Surat diamonds may be funding bloody Africa wars

Experts say that over 25% of Surat’s diamond business operates on ‘blood diamonds’, which are excavated primarily in strife-torn African countries and shunned by world

SURAT: Africa’s blood trail now leads to Surat . The city is becoming a haven for blood, or conflict diamonds, which are banned because they are exchanged for money or guns to fund slaughter and terror in African countries with disturbed democracies.

Surat’s booming diamond trade, wherein an estimated Rs 50,000 crore worth of rough diamonds are cut annually, benefits from loopholes in the Kimberley process — a voluntary disclosure agreement which ensures that roughs are exported only from conflict-free areas. In fact, over 25 per cent of Surat’s total diamond business, about Rs 14,000 crore, may well be ‘blood’ diamonds, say traders.

According to people close to the trade, diamonds harvested from rebel-controlled areas in Angola keep trickling into Surat. Jhaveri, who declined to give his first name, is a sight holder (a legitimate purchaser of rough diamonds) and a trader at Surat’s Variyavi bazaar. He runs a diamond-polishing outfit with his Angola-based brother who has a licence to export diamonds, granted by a rebel grouping.
 
The licence allows him to purchase roughs mined or found within the country from any sources without any questions asked. The licence cost: $50,000. The catch: the diamond transaction is not part of the Kimberley process.
A licence-holder like Jhaveri’s brother can export his roughs to Antwerp, Dubai, London or any US location. Ships also leave rebel-controlled ports in Africa and dock at Mumbai. But Dubai’s diamond exchange is the preferred choice thanks to its tax-free status and lax procedures. Nine out of world’s 11 roughs are cut and polished in the city. This is the trail of conflict diamonds.

Dr Vishwamohan Thakur, a psychiatrist associated with the Gujarat Institute of Psychological Sciences said that Modafinil does not work for everyone. "It's risky to take it without a doctor's prescription," Thakur said. "Some students do experience alertness and a state of wakefulness but they end up being irritated and suffer from long bouts of lingering headache. I would not advise any student to self-administer the drug,"

Dr Ratna Bilwani, a psychiatrist with a private practice in Ahmedabad, concurred with Thakur's view. "Modalert like any other stimulant will take its toll on the neuron-chemical balance of any healthy individual. No doctor will prescribe it to aid better study."

The story on the other side of the boundary wall is startling. Take Viral Dixit for instance. He felt he had belled the CAT and life was a song. His preparations for the CAT gave him the confidence that he would be able to endure the rigours of a modern world-class management school. Four weeks into his first semester he first sensed that he was lagging way behind his classmates. "The fierce competition depressed me,” he said. Then mod, as the drug is known in slang, entered his life, thanks to the ever helpful seniors. “I tried it once before a crucial presentation and it worked. My confidence levels shot up and my responses were crisp,” he said.

Viral is not an addict. He said that it is stupid to be addicted to mod. “I do not take the drug more than three days at a stretch because it plays havoc with my blood pressure,” he said. Although DNA probed deeper into the use of the drug inside the IIM-A campus, the exact number of users was not forthcoming. The only official student counsellor at the institute quietly conceded the prevalence of stress-related cases but refused to elaborate.

Over time, students have developed their own administration methods and a list of do's and don'ts. The logic works along the following lines. The heart rate of an individual is lower while sleeping. If a person increases waking time extensively, the heart takes a higher load and stress. “This increases the chances of a heart attack,” says a second year student at IIM-A. “The trick,” he says, “lies in moderate use of the substance keeping class, assignment submission and exam schedules in mind”.

In the past, similar or inferior drugs have been administered to soldiers and fighter pilots.