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Protest Demands Positive Luxury Drop De Beers From Environmental Award

inminds
22 February 2020

Protest demands Positive Luxury drop De Beers Forevermark from Environmental Award shortlist

Protest demands Positive Luxury drop De Beers Forevermark from Environmental Award shortlist

Protest demands Positive Luxury drop De Beers Forevermark from Environmental Award shortlist

On 21st February 2020, Inminds Human Rights Group held a vigil outside the offices of Positive Luxury to demand they reconsider their outrageous decision to shortlist De Beer Forevermark diamonds for an award for “Positive Environmental Impact.� Positive Luxury website gives the reason for De Beers nomination, is its support of "wildlife and elephants".

Inminds chair Abbas Ali said "We are here to tell Positive Luxury that human beings are also part of the environment, that the litany of human rights abuses that De Beers has committed cannot be greenwashed by sponsoring a few elephants and rhinos!"

Protestors held placards with drawing of elephants with the words "De Beers cannot cover up WAR CRIMES by sponsoring elephants!".

Abbas Ali added "In the podcast interview that Positive Luxury has featured on its website as evidence of De Beers green credentials, De Beers Forevermark chairman Stephen Lussier says he is overwhelmed with emotional when he sees a baby rhino with its mother, on one of De Beers mines, as it’s a connection to De Beers historic past. But when we look at reality it’s very different. De Beers history from its inception till today, it’s a story of a serial human rights abuser committing crimes on an industrial scale."

De Beers diamond empire was founded by the genocidal, white supremacist Cecil Rhodes who with a De Beers mercenary army massacred 60,000 black Africans to steal their lands of Zimbabwe and Zambia which he then renamed after himself - Rhodesia.

He built the De Beers diamond empire on the blood of black African indentured slave labour. He caged them in concentration camps where tens of thousands died due to lack of food, inadequate shelter and non-existent medical care. The laws De Beers passed to subjugate black workers later formed the foundation of apartheid in South Africa.

During apartheid, De Beers was a solid pillar of the apartheid regime. Apartheid Prime Minister John Voster described De Beers as “bricks in the walls of the regime’s continued existence�.

Even after apartheid ended, De Beers refused to pay any compensation to its victims, and instead used its economic might to blackmail the elected government of Nelson Mandela into making concessions to enable it to continue exploiting black Africans.

Today with its deep links to the Israeli diamond bourse, De Beers helps sustain apartheid in Palestine.

De Beers sells around 90% of its rough diamonds to a few select partners known as Sightholders. Around 20% of these Sightholder partners are part of the Israeli Diamond Bourse.

In 2014, 521 children were slaughtered by Israel whilst they took shelter in UN schools and in their homes. These were declared war crimes, and possible crimes against humanity, by the United Nations Human Rights Council. At the time De Beers partner, the Israeli Diamond Bourse boasted of sending truck loads of military equipment to help this slaughter of children.

Israeli economist Shir Hever testified at the Russell Tribunal in November 2010 that “Overall the Israeli diamond industry contributes about $1 billion annually to the Israeli military". This is only possible with De Beers active complicity in supplying uncut diamonds to the Israeli diamond bourse.

Positive Luxury is shamefully rewarding these war crimes, by bestowing De Beers with the Butterfly Mark. According to Positive Luxury, the Butterfly Mark is meant to signify “a trusted brand which is committed to having a positive impact on people and the planet�!

This calls into question Positive Luxury's own honesty and ethics, and the sincerity of its "Butterfly Mark." People are left questioning what exactly the "Butterfly Mark" represents.. Is it just another PR ploy used by corporations to flog their goods on unsuspecting consumers? Are the awards Positive Luxury bestows on corporations, bought and paid for by the corporations?

Positive Luxury cannot claim ignorance as they have already been alerted to De Beers dirty secrets. Rather than do something about these revelations, Positive Luxury has instead helped De Beers to try and hide them by deleting posts on its facebook page.

In trying to greenwash De Beers Forevermark brand, Positive Luxury is in danger of destroying its own brand, and the prestige of the Butterfly Mark.

Some of the placards in the vigil read "How can Positive Luxury award serial human rights abuser De Beers?" with a picture of a bleeding butterfly and the words "Brands to Trust" in the Butterfly Mark logo replaced with "Brands to Avoid".

Inminds chair Abbas Ali said "We urge Positive Luxury to do the right thing by dropping De Beers from the Butterfly Mark, and issuing a statement before the awards ceremony next Tuesday, that De Beers has been removed from the shortlist for the 'Positive Environmental Impact' award."

Activists tried to deliver a letter to Positive Luxury CEO Diana Verde Nieto, but Positive Luxury staff on the telephone claimed no one was in the office at the time to accept the letter. Strangely, another company Positive Luxury shares the address with claimed they had not seen anyone from Positive Luxury for some time.

Hundreds of leaflets were snapped up by the public in no time. Positive Luxury's neighbours came out to listen to the speeches and were shocked that Positive Luxury was promoting such a vile company as De Beers.

For full details of De Beers criminal history please see:

De Beers Diamonds - From Founding Apartheid In South Africa To Bankrolling Apartheid In Palestine
http://inminds.co.uk/article.php?id=10868

Protest demands Positive Luxury drop De Beers Forevermark from Environmental Award shortlist

Protest demands Positive Luxury drop De Beers Forevermark from Environmental Award shortlist

Protest demands Positive Luxury drop De Beers Forevermark from Environmental Award shortlist

Protest demands Positive Luxury drop De Beers Forevermark from Environmental Award shortlist

Protest demands Positive Luxury drop De Beers Forevermark from Environmental Award shortlist

Protest demands Positive Luxury drop De Beers Forevermark from Environmental Award shortlist

Protest demands Positive Luxury drop De Beers Forevermark from Environmental Award shortlist

GALLERY

Source: www.inminds.com

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