World Diamond Council
International Headquarters: 52 Vanderbilt Avenue / 19th Floor / New York, NY 10017 / USA
Eli Izhakoff, Chairman / 580 Fifth Avenue / New York, NY 10036 / USA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
For more information, contact Eli Izhakoff, 212-575-8848 Matthew Runci, 646-658-0246 |
Kimberley Process and World Diamond Council chairmen
make direct appeal to Blood Diamond movie producer
CATANIA, SICILY, February 7, 2006 - Kago G. Moshashane, the chairman of the Kimberley Process and the deputy permanent secretary of Botswana’s Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources, and Eli Izhakoff, the chairman of the World Diamond Council, have sent a jointly composed letter to Edward Zwick, the producer of The Blood Diamond, requesting that the movie provide accurate and up to date information about the conflict diamond trade in Sierra Leone, which is the country in which it is set.
In their letter, Izhakoff and Moshashane noted that the period in which the movie is set predates the implementation of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, and, thus, without clearly mentioning this fact, the movie could present a distorted picture of reality to the general public.
The text of the letter was released during the second and concluding day of the fourth Annual Meeting of the World Diamond Council, which has been taking place in Catania Sicily.
The full text of the letter follows:
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