Sightholders ready to submit to Kimberley Process

THATO MOSEKI
Correspondent | Friday June 26, 2009 00:00

The firms' announcement is in reaction to criticism levelled against the Kimberley Process by civic groups this week that the omission of cutting and polishing firms from the Process has created a loophole in the struggle against illicit diamond trading worldwide.

The cutting and polishing firms are an integral component of the diamond trade, receiving rough diamonds from producers for manufacture and in many cases, retail. However, the Kimberley Process (KP) established in 2000 does not include cutting and polishing firms in its aegis. Presently, the KP is limited to states, regional economic integration organisations, civic groups and diamond industry organisations. This week, the Chairman of the Botswana Diamond Manufacturers Association (BDMA) Mervin Lifshitz told Mmegi that local diamond manufacturers were willing to participate in any initiative that would enhance the KP's objectives. The BDMA represents the 16 diamond manufacturers present in Botswana.'We would endorse any process that is put in place that would ensure that the Kimberley Process is adhered to,' Lifshitz said. 'If KP members come up with a process or initiative to enhance adherence to the Process, we would endorse that. At the moment, operating as diamond manufacturers in Botswana makes us part of the KP, but we are not contributors in any way; that role is played by the government.'Lifshitz's comments come as KP workgroups meet in Namibia this week to review global efforts to stamp out illegal diamond trading. The BDMA and its members are not represented at the meeting, while the Deputy Permanent Secretary (Minerals), Jacob Thamage and other Minerals senior officials are in the Namibian capital, Windhoek, for the meeting.

The Windhoek meeting, scheduled to run from June 23 to 25, consists of the KP's workgroups which include those focussed on Monitoring, Statistics and Diamond Experts. Focus at the meeting is likely to be on the Workgroup on Monitoring whose ambit includes 'dealing with issues relating to the implementation of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme by participants, with a view to promoting full and effective implementation by all participants'.

Civil organisations affiliated to the KP said the omission of cutting and polishing firms was undermining the KP's effectiveness. 'The KP has long ignored a significant loophole in its control procedures,' said Anne Dunnebacke of Global Witness, a KP civic society group.

'Civil society organisations call yet again for the KP to ensure that statistics regarding the purchase, use and sale of rough diamonds by cutting and polishing centres are incorporated in its internal mechanisms and reconciled in such a way that rough diamonds do not bypass other internal control measures.'

Other NGOs called on the diamond industry to collaborate in their efforts to demand that government enforces the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme with greater commitment and timeliness.The civil society organisations said the continuing illegal trade in diamonds in hotspots like Zimbabwe, Lebanon and Venezuela, coupled with the KP's apparent lethargy, were rendering the Process futile. 'The clock is running out on the Kimberley Process' credibility,' said Dunnebacke. 'The work it was set up to do is vital - it would be scandalous if uncooperative governments and industry succeeded in hobbling it into ineffectiveness.'

In neighbouring Zimbabwe, the KP has been accused of failing to identify and stamp out diamond smuggling from the Marange Diamond Fields and of ignoring 'clear evidence of government-led human rights abuses' related to the shooting of suspected diamond smugglers in Marange last year.

A high-level team of KP members visited Zimbabwe last March to deliver a message to the government there with regards to diamond smuggling in the Marange Diamond Fields.

However, civil society organisations, which earlier pressured KP member states to expel Zimbabwe, feel the Process has fallen short of the required action to rein in diamond smuggling in Zimbabwe.

The KP is due to review the Zimbabwean situation and civic organisations have already called on members to provide 'clear direction where problems are identified'.