Dick Durbin: “today the Senate has taken up and will unanimously pass the Clean Diamonds Trade Act, H.R. 1584, the House companion to…”

“today the Senate has taken up and will unanimously pass the Clean Diamonds Trade Act, H.R. 1584, the House companion to S. 760, which I have cosponsored. The bill implements U.S. participation in the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, an international arrangement to respond to the scourge of conflict diamonds. In war-torn areas of Africa, rebels and human rights abusers, with the complicity of some governments, have exploited the diamond trade, particularly alluvial diamond fields, to fund their guerrilla wars, to murder, rape, and mutilate innocent civilians, and kidnap children for their forces. Al-Qaida terrorists and members of Hezbollah have also traded in conflict diamonds. While the conflict diamond trade comprises anywhere from an estimated 3 to 15 percent of the legitimate diamond trade, it threatened to damage an entire industry that is important to the economies of many countries, and critical to a number of developing countries in Africa. Governments, the international diamond industry, and non-governmental and religious organizations worked hard to address this complex issue, while setting an impressive example of public-private cooperation.”