I will buy only from licensed miners. I don't go in the bush. I don't mine. I don't know how they got the diamond. If the price is right, Mr. Sowe is not one to ask unnecessary questions.
Sellers prefer dollars.
Few people are really who they appear to be in Kenema. So far in Sierra Leone, the United Nations has done little beyond backing stricter regulations on exports from government-held mines. A three-month Security Council ban on exporting Sierra Leone's diamonds was lifted in October. There has never been a ban on Liberia, whose president, Charles Taylor, has played a leading role in diamond smuggling here, feeding rebels arms for diamonds. But even if the Liberian conduit is closed, smuggling will continue to cripple Sierra Leone unless it is snuffed out in this town.