[LINK] "Diamond Trafficking Fuels Central African Republic Violence"

[rfmcdonald]

Ilya Gridneff and Jean-Louis Gondamoyen's Bloomberg article is terribly depressing.

Illicit trafficking of diamonds in the Central African Republic has helped finance a more than two-year conflict, which has flared up again as the fiercest bout of fighting in the capital in a year has left more than 50 people dead, Amnesty International said.

Traders who have bought diamonds worth “several million dollars” failed to investigate if the beneficiaries are armed groups who carry out executions, rape and looting, the London-based rights group said Wednesday in a report. Local companies could soon begin exporting stockpiled gems that may have been mined by child laborers and avoided taxes.

“The international community is not doing what it needs to address what’s happening in CAR,” Lucy Graham, a legal adviser at Amnesty, said by phone.

Bangui has been paralyzed by clashes less than a month before elections meant to restore stability after the ouster of President Francois Bozize by anti-government militias in March 2013, leading to retaliatory attacks. A spike in violence began Sept. 26 after a Muslim man was found killed, sparking a march on the presidential palace that was dispersed, the looting of buildings and a breakout at the central prison.