Russia question lingers as KP debates Kasane agenda
Mbongeni Mguni | Monday May 23, 2022 04:51
The global diamond industry meets in Kasane on June 20, a keenly awaited event as the world’s biggest producer of precious stones, Russia, continues its military invasion of Ukraine.
The Kimberley Process (KP), consisting of 85 countries, diamond producers, observer groups, and civic organisations, faces a moment of truth in its nearly two-decade history of being the world’s premier watchdog for conflict diamonds.
While the definition of what constitutes a conflict diamond has come up for robust debate at each of the KP’s three-year internal reviews, it remains limited to “rough diamonds used to finance wars against legitimate governments”.
That definition in practice has meant the KP’s focus has been on war-torn Africa such as the Central African Republic and Sierra Leone, while Russia, a powerful KP member, has not faced official censure for its attack against Ukraine, a fellow KP member.
And Botswana, as the chair of the KP for this year, does not expect the status quo to change any time soon.
“Any participant can put that agenda item as a proposal and as the chair, we are duty-bound to include it for adoption in the agenda,” Diamond Hub coordinator, Jacob Thamage told Mmegi on Thursday.
“However, the agenda has to be adopted via a unanimous process.
“Both Ukraine and Russia are members and you can imagine the difficulty that they are at war, but it has nothing to do with diamonds.
“It’s a difficult situation for the Kimberley Process, not just the chair.
“If you are in the same club and two members start fighting, the club is affected, not just the captain.”
The KP has six working groups, each with a chair, which works on the agenda items to be put before members on the first day of the upcoming meeting. The six chairs, plus Botswana and the vice-chair, Zimbabwe, will then develop the agenda and put it before the KP members for adoption by consensus, allowing the meeting to kick off.
For 2022 Russia chairs two of these working groups.
Already, according to Thamage, teams discussed the agenda proposals earlier this week and are waiting for members’ input. From today (Friday), these proposed agenda items will be circulated to the wider members for the next four weeks before they arrive in Kasane and discuss the agenda’s adoption.
The process means if any member puts up an agenda item on expanding the KP’s definition of conflict diamonds to rein in Russia, or otherwise attempts to censure Moscow, the effort can easily be shot down before the planes touch down in Kasane. Russia’s diamond mining is led by a mega-corp known as Alrosa. The Russian government owns 33% shares in Alrosa and, according to diamond industry experts, the group’s CEO, Sergej Sergejevitsj Ivanov, is not only part of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle but, as a result, was one of the first oligarchs targeted with US sanctions.
In 2021, the Russian government’s share of profits from Alrosa reportedly amounted to $1.1 billion and the group has also allegedly directly funded the military previously, with reports that it has paid significant amounts over the years to “increase the combat readiness of Russian submarines”.
While Western governments led by the US have imposed sanctions on Russia, analysts have said the effort to limit the extent to which Moscow funds its Ukraine invasion with Alrosa revenues, would be better placed at the KP level, where Russo-neutral states such as India and China would have to end their trades with Russia.
The KP’s rules on broader decision-making are based on absolute consensus, which critics say has paralysed efforts to update the organisation’s effectiveness, particularly around tackling the various manifestations of conflict diamonds.
That fact means the Russian question, while it may be the subject of conversations on the sidelines or from participants on the floor, is unlikely to make it to the Kasane meeting’s official agenda. The broader question of expanding the definition of conflict diamonds is equally doomed to fail because while it has appeared on the KP’s agenda over the years, no unanimous consensus has been reached.
“The decision-making is by consensus and because of that, there has not been any agreement on reviewing the definition and therefore, it is also unlikely that we would reach consensus on that,” Thamage says.
“I would think reviewing the definition is going to be one of those difficult things to progress because it has been on the agenda for many years since perhaps 2012 or 2013 if I recall.
“The KP is reviewed every three years and the definition has been one of the issues on the agenda since 2006.”
The spotlight falls on Botswana chairing at a time when the country was prioritising using its year in office to advance another critical KP function that has fallen behind. The COVID-19 pandemic has constrained the KP from carrying out peer reviews on member states, which are critically needed to stamp out conflict diamond activities.
Zimbabwe, whose Marange diamond fields have seen violent state-led crackdowns on illegal miners, with reports of torture amidst a general lack of transparency and accountability, is undergoing one such review, the first since the pandemic broke out. Civic groups advocating for the expansion of the definition of conflict diamonds have frequently said the Marange diamonds would easily fall into an updated definition.
“As the chair, our priority has been on restarting the reviews and there’s a review visit for Zimbabwe which should be finishing soon,” Thamage says.
“We hope that during the Kasane meeting, more candidates will come forward for reviews.
“Restarting these reviews is critical because that’s what tells us that the system is being implemented or not.”
Analysts say for those countries whose stones are playing fast and loose with the current definition of conflict diamonds, the KP’s inability to reform is a blessing as it ‘whitewashes’ their otherwise questionable output.
The questionable stones are able to be bundled under the same branding as conflict-free diamonds from countries such as Botswana, thus benefiting from the global goodwill and marketing.
The inaction, however, could ultimately cost the KP and its producer states, as ethical consumers turn away from natural rough diamonds in preference for more ethically sourced jewellery or, worse still, synthetic diamonds whose provenance is clearer.
The Kasane meeting, the analysts say, could make or break the industry.