Flows of blood diamonds, arms ebb in West Africa

DAKAR, Nov 8 (Reuters) Much has changed in West Africa since the brutal civil wars of the 1990s depicted in a new Hollywood film ''Blood Diamond'', as regional conflicts have subsided and the flow of illegal gems and arms has dried up.

The Warner Brothers film, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a mercenary jailed for smuggling in Sierra Leone's devastating 1991-2002 civil war, is not on release until December but has already revived the debate on Africa's illegal gems.

Representatives of the diamond sector met this week in Botswana to review the Kimberley Process for policing the diamond trade, amid calls from dozens of NGOs to close loopholes which are allowing smuggled stones to reach Western consumers.

A UN report on Ivory Coast last month revealed diamonds from the rebel-controlled north were being smuggled out in violation of a UN embargo via neighbouring Ghana, a signatory to the Kimberley accord.

Diamond companies are fearful consumers will shun gems as ''Blood Diamond'' hits cinemas around the Christmas sales. But the flow of conflict gems has now slowed to a trickle, experts say.

''The phenomenon only exists in its classic form in the Ivory Coast,'' said Alex Vines, chairman of the UN panel which produced the diamond report. ''West Africa is much calmer. I don't expect another Sierra Leone or Liberia.'' Sierra Leone's civil war, notorious for drug-crazed rebel fighters who hacked limbs off women and children, ended in 2002.

The brutal conflict in neighbouring Liberia, which killed 250,000 people, ended a year later.

Even in Ivory Coast, Vines said there was no sign smuggled diamonds were used to purchase weapons. With no indication that a brief 2002/2003 civil war could restart, UN-backed efforts are under way to organise elections within a year.

Vines, head of the Africa programme at Chatham House, said the traffic of arms across West Africa had slowed considerably.

''We are seeing more accountability in West Africa ...Although some lessons of the past have not been learned.'' With Africa accounting for three-quarters of global diamond production, it is a battleground for campaigners seeking to end misuse of revenues from gems.

The Kimberley Process Certification System was launched in 2002 to verify the origin of gems and exclude conflict diamonds from the market. Currently 46 countries belong to the system.

A report by Partnership Africa Canada (PAC), an observer in the Kimberley Process, said conflict diamonds represented as much as 15 percent of the world's total in the mid-1990s but had been reduced to less than 1 percent.

''The reason the situation has improved is not due to the Kimberley Process, it's because peace deals have been signed in countries that were at war,'' said Susie Sanders, diamond campaigner at resources watchdog Global Witness.

REUTERS DH BST0428