Guia de Estudos - Faap

consequence of the terrorist attacks, people suffered
mutilations of body parts and innocent lives were
taken.
The most important agreement between countries
to attempt to put an end to the diamond issue,
the Kimberley Process, was a South African initiative.
The country had the intention “to develop an international
certification scheme for rough diamonds to
help prevent conflict diamonds from entering legitimate
markets.” An interesting fact is that a big part
of the diamonds being traded all around the world
comes from South Africa.
Gabon is an example of a country that participates
in the Kimberley process. The country does not count
with a lot, but its professional military is composed by
8000 personnel cloven into air force, military, national
police, army, gendarmerie and navy.
In the other hand, Nigeria is dealing with the same
problem as the whole African continent, although
they do not have “blood diamonds” but does have
“blood oil”. In Nigeria there is a place called Delta region
which has been the scene of repeated armed conflicts,
promoted by local residents, dissident groups
and the militaries. This conflict has killed many lives
and has almost stopped the country´s main export
sector. Nigeria is also a member of the United Nations
Security Council and assists the efforts of the Counter-
Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) to
construct the ability of States to fight against terrorism,
as it continuous to go an extensive way towards
resolving the question of non-compliance or partial
by some Member States due to their obligations’ report.
Due to its importance, Angola and Sierra Leone
will be observer members. The first has a rich variation
of natural resources in its territory and it has been
a diamond producing country for a while now; since
the beginning of the 1900s its miners have been digging
diamonds and this natural resource has influenced
the Angolan economy. After its independence
from Portugal, the country was not able to become a
stable state and consequently, it suffered with several
civil wars that happened because of two groups that
were against one another. Illicit diamonds have been
used by the rebels to finance innumerous. Several
lives were taken during these wars that lasted many
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VII Fórum FAAP de Discussão Estudantil - 2011
years. Nowadays, Angola is part to the Kimberley Process
and illegitimate diamonds are no longer traded in the
country. Despite all the information above, Angola is an
essential element to the cooperation versus terrorism in
the international system. The Angolan president Jose Eduardo
dos Santos has in mind that: “Angola continues to
believe in this path and although in some cases progress
has been made, we have been following with concern the
various conflicts that remain unresolved in many parts of
the world”.
Sierra Leone is not a rich country and its population
suffers with the lack of economic and social development.
The country, as well as Angola, has several natural resources
in its territory, including diamonds that were discovered
around 1930. For approximately ten years, Sierra
Leone was involved in civil wars that occurred because of
the interest in diamonds. The Revolutionary United Front
(RUF) had the intention to control the mines and to do so
terrorize the population. People were injured, had body
parts mutilated and killed. Nowadays, the country has
UN support through the United Nations Mission in Sierra
Leone (UNAMSIL). Sierra Leone is part to the Kimberley
Process.
CONSIDERATIONS
Terrorism is a current subject and many countries all
around the world have suffered with it; to be able to participate,
in an appropriate way in the discussions, each
country has to know about its history with terrorism,
whether it has already suffered any attacks, is under attack
or has assisted other nations in need.
Since terrorists may attack any country, without relevant
explanation, it is important that countries join
forces and come up with methods to avoid these attacks;
governments have to implement the measures that have
been created by the UN members, in order to make countering
possible. It is very important that each country
knows exactly which measures are being followed by its
government and how it is assisting to end this threatening
problem. Another important topic to be researched
is whether these measures take in consideration the respect
towards human rights.
In the CTC the discussions may focus on diamond trafficking
and the conflict diamond issue; it is of extreme
importance that the past events related to these topics in
each country are well understood by the respective dele