Liberia: No Diamond Mining Until Controls in Place

Liberia will not allow diamond mining to start until “certain mechanisms are in place to ensure transparency,” the Deputy Minister for Lands and Mines, Ernest Jones, recently told press agency IRIN.

Two months after the United Nations Security Council ended the ban on rough diamond exports from Liberia, the government is working to establish ten regional diamond monitoring offices to supervise mining licenses as well as the actual extraction, transport and sale of rough.

Liberia was the home to a brutal civil war that spilled into neighboring countries. During these wars, forces took control of diamond producing areas and traded the goods for arms, giving rise to the so-called Conflict Diamonds.