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April 25, 2003
I have today signed into law H.R. 1584, the "Clean Diamond Trade Act." The Act enables this Nation to implement procedures developed by more than 50 countries to exclude rough "conflict diamonds" from international trade, while promoting legitimate trade. Conflict diamonds have been used by rebel groups in Africa to finance their atrocities committed on civilian populations and their insurrections against internationally recognized governments. The United States has played a key role over the past 2 years in forging an international consensus to curb such damaging trade and has therefore strongly supported the "Kimberley Process." Diamonds also are critical to the economic growth and development of African and other countries, so preserving their legitimate trade is an important foreign policy objective.
This...