Southern African countries will launch a scheme in November to try to end the trade in blood diamonds, funding many of the continent’s conflicts, a senior regional official said on Sunday.
Prega Ramsamy, Executive Secretary and CEO of the 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) said the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme for trade in rough diamonds would be launched at a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, on November 5.
The United Nations has said warring factions in Angola, Sierra Leone and Liberia bought arms with proceeds from uncut gemstones sold to the world markets, where their origin is soon obscured. The new scheme aims to oblige countries to issue certificates proving the gems come from legitimate mines.
”Trade in conflict diamonds is a matter of serious international concern. Conflict diamonds have a negative impact on peace, safety and security of people in affected areas,” Ramsamy said, speaking as ministers gathered in the Angolan capital Luanda for the annual SADC summit this week.
During the summit, ministers will urge the region’s diamond producing countries to comply with the scheme from November, SADC officials said.
SADC comprises the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Seychelles, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Mauritius, Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho and South Africa.
Summit host Angola is one of the world’s largest diamond-producing countries.
Angolan diamonds were widely seen to have funded the former rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola’s (Unita’s) 27-year war against the government of President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
At least a million people were killed in the civil war and four million displaced before a ceasefire was declared in April, after the February death of veteran Unita leader Jonas Savimbi.
Toby Orr, representative for the majority government-owned diamonds production monopoly Angolan Selling Corporation (Ascorp), said the new scheme set standards by which diamonds could be judged.
Angola operates a ”single channel” buying system, which means Ascorp has control of legitimate diamonds from the ground to the market.
However, Ascorp says diamond smuggling continues despite tight regulation.
”We don’t pretend that there isn’t illegal diamond trafficking, we don’t pretend that it doesn’t exist,” he said.
”What we’re doing is that through Stanwest (the security arm of Ascorp), we’re 100% committed to reducing and ultimately eliminating all illegal diamond activity,” he said. – Reuters