Luanda - A major police operation against illegal diamond prospectors was a success, with tens of thousands of mostly Congolese prospectors expelled from the country, officials said.
Police Commissioner Paulo Gaspar de Almeida told reporters late on Thursday that Operation Brilliant, started 15 months ago, had cleared the prospectors from diamond-rich land, most of it along Angola's northern border with Congo.
The operation brought "a substantial decrease in the number of illegal prospectors across the northern territory", Gaspar de Almeida said.
The prospectors, known as "garimpeiros," work with shovels and pans along rivers in remote parts of the South-west African country. Angolan gems are high quality and each carat can fetch up to $400 (about R2 400), officials say.
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The government, which relies almost exclusively on oil for revenue, is keen to develop the official diamond industry.
Police estimate they have cleared more than 100 000 illegal prospectors, as well as their families, from the diamond areas.
Some Congolese sent back over the border in 2004 claimed they had been abused. The United Nations, alarmed by the allegations of executions, rapes and forced separations of families, launched an emergency aid program for the area in April 2004 as about 2 500 people a day arrived in Congo with no food, shelter or water.
Angola and Congo agreed the next month to co-ordinate the repatriation of illegal Congolese immigrants.
Gaspar de Almeida said that illegal prospectors would in future be arrested and taken to court. - Sapa-AP
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