Following the Security Council's first-ever public hearing on the role of diamonds in fuelling the Sierra Leonean conflict, held on 31 July and 1 August, the UN Chronicle spoke with His Excellency Ambassador Anwarul Karim Chowdhury, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations and Chairman of the Security Council Sanctions Committee on Sierra Leone.

The experts who were invited to come in and make presentations before the hearing were representing their Governments or themselves as individual experts. Representatives from the diamond industry and from various regional and international organizations, like the Economic Community of West African States and the World Bank, were also invited. We benefited tremendously from the broad spectrum of presentations-the complexity and the magnitude of the whole issue came up very openly. With the knowledge and the information that came out of this hearing, the Sanctions Committee on Sierra Leone can go to work right away. I will submit a report to the Sanctions Committee on the hearing, with my own observations about what we can and should do. Once the Committee approves it, it will go to the Security Council and, as a document of the Council, the report will be available to the general public.

What are your priorities at this point in time?

I believe that for the Sanctions Committee the most immediate concern should be the certification regime for Sierra Leone, as presented by its Government at the hearing. They are anxious to launch it; we are anxious to see it launched. It was apparent that the certification regime takes care of the many loopholes of earlier regimes like that of Angola and other countries. It is now incumbent on the Sanctions Committee to look into it and give it the go-ahead. The Committee should then start working on a number of concrete proposals that the diamond industry had offered, especially the nine-point resolution of the World Diamond Congress of 19 July. We should also look into strengthening the United Nations system regarding how we monitor the sanctions regime in Sierra Leone. The involvement of diamonds in continuing the conflict in Sierra Leone and other countries has so many actors that it is a situation altogether different from those generally handled by the Security Council. We need to set up a better information source — an international database that is available to all actors. I also believe that the involvement of civil society is crucial in the process: in terms of fact-finding, in terms of information-gathering and in terms of awareness-raising. It is very important that all actors are involved effectively. It came out quite clearly at the hearing that Sierra Leone alone, or the Sanctions Committee alone, cannot effectively handle the situation unless the neighbouring countries are involved. We need to involve these countries in honouring the certification regime, not only in Sierra Leone but also in their respective countries. At the end of the day, we should look for a global certification regime. I think that is how we can see an end to conflict diamonds. Diamonds should contribute to the welfare and well-being of the producing countries and their people, and not be used to buy guns for the rebels.

You have just set up a panel of experts to examine the role of diamonds in the Sierra Leonean conflict.

The five-member panel of experts on Sierra Leone is expected to come back with a report by the end of October. The Sanctions Committee will then consider the situation in the country and bring it to the attention of the Security Council. The Council will then act on the recommendations contained in the report. In the process, as was said during the hearing, the Sierra Leone panel should avoid the mistakes or gaps that existed for the Angola panel. One should be particularly aware about the way information is gathered; the other is cross-checking the information obtained. And I believe that the resources available to the earlier panel of experts were not adequate. The question of resources always is a major dilemma, but we hope that we can resolve the problem by involving various actors.

Diamonds are increasingly becoming a global resource and a global problem; a permanent international monitoring mechanism seems necessary.

Yes, you are very right. We must start thinking about a permanent international panel that would monitor and verify the implementation of the regimes set up in various countries. Until and unless that is done, what will happen is that we will have a kind of a country-focused approach; one for Angola and another for Sierra Leone. But this approach may not work, because then the mechanisms would run into a number of problems, either of a juris- dictional nature, when several countries are involved, or in terms of time-frame because the life of a panel is limited. So if we had a permanent international panel, it could look into the whole question in an integrated manner and within a broader context. I think that is what is needed; and I will be very strongly supportive of such a permanent panel.

We see the use of diamonds in fuelling conflict in many manifestations. It is a very, very sad situation, especially in Africa today, that countries rich with diamonds and other mineral resources continue to face conflicts that cause anguish and deprivation to common and innocent people. It is simply unacceptable; it should not happen in this day and age. These resources should be used for the improvement of the quality of life of the people and not for enabling rebels to continue their armed campaigns.