Regulators Fail To Agree On Zimbabwe Diamond Trade

| Monday June 28, 2010 00:00

The meeting in Israel of the Kimberley Process (KP), a certification scheme set up to monitor diamond trades, had been due to end on Wednesday but it was extended to allow delegates more time to reach a consensus.

A statement at the end of the four-day meeting said the delegates 'could not reach consensus regarding...the work carried out by the KP Monitor to Marange. As such, the meeting ended at an impasse'.

'This situation is unprecedented in the Kimberley Process meeting but all parties are committed to further engagement,' Boaz Hirsch, KP's chairman, said in the statement.

The KP had angered human rights groups and diamond traders this month when a monitor it appointed to assess the mining operations at Marange said Zimbabwe had met the minimum conditions set by the regulator and could start gem exports.Zimbabwe said on Wednesday it planned to begin selling diamond stockpiles from Marange no matter what the outcome of the KP meeting.

Hirsch called for another meeting to resolve differences.

Civil society groups, which are part of the Kimberley Process, are facing public calls to leave the regulatory body given its failure to suspend trade in diamonds from Zimbabwe.

Rights groups allege serious abuses by security forces deployed by the Zimbabwean government to stop illegal diamond digging after up to 30,000 panners descended on the poorly-secured fields in 2006.

The Zimbabwean government agreed to a process of assessment by the Kimberley Process following reports of atrocities in Marange four years ago. Rights groups say soldiers in Marange are still engaging in forced labour, torture and harassment.-(Reuters)