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CNN Live Today
Mining of Tanzanite May Have Links To Funding of Terrorism
Aired December 17, 2001 - 11:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush has launched a very public campaign against the funding of terrorism, and some of those sources, allegedly, take root here in the U.S. And some, according to reports, may be as close as your jewel box. Katherine Bond in a look at what may be a glimmer of hate.
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KATHERINE BOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These aren't sapphires. They're a gem called tanzanite, and in the United States, each of these stones will sell for about $10,000 U.S.
This is the only place in the world tanzanite comes from. Eight square kilometers near Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. The U.S. Ministry of Commerce says more than $300 million was spent in the U.S. on buying tanzanite in 1998, but though popular, this gem is also the subject of controversy over whether it is or was being used to make money by people working for Osama bin Laden.
Tanzanite was mentioned during this year's trial of four men now convicted of involvement in the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. In witness testimony, tanzanite was just one of the commodities traded from Kenya by al Qaeda operatives. The U.S. indictment alleged tanzanite was also one of the code names for defendant Wadi al Haj, a U.S. citizen convicted by the jury, for his role in running bin Laden's businesses. Those businesses were operating in the mid-1990's, but what about now?
Recently, a U.S. newspaper, the "Wall Street Journal" published claims that tanzanite is still being bought and sold by active supporters of Osama bin Laden. Here, in the mining town of Mererani (ph), where it says a fundamentalist sheikh has recently set up shop.
(on camera): According to the "Wall Street Journal," the sheikh at this half-constructed mosque has been urging miners to sell gems to him here, so that he can send them on to Dubai.
(voice-over): Dubai, say dealers, is an odd destination for tanzanite, because Dubai doesn't have a cutting industry for colored gems. The sheikh, Ahmed Omari (ph), has read the "Wall Street Journal"'s article, and refutes the claims made against him.
Then, he says that after prayers, "I also trade in gem stones," he says. In the Islamic faith, doing business in the mosque is not allowed. Any kind of business, including that of cloves, anything, so he's lying.
In the crowded buying area of this dusty town, thousands of miners sell the stones they have dug up to hundreds of Maasai (ph) brokers. They sell them to master dealers like Abdulhakim Mulla, the dealer the "Wall Street Journal" alleges sends gems to Dubai, something he denies.
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ABDULHAKIM MULLA, GEM DEALER: We don't have any customer in Dubai. Dubai, there's no demand of tanzanite, first of all.
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BOND: After the September the 11th attacks, though, Mulla was questioned by Tanzanian police, according to other dealers. Of the many mines packed onto the hillsides here, Mulla owns one, but trades in stones from many. His official turnover, roughly a million U.S. dollars a year.
Underground, conditions are typically risky. The tunnels narrow and stuffy, the miners using flashlights instead of head lamps. These bags, containing the rubble which contain gemstones, are hand-packed and stockpiled before being passed toward the surface.
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UNIDENTIFIED MINER: Inside of this hole, we have more than 20,000 bags like this one, whole bags.
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BOND: Tanzanite mining, say mine owners, doesn't really lend itself to mechanization. Only one mine is slightly mechanized: A heavily protected $20 million U.S. part-South African investment where miners wear hard-hats and bags come up on a pulley to be dumped and sorted on a series of conveyer belts. Raw tanzanite is purple or brown, turning lilac or blue after being exposed to extreme heat. More than 80 percent of the finished product, dealers say, goes on to the American market where, not surprisingly, consumers are sensitive to allegations of links between tanzanite and terrorism. Allegations which dealers contend have harmed the industry unfairly.
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FAISAL SHAHBAHI, BUYER: The effects that we have is all the buyers, the main buyers from U.S., they're slightly look this thing over (ph), and they say we won't support the tanzanite to support the terrorism.
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BOND: Selling a piece of unheated tanzanite for $200 less than before, this Maasai (ph) broker knows who's to blame for the drop in prices. "It's because of the person called al Qaeda," he says, that the business is bad at the moment. Most of the international buyers who come to the nearby center of Arusha are from Germany and India. But this time of year, there is usually more, but this year Israeli buyer Isaac Semantoff (ph) finds himself virtually alone. The bad publicity and weak U.S. demand making buyers nervous, he says, even of a stone whose appeal, he believes, will endure.
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ISAAC SEMANTOFF (ph), BUYER: This is going to be sold for $250 for current (ph). Before, used to sell for $350-$400.
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BOND: Semantoff says his family company does around $10 million worth of trade in tanzanite a year. In line with the American Gem Trader's Association, he has a document for his suppliers to sign. The document says no one he has bought tanzanite from has dealt knowingly with anyone connected to terrorism. Tanzanite has presented U.S. retailers with a dilemma: To buy or to boycott.
The Tanzanian government says more investigation does need to be done, but most U.S. jewelers argue that so far, links between even a minority of dealers and Islamic militants like Osama bin Laden are still too insubstantial to justify a boycott like the one for conflict diamonds. Katharine Bond, CNN, Mererani (ph), Tanzania.
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