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Article

26 Mar 2015

Author:
Mercedes Sayagues, Daily Maverick (So. Africa)

Review: The book about Angolan blood diamonds that landed Rafael Marques in court

...In 2011, the first edition of 500 books in Portugal was mysteriously bought out as soon as it hit the stores. After a flurry of press reports, the book, now in its fifth edition, became a best seller in Portugal – whose government is a major shareholder in the company that owns 49% of the diamond company Sociedade Mineira de Lucapa, which operates in Angola...And what chilling read it is - stories of torture, female corpse mutilation, dozens of miners buried alive, land dispossession, denial of access to land, water and subsistence agriculture, all carried out by the army and Teleservice private security...But the Kimberley Process's narrow definition of blood diamonds as those mined and sold by rebels whitewashes the violence associated with the diamond trade and abuses committed by governments - United Nations members – against their own people...

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