LUANDA has said it will severely punish illegal diamond miners in Angola’s central Bie Province, according to official news reports on Monday. The reports said that following rumours of new diamond sites in the province, a large number of illegal miners had started mining in areas controlled both by the Unita rebel movement and the government. Under Angolan law, diamonds are considered strategic resources for which prospecting and exploitation rights are regulated under a government licensing system. The traditional diamond-producing area is in Lunda-Norte Province in the Northeast where about 2 million carats were produced in 1998, fetching $450-million in foreign currency.