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Ibrahim Bah, a former fighter in Afghanistan and southern Lebanon is the principle Muslim diamond dealer in West Africa. Bah met Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, a top Bin Ladin advisor,in Liberia in 1998. Most of the stones from this area end up in Belgium.

Israel imports 89% of its diamond rough from Belgium, the UK and Switzerland. The UK imports 41% of its rough from Switzerland. Switzerland has no diamond mines and "officially" imports almost no uncut diamonds.

In May of 2001, President Bush signed an executive order banning the import of rough diamonds from this area.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news

So the question is, why did it take the election of Bush for this EO to be signed? Who was profitting from the trade?

Press Office, Foreign Affairs, Belgium 24/05/02

Belgian authorities have already taken various legal steps on the basis of their own investigation and information provided by the UN and the sector itself. These measures include, in particular, the issuing by Belgium of an international warrant for the arrest ofVictor Bout and the arrest of the Lebanese diamond merchants Samih Ossailly and Sanjivan Ruprah, the right-hand man of Victor Bout . Incidentally, on the basis of today's UN report, the Antwerp public prosecutor's office immediately launched a criminal investigation into the firm Limo Diamonds, which is named in the report.

UN Security Council Report:

Case study: Limo Diamonds
Limo Diamonds is a rough diamond trading and polishing company based in Antwerp and Tel Aviv.
Its Antwerp address is Office 214, Diamond Club, Pelikanstraat 62.
Limo is a member of a diamond bourse and banks with the Antwerpse Diamantbank.
Its office in Tel Aviv is Spark Diamonds Ltd., Diamond Exchange, Rm 1405-6, Ramat Gan.
The directors of the two companies are Moshe Fisher and Israel Fisher.
The Mechanism has been able to put together a chain of information and evidence that links Limo Diamonds to the purchase of embargoed diamonds from a man who was previously said to be the largest illicit diamond dealer in Luanda, Jose Francisco,known "Chico".
Francisco is a known diamond buyer in Angola,identified by ASCorp Security as the single largest illicit buyer in Luanda. In an attempt to curb his illicitactivities, Francisco was invited to join ASCorp as alicensed diamond buyer and did so in July 2001,bringing with him his group of 10 buyers based principally in Lucapa.
The smuggling activities referred to in this case relate to the period before JoseFrancisco joined ASCorp.
It is not known whether the diamonds in the case originate from UNITA sources or other sources in Angola.In tracking Francisco's activities, ASCorp learned that he was selling his diamonds through the CentralAfrican Republic and gave the Mechanism informationconcerning several parcels which had been exported to Antwerp, allegedly through a middleman known as C. Van Tures.
The Mechanism carried out a probe into the activities of Mr. Van Tures to further determine whether he was trading embargoed gems.
In the Central African Republic, no trace of his legal presence could be found. The Central African Republic did not answer the Mechanism's requests for information on any diamond exports allegedly made by Mr. Van Tures to Antwerp.
Van Tures's trades were made from January toSeptember 2000, while the Bangui diamond exchangewas closed. The Mechanism identified a total of 50,000carats exported by this middleman to Limo Diamondsat a value of $18 million.

http://www.niza.nl/fataltransactions/docs/angola/un9april02.pdf