PARLIAMENTARY colleagues who have visited Sierra Leone recently returned with lurid accounts of people suffering hideous mutilations as a result of the cruel civil war raging there. In a recent editorial, New Scientist made the case that in many an African country where diamonds and illegal mining are funding conflict, the big diamond companies now have a golden opportunity to put an end to illegal diamond trafficking (25 May, p 5).
Forensic geologists are developing non-destructive methods for identifying the source of diamonds, based on a global database of diamond varieties. Peter Hain, the minister for Europe, has expressed…
