Jeff Danziger lives in New York City. He is represented by CWS Syndicate and the Washington Post Writers Group. He is the recipient of the Herblock Prize and the Thomas Nast (Landau) Prize. He served in the US Army in Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Air Medal. He has published eleven books of cartoons and one novel. Visit him at DanzigerCartoons.com.
By Ilya Gridneff, Bloomberg News (TNS)
Diamond smuggler Akani Natacha Glawdys tilts a tiny gem in her palm and smiles as a sparkle ripples through the rough yellow rock.
“See?” she asks excitedly in a room at the Relais des Chasses hotel in the Central African Republic capital, Bangui. “A bit cloudy, so not the best, but still good.” If it were clearer, the stone could fetch as much as $2,000 from local traders who export to buyers in Europe, she explained. The gem’s opacity means it will only fetch $700.
Gladwys, 34, is part of a trafficking network that unashamedly flouts a diamond-trading ban imposed on her country by the Kimberley Process, a global gem-verification group formed to halt the outflow of precious stones from conflict zones. It’s a sign of the complete chaos in Central African Republic, the only country among 22 diamond producers to be covered by a ban.
The embargo was imposed in May 2013, two months after an alliance of mainly Muslim militias known as Seleka overthrew President Francois Bozize, a Christian. The takeover was marked by the widespread killing of civilians and other crimes, Human Rights Watch says. The United Nations says more than 2.5 million people need urgent humanitarian assistance.
The Kimberley Process banned the trade in Central African Republic gems because, the group said, there was no way to determine whether conflict diamonds had been eliminated from the country’s shipments. The Kimberley Process represents 81 countries, including the U.S., the European Union, Russia, China, and South Africa.
Even before the ban, millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds left Central African Republic via the black market. High taxes on diamonds — 12 percent compared with 3.25 percent in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo — led to about 30 percent of output being smuggled to Cameroon or Sudan’s Darfur region, according to the International Peace Information Service, or IPIS, an Antwerp, Belgium-based research group.
The illegal diamond trade continues to flourish, according to a UN panel of experts on Central African Republic. Since the ban was introduced, at least 140,000 carats of diamonds valued at $24 million have been smuggled out of the country, said Aurelien Llorca, coordinator of the UN panel.
Illicit diamond revenue is used to buy arms, pay soldiers, and enrich rebel leaders of the main militia groupings: Seleka and a mostly Christian force, Kasper Agger, a Central African Republic analyst with the Washington-based conflict-resolution group Enough Project, said in an email.
Diamonds in Central African Republic, which ranked as the world’s 1tenth-biggest producer by value in 2012, have funded successive military regimes since the country gained independence from France in 1960. Rulers have treated the industry as a “cash cow,” imposing high taxes on exports and demanding a share of production to help sustain political support, according to IPIS.
Under the rule of Jean-Bedel Bokassa, who seized power in January 1966 before proclaiming himself emperor with a diamond-encrusted crown a decade later, production plunged by more than half to about 290,000 carats, according to IPIS.
The diamond and gold industry in Central African Republic relies on as many as 100,000 informal, or artisanal, miners. At least 600,000 people — about 13 percent of the country’s population — depend at least partly on the industry for their income, according to the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based advocacy group.
The country’s diamond trading has traditionally been run by Muslims, who have used their shared religion and Arabic language to create networks in neighboring countries such as Sudan and Chad, Thierry Vircoulon, Central African Republic project director for ICG, said in Nairobi, Kenya.
Bozize’s October 2008 purge of the industry, in which diamonds, cash, and equipment were confiscated, pushed many disgruntled Muslim traders and diggers to join rebel ranks, he said. That ultimately led to the government’s downfall five years later when Seleka fighters seized Bangui.
“Significant quantities” of cheap Chinese-made grenades and Chinese, Sudanese, and European arms and ammunition have poured into Central African Republic since the war began, according to a December report by Brussels-based Conflict Armament Research.
The Kimberley Process in June issued a statement urging diamond-trading countries to “exercise enhanced vigilance” and “ensure that diamonds produced in Central African Republic are seized and are not allowed to circulate in legitimate trade.”
The appeal came after an operation in May, highlighted in an October report by the UN panel, in which Belgian federal authorities seized rough diamonds worth $1.7 million. They said the stones probably originated in Central African Republic and were smuggled from that country via the Democratic Republic of Congo and then Dubai.
In its report, the UN said that the seized diamonds had been sent to Kardiam, the Antwerp branch of Bangui-based Bureau d’Achat de Diamante en Centrafrique, or Badica. The UN also alleged that Badica had funded Seleka, the rebel group that carried out the 2013 coup. The Dubai Diamond Exchange said in July the diamonds came from the Democratic Republic of the Congo with a valid certificate.
Kimberley Process Chairman Bernardo Campos didn’t respond to two emailed requests for comment and no one answered emails sent via its website.
Abbas Abdulkarim, a Badica administrative director, denied smuggling diamonds or supporting Seleka rebels. He blamed competitors that he didn’t identify for the accusations.
“The UN experts didn’t speak to us,” he said in English learned from growing up in Canada. “The diamond field here is pretty rough. There are four main companies fighting, so it’s in their interest to say we are financing Seleka, smuggling.”
Revenue has fallen as much as 90 percent since the ban was introduced, he said, opening a white envelope filled with hundreds of tiny yellow and green diamonds.
“This is one month we’ve collected,” he said. “It’s probably about $50,000 worth. But we can’t just keep collecting them, we need to sell at some point.”
Glawdys said diggers who strike it lucky sell their diamonds in the closest town or trading center to intermediaries, who in turn sell the precious stones to buyers in Bangui. The smugglers then use an international network of dealers in countries including Nigeria, France, and Cameroon who supply them to jewelry manufacturers around the world.
“The diggers are very happy with people like me,” she said. “They bring the stones to me and I give them the money.”
Photo: Jose More via Chicago Tribune/TNS
Washington (AFP) – The United States was “alarmed” by violence in Central African Republic, where two days of clashes left dozens dead, Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement Thursday urging authorities to move quickly to hold elections.
“The continued sectarian fighting only deepens the country’s wounds and makes reconciliation more difficult,” Kerry said, adding the United States was “deeply disturbed” by the discovery of 20 bodies in a mass grave in the capital Thursday.
It was not clear if these figures were included in an earlier death toll by the Red Cross which said it had recovered 40 bodies since Wednesday.
“The United States believes that this crisis can only be resolved through a political process that leads to fair and inclusive elections as soon as possible,” Kerry said, citing a deadline of February 2015.
The vote is needed to ensure Central African Republic has “a legitimate government that represents the will of the people,” he said.
Central Africa spiralled into chaos after a March coup in which the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel group overthrew President Francois Bozize.
Rebel leader Michel Djotodia was installed as president and disbanded Seleka, however many of the rebels went rogue, spreading terror which government forces could not stop.
Months of massacres, rapes and looting followed, with locals forming Christian vigilante groups in response.
In the last three weeks, Bangui has been hit by deadly sectarian clashes between Christians and Muslims as a combined force of 1,600 French troops and 4,000 African Union soldiers has been struggling to restore order in the notoriously unstable nation.
“The United States is alarmed by the December 24 and 25 attacks in the Central African Republic (CAR) by both Seleka and Anti-Balaka fighters against civilian populations in the capital Bangui” which also killed five Chadian peacekeepers, Kerry said Thursday.
Further complicating matters, the Chadian contingent of the AU peacekeeping force has been accused of siding with a mostly Muslim former rebel group in the strife-torn majority Christian country.
Kerry commended the African Union and French peacekeeping forces, expressing confidence they would “act robustly to protect equally all civilian populations, regardless of ethnic or religious affiliation.”
AFP Photo/Noel Celis
Bangui (Central African Republic) (AFP) – Burundian and Chadian troops in the African force deployed in the Central African Republic (CAR) have exchanged fire in Bangui, raising new questions Tuesday about the stance of the Chadian contingent of a UN-mandated force sent to tame a country rocked by sectarian killings.
The Burundian military reported the exchange occurred on Monday as the Chadians, mainly because they are Muslim, face accusations of complicity with the Seleka rebels who overthrew president Francois Bozize in March in the predominantly Christian country now gearing up for Christmas.
Lieutenant-Colonel Pontien Hakizimana, head of the Burundian contingent in the African force MISCA, told AFP in Bujumbura that his men were disarming former rebels when Chadian troops from MISCA threw a grenade and opened fire on them, prompting some Burundian elements to return fire, wounding three Chadians.
“On Monday morning we intercepted six armed ex-Seleka and we disarmed them,” Hakizimana told AFP from Bangui.
A group of Chadian soldiers went by on a truck and threw a grenade at the Burundians, which exploded without causing any casualties, he said.
“Then the Chadians left with the ex-Seleka, firing in all directions,” he said, adding some of his men came under fire and retaliated, wounding three Chadians.
“The Chadians soldiers came back in greater numbers in the afternoon and attacked our positions,” Hakizimana said, adding that Burundian troops repelled them without a problem.
“The soldiers from the Burundian contingent are very disciplined and battle-tested and have nothing to do with yesterday’s incidents,” Hakizimana. “We have no dispute with any part of the Central African population.”
There was no immediate comment from the Chadian contingent.
A military source in Bujumbura said relations between the Burundians and the Chadians had been strained ever since the Chadians in the MISCA had been re-deployed outside the capital and the Burundians tasked with securing Bangui.
The rare incident in which peacekeepers traded fire put fresh pressure on the Chadian contingent, which accounts for 850 of the 3,700-strong MISCA force but is accused by many people in Bangui of backing the Seleka.
It follows an incident on Monday when Chadian soldiers opened fire on hundreds of stone-throwing protesters, mostly Christians, killing one man and wounding around 40 others, three seriously.
Traditionally influential in the Central African Republic, President Idriss Deby Itno’s Chad is France’s main partner in its efforts to re-establish peace in the country.
But the growing defiance of Central Africans toward the Chadian contingent is complicating the task of the 1,600 French troops deployed to the country since the beginning of December.
The deployment came after interim President Michel Djotodia officially disbanded Seleka, but some of its members went rogue, leading to months of killing, rape and pillaging — and prompting Christians to form vigilante groups in response.
Amnesty International says some 1,000 people have been killed since December 5, mostly by Muslim ex-rebels but also in Christian reprisal attacks.
Chadian and Sudanese mercenaries within Seleka are blamed for many of the worst crimes against civilians.
After a brief respite, violence has returned to the capital where communal tensions remain high and the situation volatile.
French soldiers meanwhile are being accused by Muslims of siding with the country’s Christian population as they disarm the Seleka and leave the Muslim population defenseless against many Christians who seek revenge for Seleka excesses.
Overnight Monday, gunfire erupted in the mainly-Muslim PK5 neighborhood where two Muslims had been lynched earlier and their bodies mutilated.
Residents said Tuesday that the attack was carried out by Christian militias while several hundred protesters gathered to denounce what they perceived as the inaction of French troops.
“The French took the side of those who are attacking us,” one of the protesters, Jibril Assil, said. “They give weapons to the anti-balaka (militias).”
In the neighborhood, signs hung from homes saying: “No to France.”
Shouting French President Francois “Hollande is a criminal,” the protesters marched to the doors of the presidency in the center of the city which was guarded by French troops. The group dispersed calmly shortly afterwards.
In the runup to Christmas Eve, activity was relatively normal in the capital as some stores broadcast Christmas songs from loudspeakers and salesmen offered red Santa Claus hats at dusty crossroads under a baking heat.
Because of a night curfew, churches will hold Christmas Eve mass in the afternoon.
AFP Photo/Miguel Medina
The National Memo is a political newsletter and website that combines the spirit of investigative journalism with new technology and ideas. We cover campaigns, elections, the White House, Congress, and the world with a fresh outlook. Our own journalism — as well as our selections of the smartest stories available every day — reflects a clear and strong perspective, without the kind of propaganda, ultra-partisanship and overwrought ideology that burden so much of our political discourse.
