Despite the international focus over the past two years on the scourges caused by the extraction an

Despite the international focus over the past two years on the scourges caused by the extraction and trade of "conflict" or "blood" diamonds in West and Central Africa, one shocking fact remains. Some of those complicit in the recent wars even if supposedly on the "right" side are still active in the region. They have not been called to account for any misdeeds, while their lack of "transparency" is so wilful it makes De Beers look like an open book.

Heading this doleful list is DiamondWorks, originally formed from a merger between Robert and Eric Friedland's Carson Gold and the British outfit, Branch Energy controlled by Tony Buckingham. Until attacks by the rebel RUF in Sierra Leone and UNITA in Angola forced the company to withdraw in the second half of the last decade, DiamondWorks was set to become a major diamond producer. In the meantime, it was at the centre of an extraordinary and dense web of inter-related mining and "security" interests. These included the mercenary outfit, Executive Outcomes (since banned by the South African government), and its associate Sandline (thrown out of Papua New Guinea after planning to wrest Rio Tinto's Bougainville mine from the Bougainville Liberation Army on behalf of PNG prime minister, Julius Chan).

Now DiamondWorks is posting impressive profits on its oil exploitation in Zambia and plans to return to Sierra Leone for diamonds to the Koidu kimberlite fields which it received in part payment for its collaboration with the notorious Executive Outcomes.

There are doubtless many Africans who wish to question DiamondWorks and call it to account. And there are also the families of four men killed in a rebel attack on its Angolan Yetwene mine in 1998, who are still to receive adequate compensation - five years after their loss .