SUDAN

Sudan is the largest and one of the most geographically diverse countries in Africa. Mountain ranges divide the deserts of the north from the swamps and rain forests of the south, and the River Nile splits the country from east to west.

The country has been beset by conflict. Two rounds of north-south civil war cost the lives of 1.5 million people, and a continuing conflict in the western region of Darfur has driven two million people from their homes and killed more than 200,000.

Sudan's centuries of association with Egypt formally ended in 1956, when joint British-Egyptian rule over the country ended. Independence was rapidly overshadowed by unresolved constitutional tensions with the south, which flared up into full-scale civil war that the coup-prone central government was ill-equipped to suppress.

The military-led government of President Jaafar Numeiri agreed to autonomy for the south in 1972, but fighting broke out again in 1983. After two years of bargaining, the rebels signed a comprehensive peace deal with the government to end the civil war in January 2005.

The accord provides for a high degree of autonomy for the south. The region will also share oil revenue equally with the north.

In Darfur, in western Sudan, the United Nations has accused pro-government Arab militias of a campaign of ethnic cleansing against non-Arab locals. The conflict has strained relations between Sudan and Chad, to the west. Both countries have accused each other of cross-border incursions. There have been fears that the Darfur conflict could lead to a regional war.

Decades of fighting have left Sudan's infrastructure in tatters. With the return of millions of displaced southerners, there is a pressing need for reconstruction. The economic dividends of peace could be great. Sudan has large areas of cultivatable land, as well as gold and cotton. Its oil reserves are ripe for further exploitation.

Arabic is the official language and Islam is the state religion, but the large non-Arab, non-Muslim minority has rejected attempts by the government in Khartoum to impose Islamic Sharia law on the country as a whole. President Omar Bashir has been locked in a power struggle with Hassan al-Turabi, his former mentor and the main ideologue of Sudan's Islamist government. Since 2001 Mr Turabi has spent periods in detention and has been accused, but not tried, over an alleged coup plot.

Mr Bashir faces two international arrest warrants - issued by the International Criminal Court in The Hague - on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The charges relate to the conflict in the western Darfur, where thousands of people died of violence, disease and displacement during the fighting between government and rebel forces.

He has dismissed the allegations and has continued to travel to countries which oppose the indictment.

Overview

Sudan has been at war with itself for almost its entire post-colonial history, starting in 1956. Nearly all of its major ethnic and religious groups have fought one another, and politics continues to be dominated by mistrust, outside interference and combustible animosities. There are dozens of armed groups across the country.

Now the country is partaking in what could be the continent's biggest divorce. A long-awaited referendum on southern Sudan’s independence, set in motion by a 2005 peace agreement to stop one of Africa’s worst civil wars, is scheduled for Jan. 9, 2011. The south is expected to vote by as much as 99 percent for secession, splitting the largest country in Africa in two and taking with it most of Sudan’s oil. Such a result could bring an end to the nearly one-million-square-mile experiment called Sudan, which for many troubled decades served as a bridge between the Arab and African world.

As the clock counts down toward voting day, despite earlier prognostications of a delay, there are more and more signs that things will go smoothly. The stakes are so high that neither side, the Islamist northern government or the former rebels who lead southern Sudan, seems to want to be sucked into a war again, or at least to start one.

Since the peace treaty was signed in 2005, the south has been semi-autonomous, running most of its own affairs. Southern Sudan is different culturally and religiously from the northern part of the country, a contrast between Arab and Muslim influences in the north and animist and Christian beliefs in the south.

The southern leaders have rebuilt towns and invested hundreds of millions, perhaps even billions, in roads, ministries, schools and factories, much of which could be bombed into oblivion in a few days by the north’s growing air force. To keep their dreams of independence alive, the southerners seem ready to make concessions. This includes sharing the oil.

Sudan's Explosive History 

In 2005, the country's opposing political parties signed a peace accord that ended Africa's longest-running civil war, which killed an estimated 2.2 million people - 10 times as many as in Darfur. The perennial question is whether the relatively small group of Arabs who live along the northern reaches of the Nile and have historically ruled Sudan will share power and wealth in one of the most diverse populations on the continent. It was political exclusion that drove rebels in the semi-autonomous south to fight, and the same issue inspired the rebellion to the west, in Darfur, which has claimed an estimated 300,000 lives and blown up into one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

The peace treaty between the north and the south, which American officials helped broker and the Bush administration considered a foreign policy triumph, was supposed to address these center-versus-periphery problems head-on. For the most part, the agreement has stopped the killing in the south, which during the 1980s and 1990s became a wasteland of burned villages, slave raiders and thousands of boys - the famous Lost Boys - trudging through the bush looking for a way out.

North-south tensions go back decades, to even before Sudan's independence in 1956. The north is mostly Muslim and historically has identified with the Arab world, while many southerners are Christian and more connected to Kenya, Uganda and other sub-Saharan nations. Beyond that, there is a huge divide when it comes to development, spawned by years of inequality.

While Khartoum has its luxury hotels and shopping malls, the south is where the roads stop. Flying over it, all you see is miles and miles of emerald green. The streets of the south's biggest cities are boulevards of mud. Children go to school under trees.

Two years after the peace treaty, much of the south was heavily militarized. The reason has been that the north has grown dependent on the oil from the south and if the south secedes, the north stands to lose billions of dollars yearly.

Both the north and south have said they want to avoid another costly war, and leaders from the two sides acknowledged that they need each other - the south has most of the country's oil and the north has most of the infrastructure. But the two sides were deadlocked over the toughest issues the treaty was supposed to solve: how to draw the north-south border, how to reform a very militarized government (the standard children's school uniform in Khartoum, the capital, is camouflage fatigues), and how to split Sudan's booming oil profits.

In July 2009, an international tribunal redefined the borders of the disputed oil region by splitting the contested zone between the two sides. In its ruling, the tribunal, seated at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, overruled a decision by an international commission that Sudan's government rejected four years earlier. The ruling gives the north uncontested rights to rich oil deposits like the Heglig oil field, which had previously been placed within the Abyei region, which sits on the border between north and south. But the decision leaves at least one oil field in Abyei and gives a symbolic victory to the Ngok Dinka, an ethnic group loyal to southern Sudan and likely to vote to join it in a referendum.

RONALD REAGAN

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975). At the end of his two terms in office, Ronald Reagan viewed with satisfaction the achievements of his innovative program known as the Reagan Revolution, which aimed to reinvigorate the American people and reduce their reliance upon Government. He felt he had fulfilled his campaign pledge of 1980 to restore "the great, confident roar of American progress and growth and optimism."

On February 6, 1911, Ronald Wilson Reagan was born to Nelle and John Reagan in Tampico, Illinois. He attended high school in nearby Dixon and then worked his way through Eureka College. There, he studied economics and sociology, played on the football team, and acted in school plays. Upon graduation, he became a radio sports announcer. A screen test in 1937 won him a contract in Hollywood. During the next two decades he appeared in 53 films.

Some of this undistinguished films include: Hollywood Hotel (1937), Love is on the Air (1937), Accidents Will Happen(1938), Boy Meets Girl (1938), Brother Rat (1938), Cowboy From Brooklyn (1938), Sergeant Murphy (1938), Angels Wash Their Faces (1939), An Angel from Texas(1940) and The Santa Fe Trial (1940). 

From his first marriage to actress Jane Wyman, he had two children, Maureen and Michael. Maureen passed away in 2001. In 1952 he married Nancy Davis, who was also an actress, and they had two children, Patricia Ann and Ronald Prescott.

As president of the Screen Actors Guild, Reagan became embroiled in disputes over the issue of Communism in the film industry; his political views shifted from liberal to conservative. He toured the country as a television host, becoming a spokesman for conservatism. In 1966 he was elected Governor of California by a margin of a million votes; he was re-elected in 1970.

Ronald Reagan won the Republican Presidential nomination in 1980 and chose as his running mate former Texas Congressman and United Nations Ambassador George Bush. Voters troubled by inflation and by the year-long confinement of Americans in Iran swept the Republican ticket into office. Reagan won 489 electoral votes to 49 for President Jimmy Carter.

On January 20, 1981, Reagan took office. Only 69 days later he was shot by a would-be assassin, but quickly recovered and returned to duty. His grace and wit during the dangerous incident caused his popularity to soar.

Dealing skillfully with Congress, Reagan obtained legislation to stimulate economic growth, curb inflation, increase employment, and strengthen national defense. He embarked upon a course of cutting taxes and Government expenditures, refusing to deviate from it when the strengthening of defense forces led to a large deficit.

A renewal of national self-confidence by 1984 helped Reagan and Bush win a second term with an unprecedented number of electoral votes. Their victory turned away Democratic challengers Walter F. Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro.

In 1986 Reagan obtained an overhaul of the income tax code, which eliminated many deductions and exempted millions of people with low incomes. At the end of his administration, the Nation was enjoying its longest recorded period of peacetime prosperity without recession or depression.

In foreign policy, Reagan sought to achieve "peace through strength." During his two terms he increased defense spending 35 percent, but sought to improve relations with the Soviet Union. In dramatic meetings with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, he negotiated a treaty that would eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles. Reagan declared war against international terrorism, sending American bombers against Libya after evidence came out that Libya was involved in an attack on American soldiers in a West Berlin nightclub.

By ordering naval escorts in the Persian Gulf, he maintained the free flow of oil during the Iran-Iraq war. In keeping with the Reagan Doctrine, he gave support to anti-Communist insurgencies in Central America, Asia, and Africa.

Overall, the Reagan years saw a restoration of prosperity, and the goal of peace through strength seemed to be within grasp.

SUMMARY                              

As president, Reagan implemented sweeping new political and economic initiatives. His supply-side economic policies, dubbed "Reaganomics," advocated controlling the money supply to reduce inflation, and spurring economic growth by reducing tax rates, government regulation of the economy, and certain types of government spending.

In his first term he survived an assassination attempt, took a hard line against labor unions, and ordered military actions in Grenada. He was reelected in a landslide in 1984, proclaiming it was "Morning in America". His second term was primarily marked by foreign matters, such as the ending of the Cold War, the bombing of Libya, and the revelation of the Iran-Contra affair.

Publicly describing the Soviet Union as an "evil empire," he supported anti-Communist movements worldwide and spent his first term forgoing the strategy of détente by ordering a massive military buildup in an arms race with the USSR. Reagan negotiated with Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, culminating in the INF Treaty and the decrease of both countries' nuclear arsenals.

Reagan left office in 1989. In 1994, the former president disclosed that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease earlier in the year; he died ten years later at the age of 93. He ranks highly in public opinion polls of U.S. Presidents, and is a conservative icon.

THE POWER OF VOLUNTEERISM

Sunday, the 5^th of December was the International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development – a day set aside to celebrate the global impact of volunteerism; to celebrate the wonderful and priceless work that volunteers do. The International Volunteer Day was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 17, 1985. Since then, governments, the UN System and Civil Society Organizations have successfully joined volunteers around the world to celebrate the day on December 5^th.

International Volunteer Day offers an opportunity for volunteer organizations and individual volunteers to make visible their contribution – at local, national & international levels- to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

WHAT IS VOLUNTEERISM?

 Volunteerism may be defined as contributing one's time or talents for charitable, educational, social, political, or other worthwhile purposes, usually in one's community, freely and without regard for compensation. 

In general terms, volunteering is the practice of people working on behalf of others or a particular cause without payment for their time and services. Volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity, intended to promote good or improve human quality of life, but people also volunteer for their own skill development, to meet others, to make contacts for possible employment, to have fun, and a variety of other reasons that could be considered self-serving.

Volunteering takes many forms and is performed by a wide range of people. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work in, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Other volunteers serve on an as-needed basis, such as in response to a natural disaster or for a beach-cleanup.

In a military context, a volunteer army is an army whose soldiers chose to enter service, as opposed to having been conscripted. Such volunteers do not work for free and are given regular pay.

VOLUNTEERING AROUND THE WORLD

Since the seventeenth century, Americans have shaped their nation by their voluntary efforts: providing services, organizing political action, caring for the poor, reaching out to the disadvantaged, providing education, ensuring equality and civil rights for all citizens, and working for change.

Too numerous to count, American voluntary efforts have served many purposes. For example, thousands of Americans have contributed their resources to achieve political ends, providing invaluable service in times of war. During the Revolution men formed committees of correspondence to keep the colonies in constant contact; joinedMilitias, like the Minutemen of Concord, to fight the British army; and organized the Boston Tea Party, a raid on ships in Boston Harbor, during which crates of expensive tea were thrown overboard to protest taxes imposed by the crown. At the same time, women used their economic power to boycott luxury items and cloth imported from Britain, producing their own goods for their family's needs. During the Revolution and later wars, women visited hospitals and prisons, rolled bandages, organized food drives, nursed soldiers, and sometimes worked as spies. In the nineteenth century, African Americans and white Americans undertook the dangerous task of moving escaped slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad. Children volunteered also, contributing their pennies and participating in drives to conserve food, clothing, and other resources. Americans continue to volunteer for political purposes by joining the military, working for political parties at elections, participating in voting drives, organizing block associations, protesting, marching, lobbying, and raising funds.

The French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville noted in his travels to the United States in the early 1800s, “Americans, unlike Europeans, build community organisations to deal with their problems”. He noted that part of the genius of America has been their ability to form grassroots groups to solve problems. This science and art helped in producing the greatest nation on the earth today.

THEN ROLE OF VOLUNTEERISM IN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Volunteerism is an important component of any strategy aimed at poverty reduction, sustainable development and social integration, in particular overcoming social exclusion and discrimination.

The social capital generated by volunteering plays a key role in economic regeneration^{[citation needed]}. Where poverty is endemic to an area, poor communities lack friends and neighbors able to help. Thus, voluntary mutual aid or self-help is an important safety net. This model works well within a state because there is a national solidarity in times of adversity and more prosperous groups will usually make sacrifices for the benefit of those in need.

HOW CAN YOU VOLUNTEER & HOW CAN VOLUNTEERISM BENEFIT YOU?

There are countless opportunities for you to join the GLOBAL VOLUNTEERING FORCE that is shaping and changing the world. You can start today, from wherever you are by giving in little ways – either to support the poor, contribute to uplifting your community or even helping others in achieving their dreams.

You can volunteer your time to teach kids or mentor young people. You can visit sick people in the hospital. You can work independently and through organizations that coordinate other volunteers to help provide healthcare, accessible public transportation, and decent schools and to support urban revitalization, public information, recycling, environmental protection, religious missions, and charities, among many other efforts.

The benefits to you include:

• ·         Learning or developing a new skill 
• ·         Being part of your community
• ·         Motivation and sense of achievement

“It may be true that no one person can solve all the world’s problems, but what you can do is make that little corner of the world where you live just that little bit better.”

• ·         New experiences
• ·         Meeting a diverse range of people
• ·         Sending a signal to your employer, teachers, friends and family…

Volunteering reflects and supports a complete picture of you, and gives real examples of your commitment, dedication and interests.

• ·         Boosting your career options

A survey carried out by TimeBank through Reed Executive showed that among 200 of the UK’s leading businesses

• 73% of employers would recruit a candidate with volunteering experience over one without
•  94% of employers believe that volunteering can add to skills
•  94% of employees who volunteered to learn new skills had benefited either by getting their first job, improving their salary, or being promoted

Also, if you are thinking of a career change then volunteering is a perfect way to explore new fields, new interests and hobbies

YEMEN & THE HOUTHI INSURGENCY

The Yemeni government has fought an insurgency in the north of Yemen against a group called the Shabab al Moumineen, (Believing Youth) since 2004. The insurgency is portrayed by the Yemeni government in the press as a localized phenomenon led by the single al Houthi family and state that their ranks have been decimated by near-continuous fighting. However, the al Houthi Insurgency, led by the Shabab al Moumineen, is far more than a localized uprising: it is a full-blown insurgency-and one that Yemen's government and people may not be prepared to combat.

The Sa'dah insurgency[also known as the al-Houthi Rebellion] began in June of 2004 with a rebellion led by the Shiite cleric Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi, head of the Shi‘a Zaidiyyah sect. Most of the fighting has taken place in Sa'dah Governorate (province) in northwestern Yemen.

The Yemeni government claims that Shiite rebels seek to overthrow the government and to implement Shi‘a religious law over the whole nation. The rebels deny this and say that they are protecting themselves against government persecution and discrimination . The Yemeni government has accused the Shiite government of Iran of aiding and financing the rebels.

From June to August 2004, government troops battled supporters of al-Houthi in the north. Estimates of the dead range from 80 to more than 600. In September of 2004, Yemeni forces killed al-Houthi. After his death, his brother, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi assumed leadership of the rebellion.

On May 21, 2005, the government released estimates on the cost of the war, announcing that 552 deaths, 2,708 injures, and over $270 million in economic damages had occurred.

In February of 2007, the Yemeni military began a major offensive against the al-Houthi rebels. This offensive involved nearly 30,000 government troops, and by February 19, casualties included nearly 200 members of the security forces and over 100 rebel dead. Within the next two weeks, the government claims to have killed another 160 rebels in fighting.

A ceasefire agreement was reached on June 16, 2007, but it did not last, as fighting continued in April 2008, when seven Yemeni soldiers died in a rebel ambush on April 29. On May 2, 15 worshippers were killed and 55 wounded in an explosion at a mosque in Sa'adah. The blast occurred as crowds of people left Friday prayers at the Bin Salman Mosque. The government blamed the rebels for the bombing, but Houthi's group denied being responsible.

Al-Qaida in Arabia, the local branch of Osama bin Laden's world-wide Jihadist organization, is also active in northern Yemen, and some analysts believe some of the more terrorist-like attacks, such as mosque bombings, and killings of foreigners, are likely the work of the Sunni al-Qaida group.

The Yemeni government began a major offensive against the al-Houthi rebels in August, 2009, in an operation called Operation Scorched Earth. While the al-Houthi rebels do not possess aircraft or armored vehicles, they do enjoy a tactical advantage in their war against the government. With an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 armed fighters, and a training system reminiscent of Hezballah training regimen in Lebanon, the rebels are a potent fighting force, especially as they are fighting on their home territory. They also show a skillful use of land mines, which exact a painful toll on government forces and makes army ground movement difficult and dangerous.

In November of 2009, the Sa'ada insurgency took on an alarming new dimension, as Saudi Arabia openly intervened to aid the Yemeni government with air strikes and artillery barrages on Shiite rebels. Analysts see the Saudi participation partly as a pre-emptive strike to prevent the war from actually spreading into Saudi territory, but also as a move against Iran, which is believed to be aiding the rebels. Saudi Arabia and Iran have engaged in a long-running proxy conflict in the Gulf region, in the Iraqi civil war, and also in Lebanon, where Iran backs Hezbollah, and the Saudis support the Lebanese government.

In November of 2009, the al-Houthi rebels moved across the border into Saudi Arabia, thereby provoking Saudi military intervention.

Negotiations between the rebels and the government, along with continued military pressure from Yemeni and Saudi forces, led to a cease-fire in the north, and in March, 2010, President Ali Abdullah Saleh declared that the war was over. Evidence of this included the removal of land mines by the rebels, as well as mutual prisoner releases.

THE KIMBERLY PROCESS

From Conflict Diamonds to Prosperity Diamonds

Background

Conflict diamonds came to the attention of the world media during the extremely brutal conflict in Sierra Leone in the 1990s. The UN, governments, the diamond industry and non-governmental organizations (such as Global Witness, Amnesty International and Partnership Africa Canada), recognized the need for a global system to prevent conflict diamonds from entering the legitimate diamond supply chain and thus helping to fund conflict.

They developed an agreement called the Kimberley Process, which requires participating governments to ensure that each shipment of rough diamonds be exported/imported in a secure container, accompanied by a uniquely numbered, government-validated certificate stating that the diamonds are from sources free of conflict.

Under the Kimberley Process, diamond shipments can only be exported and imported within co-participant countries in the Kimberley Process. No uncertified shipments of rough diamonds will be permitted to enter or leave a participant's country. This ring-fences conflict diamonds and as such ensures they are unable to enter the legitimate diamond supply chain and thus, cannot be used for illegitimate purposes.

In November 2002, 52 governments ratified and adopted the Kimberley Process Certification System, which was fully implemented in August of 2003. Today, 74 governments, in partnership with the diamond industry and NGOs, are committed and legally bound to the UN-mandated process. Kimberley Process participants currently account for well over 99% of the global production of rough diamonds.

Kimberley Process participants undergo periodic reviews, along with peer monitoring to ensure compliance. Furthermore, all rough diamond sales are independently audited, and are also subject to separate governmental regulations. Any country that is found not to be in compliance can be sanctioned by the Kimberley Process.

The Kimberley Process (KP) aims to stem the flow of conflict diamonds – rough diamonds used by rebel movements to finance wars against legitimate governments. The trade in these illicit stones has fuelled decades of devastating conflicts in countries such as Angola, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone.

How does the Kimberley Process work?

The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) imposes extensive requirements on its members to enable them to certify shipments of rough diamonds as ‘conflict-free’ and prevent conflict diamonds from entering the legitimate trade. Under the terms of the KPCS, participating states must meet ‘minimum requirements’ and must put in place national legislation and institutions; export, import and internal controls; and also commit to transparency and the exchange of statistical data. Participants can only legally trade with other participants who have also met the minimum requirements of the scheme, and international shipments of rough diamonds must be accompanied by a KP certificate guaranteeing that they are conflict-free.

The Kimberley Process is chaired, on a rotating basis, by participating countries. So far, South Africa, Canada, Russia, Botswana, the European Community have chaired the KP, and India is the Chair in 2008. KP participating countries and industry and civil society observers gather twice a year at intersessional and plenary meetings, as well as in working groups and committees that meet on a regular basis. Implementation is monitored through ‘review visits’ and annual reports as well as by regular exchange and analysis of statistical data.

The Kimberley Process: unique and effective

The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) has evolved into an effective mechanism for stemming the trade in conflict diamonds and is recognized as a unique conflict-prevention instrument to promote peace and security. The joint efforts of governments, industry leaders and civil society representatives have enabled the Kimberley Process (KP) to curb successfully the flow of conflict diamonds in a very short period of time. Diamond experts estimate that conflict diamonds now represent a fraction of one percent of the international trade in diamonds, compared to estimates of up to 15% in the 1990s. That has been the KP’s most remarkable contribution to a peaceful world, which should be measured not in terms of carats, but by the effects on people’s lives.

The KP has done more than just stem the flow of conflict diamonds, it has also helped stabilise fragile countries and supported their development. As the KP has made life harder for criminals, it has brought large volumes of diamonds onto the legal market that would not otherwise have made it there. This has increased the revenues of poor governments, and helped them to address their countries’ development challenges. For instance, some $125 million worth of diamonds were legally exported from Sierra Leone in 2006, compared to almost none at the end of the 1990s.

In 2006, a review of the KP confirmed its effectiveness, and recommended a number of actions to further strengthen the system in areas such as monitoring of implementation and strengthening internal controls in participating countries, as well as greater transparency in the gathering of statistical data.

             

ENSURING A CONFLICT FREE DIAMOND INDUSTRY

	MINING After rough diamonds are mined, they are transported to Government Diamond Offices.
	EXPORT (KIMBERLEY PROCESS): After arriving at the Government Diamond Offices, the source of the diamonds is checked to ensure it is conflict free. The diamonds are then sealed and placed into tamper resistant containers and issued a government-validated Kimberley Process Certificate, each bearing a unique serial number. There are 74 countries that have implemented the principles of the Kimberley Process and have it enshrined in their national law. Only these countries may legitimately export rough diamonds.
	IMPORT (KIMBERLEY PROCESS): Diamonds can only legally be imported into one of the 74 Kimberley process countries. Once diamonds are imported, the government customs office, in conformance with its national procedures, checks the certificate and seals on the container. Any rough diamonds without a government-validated Kimberley Certificate or that are unsealed are turned back or impounded by Customs.

THE GLOBAL DIAMOND TRADE

When a person in the West buys a diamond, they risk unwittingly supporting atrocities in one of three African countries: Sierra Leone, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The number of "conflict diamonds" which find their way onto the fingers in New York, London, Paris and Rome is an ongoing debate between the industry and the human rights campaigners. The former say it is 4 percent of the total market, some of the latter maintain it could be as high as 10 percent. Rings make up 79 percent of diamond jewellery sales worldwide, although the major market is the USA.

The world diamond jewellery retail market was worth US $56 billion in 1999 and the figure is on a "continuous growth curve" according to Global Witness the campaigning group funded by the UN department for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Most of the illicit diamonds from Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo end up in either Antwerp in Belgium or Tel Aviv in Israel where they are traded.

Many rough diamonds then move on to be cut and polished at 30 countries worldwide but dominated by India with approximately 50 percent of the world trade, but Thailand, Mauritius and the U.S. also have diamond cutting companies.

The top diamond jewellery consumer market is the U.S. where in 1998, 33 million pieces of diamond jewellery were sold at an average price of US$655 per item, worth US$22 billion. London also has an important diamond trading market based in Hatton Garden.