in Kenema (see also paragraph 84 above).
104. It is perhaps more important to consider the value of the system beyond conflict diamonds, once the war ends. Then the issue for Sierra Leone will focus more on smuggling and other forms of illicit behaviour. In the end, the certification system can only work to its fullest potential if the government is willing and able to track and audit dealers in Sierra Leone, and if it is able to develop systems of support for the artisanal miners who, for the better part of 50 years, have worked outside the diamond industry.
105. There is more to be said about the certification scheme, however. There was never a serious problem with diamonds being exported officially from Sierra Leone. The problem was the illicit and conflict diamonds which avoided the formal system. In 1999, Sierra Leone officially exported only 9,320 carats, a demonstration, if one was needed, that the formal system was being ignored by the RUF and smugglers. This had changed in the first half of 2000, when concern about the country's conflict diamonds was noted in the world press and in diamond-buying centres. The consequence was a sudden influx of diamonds into the formal system, offered by dealers wanting at last to 'go straight' and avoid charges of illicit trading. While the 26,300 carats exported officially during this period did not represent a landslide, it was a significant step in the right direction.
106. The United Nations embargo effectively stopped this legitimizing trend for several months, and pushed traders back into their old and time-tested smuggling routes. Because there was no embargo on diamonds from any of Sierra Leone's neighbouring countries, the ban actually punished the victim and rewarded its enemies. This has now changed, and it is to be hoped that the new system will attract a significant volume of diamonds back into legitimate channels.
107. Where the RUF's conflict diamonds are concerned, the legitimate export system, whether it was foolproof or not, was irrelevant, and it will remain so. As long as there are no controls in neighbouring countries, the RUF will continue to be able to move their diamonds out with impunity.
108. For this reason, it is imperative that a standardized global certification scheme be introduced as soon as possible. The issue of conflict diamonds has now been addressed at four intergovernmental meetings in the 'Kimberley Process' and at a further meeting in London in October 2000. On December 1, 2000, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution on the role of diamonds in fueling conflict (A/RES/55/56), and expressed 'the need to give urgent and careful consideration to... the creation and implementation of a simple and workable international certification scheme for rough diamonds.' The resolution stated that this scheme should meet internationally agreed minimum standards, it should secure the widest possible participation, and that diamond exporting, processing and importing states should act in concert. The resolution also noted the need for transparency and for arrangements to help ensure compliance.
109. This resolution is strongly endorsed by the Panel. It is a major step forward in recognizing the need for what the diamond industry calls 'rough controls'. If implemented, it could go a long way in solving some of the problems identified in this report. The Government of Namibia will convene a workshop early in 2001 to consider technical aspects pertaining to the envisaged certification scheme. The Panel very much welcomes the Namibian offer to help move the process forward.
110. The Panel notes with concern, however, that some governments and some members of the industry may be approaching the idea of international 'rough controls' with reluctance or antipathy, urging a minimalist approach and a lengthy period of study and negotiation. The Panel believes that any international system must be developed carefully, and that it must be appropriate to the need. But the Panel is in no doubt about the urgency or the importance of the proposal. Despite all the meetings of the past year, despite the work of the United Nations and many governments, the wars in Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo continue; diamonds continue to serve as fuel for these wars and as a catalyst for the continuing misery of hundreds of thousands of people.
Case Study: Diamond Identification and Certification
A diamantaire in London showed the Panel six diamonds, for which the owner was asking $1 million. The diamonds had been brought to London on approval from Antwerp, and were accompanied by all the necessary paper work. They were said to have originated in South Africa, and the South African export documents were also available.
The diamantaire and his colleagues, however, believed that the diamonds were not South African. One or two might have been Angolan or even Sierra Leonean, but they were fairly certain that all six had come from Namibia.
The South African Diamond Board scrutinizes all official diamond imports, but as with other countries, diamonds can be smuggled into, as well as out of the country. Panel members visited the Diamond Board and examined the available documentation on a sample import from Zambia. Along with the South African paper work, the importer had supplied a Zambian export certificate. The fact that Zambia mines few diamonds notwithstanding, the 'certificate' was a document that could have been created in five minutes with a rubber stamp and a laptop. Facilities for checking back with Zambian authorities as to its authenticity, or the authenticity of the information contained in it were minimal.
G. Conclusions on Sierra Leone Diamonds
111. The issue of Sierra Leone's conflict diamonds is complex, but it is not unfathomable. As will be noted later in this report, it is tied to the wider issue of illicit diamonds, and this has been recognized in a forthright manner by the diamond industry in WDC documentation. A detailed proposal has also been made by the WDC for a 'System for International Rough Diamond Export and Import Controls', which should be an excellent basis for intergovernmental discussions.
112. At the beginning of 1999, the industry denied the problem of conflict diamonds, and governments appeared to be taking decisive action. The situation has now changed, with the most specific initiatives coming from industry. Despite the December 1, 2000 passage of General Assembly Resolution A/RES/55/56 on the need for a global system of 'rough controls', the intergovernmental process may take several more months of negotiation. For this reason, where Sierra Leone is concerned, it will be imperative for the Security Council to take early steps on broadening the existing Sierra Leonean certification system throughout West Africa at least.