Chance to live in peace again
 

 
And Now The Bryant Diamond Contract 

Bryant

3 May 04

News that a Canadian group will be lords over some of Liberia’s diamond fields, like many things in Liberia, probably went unnoticed. No big deal. It is business as usual.  But Liberia is under UN sanctions to export diamonds. How the deal will be interpreted, and whether it is not a violation of UN sanctions imposed when Charles Taylor gave diamonds a horrible name, is now the question.

 It shouldn’t however be business as usual, because the Bryant regime is a transient entity that should have not been endowed to plunge itself into long-term economic undertakings such as awarding diamond contracts. To the contrary, it has, and exactly what the terms of this celebrated contract are is something for the Bryant inner circle.

It is nevertheless likely that Mr. Bryant did not personally negotiate and award the contract in question, but he is the de facto head of state in an amorphous regime with competing economic interests as the final whistle for its end draws nearer. If he did not see or approve the contract, then this is an expected testament of quality for a regime so hailed when it was born out of rebel ballots. On the other hand,  the contract is probably the work of, (I spare my friends the appropriate ethnic adjectival clause this time). …MODEL’s appointee and former Charles Taylor Minister of Lands and Mines, a man called Mason. He was retained by MODEL on dubious grounds. Some say he bought his appointment with US$10,000 allegedly given by a Lebanese sponsor. But perhaps he was also a closet financier of the rebel group while serving Charles Taylor. Otherwise, what could explain his retention in such a lucrative post in regime with members obsessed about getting the last penny before time is out? Oh! Ethnic balance, you see. Mason is Americo.  This, too, is not an aberration. After all, Samuel Doe empowered many like-minded Congos (descendents of ex-slaves who settled in Liberia in 1822 to rule it until 1980) such as Charles Taylor and Emmanuel Shaw who came after him  and his innocent ethnic group to prove that there is no honour amongst thieves.

Any other shady contract would have perhaps been forgiven, but not one on diamonds. The word diamonds evokes fear of terror nowadays in West Africa, for diamonds carry a terrible omen in the subregion because they have been at the centre of crimes in the region, particularly in Sierra Leone, where Charles Taylor saw to it that children were recruited in rebel gangs, limbs hacked, and tens of thousands killed for the little shiny stones. Now comes Bryant, the businessman who promised it would never be “business as usual.” Compassion and a sense of modesty and justice would have therefore demanded that the tens of thousands driven from their now destroyed towns be resettled to live in peace, honour their hundreds of thousands dead, before jumping on diamond deals that contributed to their nightmare. But when it comes to the stampede for the fast almighty US dollar, and premature pronouncements on honesty and accountability, the beautiful ones may never be born in Liberia.

For now, the Vancouver diamond group is celebrating its new finds in Liberia. Laughs the head of the Diamond Fields, Mr. Gregg J. Sedun:

"We are excited about the opportunity of being an early mover in a country with as much mineral potential as Liberia. The trend towards political stability now occurring in this geologically exciting region presents us with enormous potential not only in our search for diamonds, but also in a new mineral, gold, now being added to our portfolio of projects."

The group’s press release on its Liberian bonanza could not conceal its zeal. It says:

 “Vancouver, April 28, 2004 Diamond Fields International Ltd. (DFI: TSX) is pleased to announce that it has obtained two mineral reconnaissance licenses in Liberia, one of which is a diamond prospect, the other a gold prospect. These concessions were acquired by Diamond Fields as a result of the increasing political stability in a region that the Company believes is very prospective for mineral exploration and, to date, has been under explored.

”The Nimba diamond concession is in an area of Archean craton covering approximately 2000 km2. It is located in Nimba County in northeast Liberia, and hosts extensive artisanal alluvial diamond workings along Ya Creek and its tributaries. Diamond Fields exploration efforts will focus on the search for a source kimberlite.

”The Cestos Belt gold concession covers approximately 1300km2 in River Cess and Sinoe Counties, and is located near the Cestos shear zone. Regionally, the Cestos shear trend is the southernmost extension of the Syama belt which hosts the Syama and Morila gold mines in Mali. Artisanal alluvial gold workings are present in watersheds of the Cestos and Sehnkwehn Rivers adjacent to the license.

”Diamond Fields is planning sampling programs to attempt to define anomalous areas. A large scale heavy mineral stream sediment sampling program will occur in the Nimba concession and a soil sampling and mapping program will be undertaken in the Cestos Belt concession. Further work will be based on results from this initial program.”

But the Canadians should be reminded that the US evangelist Pat Robinson, a key member of the Charles Taylor fan club, celebrated getting such contracts in Liberia.  The Dutchman Gus Kouwenhoven, again buying his time to return and finish the rainforest, also celebrated. The last celebration will be for Liberians, because things will never be the same for all.

One of the fundamental errors, if this is the word, made in Accra was the failure to clearly define the mandate of the transitional regime. In the understandable haste to stop the shells from falling on the helpless and to get Charles Taylor out, anything was endorsed. No single politician, as the record shows, saw the need to demand and to insert binding provisions in the Ghana agreement that would have restricted the transitional regime’s to its name—transitional.

The choice to settle for business as usual, and not to take a long distance from acts and policies responsible for the collapse, was not due to the shortage of legal minds and competent individuals at the talks. But most were vying to take Charles Taylor’s place only to perfect his schemes of theft by giving them some level of respectability. Where Taylor was honest in openly declaring he would steal, as was the case when he declared on radio he was stealing $26m to pay his war debts to Libya and others, the new team of “technocrats” and “businessmen”, along with greedy and short-sighted rebel leaders, has a level of finesse regrettably endorsed by some key international actors and therefore giving it license to steal and conceal.

The transitional regime concentrates on fragile economic deals while negating the larger picture, that of ensuring disarmament and creating a political framework to ensure stability. The decision to begin awarding diamond contracts is an unmistaken signal of where the hearts and minds of Charles Gyude Bryant and his team are. In the Ghana agreement, a provision was inserted for the establishment of a body that would review all contracts after opening them to public bids. This was in recognition that Charles Taylor single-handedly awarded all contracts and pocketed the excess. But nothing has been heard of this proposed commission since, just as it took public questions and warnings from the UN and ECOWAS that elections would not be postponed for any reason before the regime could succumb in announcing the formation of the elections commission. This imagined contracts review commission, too, may be inaugurated on the last day Bryant stays in office.

Diamonds may be forever, but they carry a curse forever. Charles Taylor is living witness.