A significant number of conflict diamonds are being smuggled out of rebel-held territories of Côte d’Ivoire to neighbouring Ghana, where they are being certified as conflict-free and sold through legitimate channels, the NGO, Global Witness, said this week.
The findings were made by the United Nation Group of Experts on Côte d’Ivoire, whose latest report was released this week. Global Witness and Partnership Africa Canada have warned that this undermines the entire Kimberley Process “not just because [it] has been unable to identify the problem itself, but because it shows that weak government controls in one place can make a mockery of the entire system”.
The Kimberley Process was implemented three years ago to regulate the trade in conflict diamonds. It is currently being reviewed to make it more efficient, but there is some resistance from diamond-exporting countries.
A Kimberley Process review team that visited Ghana in 2005 has yet to complete its report.
If the Kimberley Process cannot prove that it has found a way to close the loopholes it will be in danger of becoming irrelevant.
“If the Kimberley Process can’t agree to demand tougher government controls, with better oversight of the diamond industry, the process will be little more than a paper- pushing exercise,” said Susie Sanders of Global Witness.
The illegal trade in diamonds has fuelled many of Africa’s longest and most brutal conflicts, including the wars in Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.