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Team in Angola to check against 'blood diamonds'

Angola's diamond industry comes under scrutiny this week as a team of inspectors begins Monday a review of the country's compliance with the Kimberly Process, set up to stop conflict diamonds.

The mission, the first to Angola since 2005, will check if the country is following Kimberly Process rules, confirm that diamonds are registered and not not smuggled smug·gle  
v. smug·gled, smug·gling, smug·gles

v.tr.
1. To import or export without paying lawful customs charges or duties.

2. To bring in or take out illicitly or by stealth.
 out, and that all gems have a clear paper trail.

A timetable by the mines ministry, seen by AFP (1) (AppleTalk Filing Protocol) The file sharing protocol used in an AppleTalk network. In order for non-Apple networks to access data in an AppleShare server, their protocols must translate into the AFP language. See file sharing protocol. , said the team would begin its meetings at the ministry before heading northeast to the diamond-rich Lundas, on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The team will meet with representatives from the Angolan National Police, private diamond companies and the state-owned diamond firm Endiama.

During the latter stages of Angola's three-decade civil war, the main opposition party UNITA UNITA União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola)  (Union for the Total Independence of Angola) used diamonds to bankroll bank·roll  
n.
1. A roll of paper money.

2. Informal One's ready cash.

tr.v. bank·rolled, bank·roll·ing, bank·rolls Informal
 its fight against the ruling MPLA MPLA Mountain Plains Library Association
MPLA Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (Portugese)
MPLA Microsoft Product Licensing Advisor
MPLA Movimento Popular para a Libertação de Angola
 (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola - Party of Labour (Portuguese: Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola - Partido do Trabalho) is an Angolan political party that has ruled the country since independence in 1975. ).

Since the war ended in 2002, the industry has been regulated and Angola is now the world's fifth-biggest diamond exporter.

But international organisations remain critical of how Angola treats the artisanal miners, who work casually in alluvial al·lu·vi·al  
adj.
Of, relating to, or found in alluvium: alluvial soil; alluvial gold.


alluvial
Adjective

of or relating to alluvium

Noun
 river deposits and whose gems account for around one-tenth of output and a quarter of overall revenue.

Many of these miners, known as "garimpeiros" in Portuguese, enter Angola illegally from DR Congo but they are hunted down by Angolan police and border guards and regularly expelled.

In a recent report the United Nations estimated as many as 115,000 people had been deported to DR Congo in the previous seven months and there are allegations of brutal treatment and mass rapes.

Civil society observers have been invited to accompany the Kimberly Process delegation during their visit.
Copyright 2009 AFP Global Edition
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
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Author:AFP
Publication:AFP Global Edition
Date:Aug 24, 2009
Words:293
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