The stakes were high as the sun set in Tel Aviv last week. Seventy international delegates talked long into the night but failed to reach a consensus. At issue: what one campaign group describes as the “return of the blood diamond”.
Members of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme were meeting to decide whether Zimbabwe had met its minimum conditions to begin international diamond sales, potentially boosting its fragile economy by at least $1-billion a year.
Harare insists it has complied with the regulator’s demands for clean trade, citing the recent positive report of a scheme monitor. But civil society groups have urged the delegates to maintain Zimbabwe’s suspension because of human rights abuses in the diamond fields, including the massacre of hundreds of illegal diggers. Rights groups say soldiers in Marange are still engaging in forced labour, torture and harassment.
Arrest of Maguwu
The calls have intensified since the arrest and imprisonment of Farai Maguwu, a whistleblower who has been monitoring alleged abuses, reportedly after members of his family were beaten and detained.
There are also fears that profits from gem exports could be used to bankroll President Robert Mugabe’s cash-strapped Zanu-PF party at the expense of its rival-in-government, the Movement for Democratic Change.
Civil wars in Angola, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1990s brought to global attention how rough diamonds, used by rebel movements to finance wars against governments, could end up in jewellery shops in London and New York. The issue was dramatised in the film Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
Ten years ago, a UN resolution launched the Kimberley process, a joint initiative by governments, the diamond industry — including De Beers — and advocacy groups to choke off illicit sales. The safeguards came into effect in 2003 and are claimed to have reduced conflict diamonds from 15% to a fraction of 1% of international trade.
Acid test
But illegal diamond sales remain a huge concern in countries such as Venezuela, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea and Lebanon. Last year seven campaign groups issued a joint statement warning that the scheme was “failing to address effectively issues of non-compliance, smuggling, money laundering and human rights abuses in the world’s alluvial diamond fields”.
Two of the scheme’s leading figures have quit. Elly Harrowell, a campaigner at Global Witness, which helped set up the scheme, said recently: “Ten years on, is the KP a success or a failure? The process has definitely had some impressive successes in the last 10 years, but unfortunately we would say, in the last few years, a lack of political will has jeopardised the progress.” She added: “This could be a make or break year for the Kimberley process.”
A higher-level meeting will follow in Jerusalem in November. Pressure groups say Zimbabwe is now an acid test of its credibility.
“The Kimberley Process risks total irrelevance if it ignores these ongoing abuses,” said Rona Peligal, acting Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “If the Kimberley Process can’t take real action on an issue like Zimbabwe, then what is it good for?” – guardian.co.uk