The Kimberley Process campaign to stop trade in conflict diamonds is swinging into gear
Mungo Soggot
The South African Diamond Board has set up a special office in Kimberley to monitor “conflict diamonds” amid speculation that the diamond town has become a key laundering point for illicit gems from war zones like Angola.
Abbey Chikane, the chair of the diamond board, said in an interview that the office was established “specifically to deal with conflict diamonds”. He said he was aware of allegations that Kimberley had become a laundering centre, but cautioned that the allegations are “not concrete”. He says that the office is staffed by inspectors, who work with the police and who have powers to examine any diamonds.
The United Nations panel investigating conflict diamonds says in its most recent report that “a serious assessment of diamond control measures and local diamond trading is required, to ensure that [the Angolan rebel movement] Unita cannot sell diamonds in South African territory”.
Chikane dismisses the suggestion that there is not enough expertise and manpower to monitor diamonds in South Africa. He says all diamonds are monitored and that not even De Beers escapes scrutiny.
He says every De Beers parcel of diamonds leaving South Africa, or entering the country from the diamond giant’s London-based Diamond Trading Corporation, is checked. He says the diamond board has an inspector from the government diamond valuator at De Beers to monitor all parcels of diamonds a process that he says involves opening sealed parcels in De Beers employees’ presence, and then resealing them.
The government valuator checks the value of diamonds due for export, which has important tax implications diamond producers, especially De Beers, have been accused at times of undervaluing diamonds for export. But Chikane says government diamond-valuator inspectors are also tasked with keeping an eye out for conflict diamonds.
“They check literally all the diamonds. It is their job. They basically look at the quantities and the value of diamonds, but they also look at whether those diamonds are illicit or conflict diamonds and they have to determine the origin and destination of such diamonds. Within the De Beers office we have a valuator and inspector and they do just that.”
Chikane is in charge of the Kimberley Process, a Southern African initiative to establish an international certification scheme that will seek to clamp down on “blood diamonds”. He says the diamond board has set up a certification committee and a monitoring panel, which will produce its first report for the department of minerals and energy and national treasury in February.
The participants in the Kimberley Process met in Gaborone last week, and Chikane is heading for New York to present the proposals to the UN and secure endorsement for the international certification process. The plan is that those countries which can implement the certification process immediately will do so, and the rest by June.
Chikane says De Beers is on board with the Kimberley Process. “Whereas there may be doubts that De Beers complies with all the principles of the Kimberley Process, the understanding is that they are part of the process.”
He says that a frequent problem in South Africa is checking that diamonds marked from countries like the Congo or Zambia are authentic, and not passed through such centres to disguise their true origin. For its part, De Beers says it no longer buys diamonds on the open market in Africa.
Some diamond experts have suggested that the trade of diamonds in Kimberley has increased in recent years as the town has become a hub for illicit African diamonds. Chikane says neither De Beers on which the authorities rely for many statistics nor the diamond board has such figures. He says the diamond board is working on improving its statistics.
The UN panel said it had visited South Africa to discuss ways of cooperating in the identification of violators of the UN ban.
“The Department of Foreign Affairs agreed to allow the [UN panel] to conduct detailed interviews with, for example, customs and the South African Diamond Board. The government has provided information on requirements for trading in diamonds in South Africa, which is being analysed. This was received too late for inclusion in this report.”