Those involved have a legal and moral responsibility to sever permanently the link between the diamond trade and killings, abduction and torture of civilians.
Further delays lead to the possibility of more mutilations, amputations, and deaths.
Military assistance to the RUF is largely funded by the trade in diamonds from rebel-held areas. These practices have been among the most abhorrent and distressing features of the nine-year internal armed conflict in Sierra Leone. Amnesty International, which has a delegation in Freetown compiling testimonies of continuing human rights abuses, today called for urgent steps to protect the civilian population from further atrocities. Subscribe You can receive Amnesty International news updates by email as they are issued. Click here to choose the service to which you would like to subscribe.