The UN Security Council, 2001, defines conflict diamonds as “diamonds that originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognised governments, and are used to fund military action in opposition to those governments, or in contravention of the decisions of the Security Council.” Conflict diamonds were used by rebel movements, mainly during the 1990s, as a source of funding for wars against legitimate governments in countries such as Angola, Cote d’Ivoire, DRC and Sierra Leone. These are countries where De Beers has never operated mines, except in Angola pre-1985. De Beers has played a leadership role in seeking to eliminate conflict diamonds from global diamond flows. This was out of a moral obligation to end human rights violations associated with conflict and to address the concerns of consumers. We find it abhorrent that revenues from the sale of illegally traded rough diamonds have been used in the past to fund rebel activities. We were aware of conflict in the 1990s and our policy, which applied to all of Africa, was only to buy those diamonds that were legitimately traded and that we believed were not used to fund rebel groups. In 1999, in line with a new zero-tolerance policy, we stopped all outside buying of diamonds in order to guarantee categorically the conflict free status of De Beers diamonds. This exceeded the requirements of relevant UN resolutions. We give credit to NGOs like Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) and Global Witness for creating the environment with governments which made the Kimberley Process possible. Looking back, we regret the industry did not develop rigorous solutions, like the Kimberley Process, sooner. The family of companies works in full compliance with the letter and spirit of all UN resolutions. De Beers guarantees that 100% of the diamonds we sell are conflict free. All our diamonds are purchased in full compliance with national law, the Kimberley Process and our Best Practice Principles. We have also actively worked with members to ensure the Kimberley Process is continuously strengthened and that weaknesses identified in 2005/6, even though outside of our areas of operation, are actively rectified through constructive engagement and the lending of our expertise where helpful. Some of our exploration activities are in countries recovering from conflict, specifically Angola and DRC. In 2006, these were also subject to the BPP Assurance Programme. In 2007, De Beers will ensure that its exploration activities in Africa, although they are not in conflict zones, are supported by measures to ensure impact assessment and conflict prevention.