Kimberly Process Takes Conflict Diamonds Off Market
A program involving more than 80 countries to stem the flow of Diamonds trafficked by armed movements is succeeding in stopping the revenue from sales of the gems being used to stoke violence, World Diamond Council President Edward Asscher said Tuesday.
Kimberley Process Certificate and rough diamonds.
The Kimberley Process has taken “more than 99%” of so-called conflict diamonds off the market, Mr. Asscher said in an interview from Vienna. He rejected a report by London-based Amnesty International last month that said Diamond trafficking was helping to fuel violence in the Central African Republic.
“The Diamond council gladly re-invites Amnesty to participate and join us and the civil society coalition looking into aspects of CAR and the whole Kimberley Process,” he said.
The Central African Republic embargo was imposed in May 2013, 2 months after an alliance of mainly Muslim militias overthrew President Francois Bozize, a Christian. The takeover was marked by the widespread killing of civilians and other crimes, according to groups such as New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Amnesty said traders who have bought Diamonds in the Central African Republic worth “several million dollars” failed to inquire if the beneficiaries are armed Muslim groups who carry out executions, rape and looting. Local companies could soon begin exporting stockpiled gems that may have been mined by child laborers and avoided taxes, it said.
Diamonds in Central African Republic, which ranked as the world’s 10th-biggest producer by value in Y 2012, have funded successive military regimes since the country gained independence from France in Y 1960, according to the International Peace Information Service, an Antwerp, Belgium-based research group.
Both ethical and business arguments supported the industry’s efforts to halt Diamonds that come from conflict zones, Mr. Asscher said.
“Diamonds are such an emotional product you don’t want anything around it that is negative,” he said. “There is no doubt that some Diamonds under some circumstances do not fulfill our conditions and that’s why we take them off the market.”
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Paul Ebeling
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