Botswana must take its leadership position in the 'clean' diamond campaign

At their last meeting in Tel Aviv last month delegates to the "Kimberley Process" were unable to agree on how to deal with Zimbabwe, where a highly repressive military elite is keeping itself in power by controlling the proceeds of the Marange diamond fields, in the eastern part of the country.

The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme was founded in 2003 after the civil wars in Angola, Sierra Leone and Liberia destroyed countless lives in the scramble for diamond wealth. Consumers in the United States and elsewhere grew increasingly uneasy at the idea of buying a diamond that had been produced in the context of extreme human rights abuse.
Diamond producers and traders, worried that bad publicity might affect their bottom line, agreed to establish the Kimberley Process together with representatives from civil society, to monitor the international diamond trade.