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Diamond Boycott Campaign Restarted

Friday, October 24, 2008
Posted in Human Rights | Tagged Human Rights

NEW YORK, - Human rights activists are planning to launch another major international campaign against De Beers, after receiving word that the world’s largest miner and marketer of diamonds is once again operating in an area of Botswana from which local people have been evicted. “We intend to do everything in our power,” said Stephen Corry, director of the London-based group Survival International, in a statement denouncing De Beers’ plans to re-start mining operations in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

Survival and other indigenous rights groups say that diamond exploration in the Reserve has had a devastating impact on the life and the environment of the indigenous San people, also known as “Bushmen.”

“We are dismayed that De Beers feels that it can now return to the Reserve whilst the situation with the Bushmen is still unresolved,” Corry said. “Presumably it hoped no one would notice.”

De Beers has made several attempts to mine the area for diamonds in recent years, but closed operations in the wake of intense calls for a worldwide boycott of its products.

The Reserve was created by the Botswana government in 1961, ostensibly to protect both the Bushmen and the animals living there. But one of the world’s richest diamond deposits was discovered in the 1980s, and the eviction of the Bushmen began in 1997.

A major wave of forced relocations occurred in 2002, during which the Botswana government is said to have destroyed Bushmen villages and waterholes and even arrested and tortured some who resisted.

Another wave in 2005 forced almost all remaining Bushmen into relocation camps, where they began to experience — for the first time in their history — widespread depression, alcoholism, and diseases including AIDS, according to Survival, which is a nonprofit group that helps indigenous communities worldwide petition for their rights.

Despite strong opposition by the Botswana government, members of the Bushmen community won their case in a court battle some two years ago by successfully proving that they had been the rightful owners of the contested Reserve land for centuries.

Despite the High Court’s recognition of the Bushmen’s right to live on the Reserve and to hunt and gather on their ancestral land, hundreds of Bushmen are still languishing in relocation camps, and are unable to return to homes because the government won’t let them hunt or use their water borehole, according to Survival’s reports from the region.

Survival activists say they hope this latest boycott campaign against De Beers will be as successful as their previous one, which was joined by many celebrities, including supermodels and diamond spokespeople Iman and Lily Cole.

“[We will try] to persuade people to boycott De Beers until the Bushmen have access to their lands and water,” said Corry. “The Bushmen cannot conceivably give their free and informed consent to mining whilst most of them cannot even go home.”

Corry’s group declared the end of its previous boycott campaign after De Beers sold its $2.2 billion deposit to Gem Diamonds for $34 million.

According to its 2007 financial report, the company’s payment to its “partners, joint ventures, and suppliers” amounted to $4.9 billion. About $3.2 billion of this was paid for diamonds in Africa.

In defense of its business practices in Africa and elsewhere, De Beers claims on its Web site that it has more than 184,000 hectares of “our owned and managed property,” which is set aside as “nature reserves that conduct research on biodiversity.”

Campaigners say the boom in diamond exploration in the Reserve also threatens one of the largest environmentally protected areas in Africa.

Gold Mining Threatening Local Communities Too

Meanwhile, rights groups are also raising concerns about the adverse impact of gold mining operations on the living conditions of indigenous and local communities around the world.

Last week, leaders of the Yanomami people of the Amazon sent a letter to the Brazilian government in which they said their people were suffering from deadly diseases due to pollution from the mining.

“Consumers and jewelry retailers across the country have clearly signaled their desire for certified, more ethically produced metals. When will mining companies step up to meet this obvious demand?”
- Raymond C. Offenheiser, Oxfam AmericaLike in Botswana, the Yanomami people’s right to their ancestral land is officially recognized in Brazil. However, they continue to face violent attacks by cattle ranchers and illegal loggers, according to activists who monitor rights violations in the area.

Last February on Valentine’s Day, several U.S.-based rights groups launched a successful campaign against illegal gold mining in areas belonging to the world’s indigenous communities, including within the United States.

In response to activists’ call, giant retailers in the jewelry business including Ben Bridge, Tiffany & Co., Helzberg Diamonds, Fortunoff, and Leber Jeweler said they were against large-scale mining operations in Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed, where local communities said a proposed mine would damage their environment, wildlife, economy, and traditional ways of life.

The retailers pledged they would make sure to sell only those products supplied by miners who respect the indigenous communities in Bristol Bay, their environment, and their economic resources.

Campaigners say some 100,000 consumers in more than 100 countries have signed on to their statement urging mining companies to provide alternatives to “dirty” gold.

“Consumers and jewelry retailers across the country have clearly signaled their desire for certified, more ethically produced metals,” said Raymond C. Offenheiser of Oxfam America. “When will mining companies step up to meet this obvious demand?”

According to an independent report released early this year by Oxfam and EARTHWORKS, mining practices in Ghana, Botswana, Indonesia, Nevada, and other parts of the world continue to pollute air and water, damage farmland and forests, and, in some parts of the world, fuel violent conflict.

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http://us.oneworld.net/article/358102-diamond-boycott-campaign-restarted