De Beers

Accusations against the diamond industry were most severe against industry giant De Beers. They bought many Angolan diamonds, including diamonds from UNITA. De Beers disputes the definition of diamonds being “conflict diamonds” before 1998 (The date that the UN banned trade against Angolan Diamonds). De Beers claims that until they were not “officially” marked as conflict diamonds until 1998.
In an interview with Andrew Bone, Head of De Beers Public Affairs he says “up until the point of sanctions being imposed there was by definition no conflict diamonds in that country...” “Prior to the imposition of sanctions everybody in the world was still very hopeful that the UNITA rebels would engage in a lasting sustainable peace. Unfortunately in retrospect we can see that that hope was in vain. When it was recognized that the rebels in Angola were no longer going to participate in building peace in the country the UN had imposed sanctions and De Beers immediately, swiftly, and effectively started working with the UN to ensure that those sanctions were fully implemented.”
They were also accused of not searching for the true source of their diamonds and continued to buy diamonds from Liberia after it was obvious they were from conflict zones.
Fourtunately in October 1999 De Beers announced plans to close Angolan buying offices and in 2000, they announced they would stop buying diamonds on the open market. They claim to only buy diamonds from mines they have control of or have a share in.