Abstract
NGO's with an interest in peace and development in Africa documented the role of diamonds in conflict while social scientists were researching and modeling the role of natural resources in long-standing violent conflicts. Journalists described what was happening on the ground. The United Nations took an active role as it expanded its mandate to broker and maintain the peace in these conflict zones. And industry, responding to political pressures and changing economic conditions, joined in the efforts to find a solution. Not all governments participated with equal vigor, and many participants prefer to retain a significant degree of ambiguity in the procedures that are established. Future prospects depend upon these stakeholders maintaining an active involvement in the issue. Of even greater importance is to produce a viable pattern of economic development that permits countries to utilize their natural resources without driving conflict.
Highlights
When the Movimento Popular de Libertacao do Angola (MPLA) won a plurality in the presidential race and a majority in the legislative elections, UNITA
Protocol, was negotiated in 1994 but again UNITA failed to abide by the agreements and the UN extended sanctions to include the freezing of bank accounts, the prohibition of foreign travel for UNITA officials, and the closing of UNITA offices in foreign countries
While the Kimberley Process represents a major step in the attempt to control and eliminate the trade in conflict diamonds, a strengthening of the control mechanisms is clearly needed
Summary
During the 1990’s, the United Nations made several attempts to mediate and resolve the long-standing civil war in Angola. These two groupings soon became part of the Cold War, with MPLA being allied with the Soviet Union and its allies, and UNITA linked with the United States and its allies. Paul Collier and a team of development economists at the World Bank produced a body of research arguing that low levels of economic development, the absence of effective governmental institutions, and the presence of a resource ripe for predation, rather than political grievance, were among the most important causes of long-term violent conflict.. Faced with a stalemate in Angola, and rising public pressure, the United Nations Security Council’s Sanctions Committee on Angola, chaired by the Government of Canada serving its two-year term as a non-permanent member of the Security Council, decided to push the issue and formed a group of experts to intensively study the situation and make recommendations to resolve the Angolan conflict. Canada’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Donald Fowler, took an active role in the research and dissemination of the Pane’'s findings and the resulting report has become widely known as the “Fowler Report.”
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