AMID much media interest, Naomi Campbell, a model, gave evidence on Thursday August 5th at the special court for Sierra Leone in The Hague. Charles Taylor, the former dictator of Liberia, who is on trial for war crimes in neighbouring Sierra Leone, is accused of giving Ms Campbell a “blood diamond” in 1997. Ms Campbell admitted receiving a gift of “dirty looking stones”. Since 2000, the governments of over 75 countries have signed up to the Kimberley Process, which certifies that diamonds produced for foreign markets have not helped to fund violence. The Process has its critics, who point out that diamonds from the huge Marange mine in Zimbabwe have just been cleared for sale, despite much evidence of government-sponsored violence there.

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