The blue gemstone lapis lazuli, which has become an important source of income for the Taliban movement in Afghanistan, is sold in Danish stores. It writes Information.
The gemstone is primarily mined in Afghanistan.
Information has mapped 39 Danish web retailers that sell lapis lazuli in Denmark. Eight dealers provide information on country of origin. Six of them report in Afghanistan.
One of the largest is the jewelery company Ole Lynggaard Copenhagen. It is a royal court supplier and sells exclusive jewelery to more than 275 stores worldwide.
Currently you can buy 31 pieces of jewelry containing lapis lazuli. The most expensive is 87,500 kroner.
Søren Lynggaard, co-owner and director of Ole Lynggaard Copenhagen, acknowledges the problem, but has only now become aware of the connection between the stone and the Taliban.
– We’re really sad about that. We are not interested in funding the Taliban, so we must ensure that the lapis lazuli we use going forward does not come from Afghanistan.
– If we can not document it and at the same time get the quality we need, then we will not sell lapis anymore, says Søren Lynggaard to Information.
The wholesale company Stenguiden delivers lapis lazuli to over 70 Danish stores.
Anders Futtrup, director of Stenguiden, does not believe that the responsibility should be up to the individual dealer.
“It should be legislated for, and then it should simply be banned if it supports the Taliban,” Anders Futtrup told Information.
There is no legislation preventing the sale of lapis lazuli in the EU. New legislation on conflict minerals came into force earlier this year, but it only covers gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten.
According to a Taliban member speaking out in a leaked NATO report from 2020, the Taliban’s annual mining earnings are $ 464 million.
According to Information, it places mining as the Taliban’s largest source of revenue over drugs, which has previously been considered the movement’s primary source of revenue.
Source: The Nordic Page