Zimbabwe Diamonds High on KP Windhoek Meeting Agenda

Published on Wednesday 24th June 2009

ZIMBABWE'S diamond trade will no doubt feature high on the agenda of the three-day Intersessional Meeting of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), which began yesterday, with the opening remarks of chairperson Bernard Esau setting the tone for this.

The Kimberley Process is a joint government, industry and civil society initiative to stem the flow of and prevent trade in conflict diamonds, and is this year being chaired by Namibia.

Recently, the KP has come under heavy fire from civil society groups, with seven groups on Friday releasing a joint statement saying that despite having the necessary tools in place, "the KPCS is failing to address effectively issues of non-compliance, smuggling, money laundering and human rights abuses in the world's alluvial diamond fields".

With this criticism, much is also expected of Namibia, with Alfred Brownwell of Green Advocates - one of the seven signatories - saying: "Namibia was a founding member of the Kimberley Process and as Chair of the scheme should be a leader in ensuring an effective and efficient diamond certification system.

"The Kimberley Process must be a force for development in Africa's diamond-rich nations and take a clear stand against human rights abuses."

Diamond trade from Zimbabwe, where the government under the leadership of President Robert Mugabe has been accused of fuelling conflict and human rights violations with diamonds from the Marange deposits, is perhaps the most contentious issue in diamond trade at the moment.

At the opening of the Intersessional Meeting yesterday, Zimbabwe formed a major part of Esau's opening remarks, with the Chairperson, Namibia's Deputy Minister of Mines and Energy Bernhard Esau, stating that "there are still gaps that can be strengthened in order to curb the central inflow of illicit diamonds that are being illegally exported from Zimbabwe".

Esau said in achieving the KPCS's aim to curb illicit trade, "we need to continue strengthening the security system and improve our internal controls".

"The Kimberley Process has been monitoring the situation, in the attempt to bring Zimbabwe in level with the KP culture of producing diamonds for development."

Earlier this year, Esau led a delegation to Zimbabwe to engage authorities there, and after the visit, issued a statement noting that "the KP expresses growing concerns at the reports of violence and indications of smuggling in the Marange mining area," and has "stepped up international efforts to prevent the laundering of those diamonds."

To this end, Esau yesterday reported that "all participants as well as the public were informed on the situation on KP's awareness on the matter. Strategies and actions were drawn up to tackle these issues within the KP fraternity.

"Participants were requested to implement measures of enhanced vigilance and were provided footprints of Marange diamonds. The Zimbabwean authorities provided the Chair with a recent report of the state of play on the situation in Marange.

"A call for regional co-operation has been emphasised and technical assistance has been requested in this regard, and these matters will be followed up by the Secretariat."

Civil society groups are, however, calling for a ban on Zimbabwe's diamond trade, with Partnership Africa Canada earlier saying that "when regulators fail to regulate, systems collapse and the people they are designed to protect suffer".

A review mission to Zimbabwe is expected to take place next week, after the Intersessional meeting, which ends tomorrow. The meeting has allocated a session for this morning solely for the discussion of the Zimbabwean diamond industry.

Another concern noted in the Chairperson's speech was the issue of fake KP Certificates.

Esau noted that "the recent fake Guinean and Namibian certificates in the trade show that more approaches to deal with this specific issue are needed," adding that a consistent approach to dealing with the problem was necessary.

"Participants and the public at large have been warned about these activities and guidance on detecting shipments with fake certificates have been made available," Esau said, while providing a full progress report on the work that Namibia has done so far in its term as Chair of the KPCS.

Included in the report were remarks on the effect of the economic recession on the diamond industry, assisting Venezuela in its implementation of the KP's minimum standards, progress made by the Scheme's Working Groups and feedback on review visits to DRC, Turkey Liberia and Sierra Leone.