Gaborone | Monday
A PACT to curb the trade in “blood diamonds” has been reached with agreement on international certification for rough diamond exports and imports, officials said as talks wound up in Botswana.
“Blood diamonds” or “conflict diamonds” are defined as rough diamonds which are used by rebel movements to finance their activities, or those obtained by using, or threatening to use, coercion or military force.
A ministerial meeting in the Botswanan capital last week gathered nations and organisations which are members of the Kimberley Process — a group formed to exclude conflict diamonds from international trade.
Ministers for Mineral Affairs from Botswana, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) attended the meeting, together with a range of non-governmental organisations involved in the curbing of the conflict diamond trade.
Detailed proposals of the international certification scheme were drafted by members of the Process and presented in a working document, dated Wednesday, “with a view to breaking the link between armed conflict and the trade in rough diamonds.”
It called on countries which were in a position to issue Kimberley Process Certificates to “do so immediately” while others should be encourage to issue certificates by June 1 next year.
“It is the intention of the participants to start the full implementation simultaneously by the end of 2002,” a three-page statement issued at the end of the meeting said.
Government ministers agreed on the certification scheme on Thursday. The statement added that the widest possible participation in the scheme was essential and should be encouraged and facilitated.
“The certification scheme of rough diamonds will only be credible if all participants have established internal systems of control designed to eliminate the trade in conflict diamonds within their own territories,” the statement said.
It recommended UN support for its implementation, including non-specific sanctions on the trade in conflict diamonds.
The meeting agreed however, that some issues were still outstanding, like steps to be taken against non-compliant members or members trading with non-members and the financing of control mechanisms.
“Diamonds fuel human rights violations. But most African diamonds are clean. We have to protect the legitimate trade and industry,” South African Mineral and Energy Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said on Friday.
She said companies involved in the “blood” diamond trade would lose their permits and licenses — or would not be eligible to receive them under the new agreement.
The trade in blood diamonds has fuelled conflicts in Africa, where various rebel groups, armies and their foreign partners have been accused of dealing in them, notably in Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The United States on Thursday hailed the agreement saying that the meeting in Gabarone had produced “a number of significant steps.”
The United States welcomes the results of the Kimberley Process ministerial meeting,” the US State Department said in a statement.
The department noted that the group would soon ask the United Nations to take action to support the certification scheme. -AFP