"Both offered substantial financial support," Diamond says.
"We have now taken a very important step and made a substantial investment in the diamond business," Mr. Oppenheimer said.
Diamond experts say President Kabila has allocated a substantial percentage of that huge diamond complex to Zimbabwe, which has sent 11,000 troops to prop up Mr. Kabila's wobbly government.
Alluvial gold is taken from the Niger and its tributaries, and diamond production is substantial and largely of gem-quality stones.
Mineral resources (iron ore and diamonds) brought in substantial revenue, much of which was used for development, particularly education.
The report also claimed that the Rwandan Ministry of Defence contained a "Congo Desk" dedicated to collecting taxes from companies licensed to mine minerals around Kisangani, and that substantial quantities of coltan and diamonds passed through Kigali before being resold on the international market by staff on the Congo Desk.
Unlike precious metals such as gold or platinum, gem diamonds do not trade as a commodity: there is a substantial mark-up in the sale of diamonds, and there is not a very active market for resale of diamonds.
In Sierra Leone, though, military analysts say the government cannot hope to push rebels out of diamond mining areas without substantial help from United Nations peacekeepers or a major injection of military aid from the West.
REPORTER AT LARGE about Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, head of the De Beers group of corporation, that control practically all of the world's diamond production, and a substantial part of its gold, copper, explosives, uranium & coal production.
During the colonial period and until deposits were largely exhausted, the region's placer mines supplied substantial quantities of gold and some diamonds.
