War in Ukraine: KP "Still Looks at Conflict Through 20-Year-Old Lens"
April 20, 22
(IDEX Online) - The Kimberley Process faces criticism for failing to act on Russian diamonds, in a hard-hitting report by a Belgium-based independent research institute.
"Following several failed reform attempts, the Kimberley Process still looks at conflict through a 20-year-old lens," says Hans Merket, (pictured) researcher for the International Peace Information Service (IPIS) in a report entitled Russian Diamonds and the War in Ukraine.
"This narrow definition has over the years led the KP to ignore various cases where public or private security forces, and not rebels, were inflicting violence and conflict to control diamond mining areas.
"It is therefore highly unlikely that the KP would consider action on a matter that differs even more from a scenario where rebels control diamond mines."
He says President Vladimir Putin accepts, in his own words, that the $1bn-plus of annual diamond revenue "gives serious revenues to the federal and regional budget".
KP could effectively halt the trade in Russian diamonds through India or China if it chose to, he says, following US and EU sanctions.
However in a section entitled The (non-)response of the Kimberley Process, he suggests no action will be taken when members meet in Gaborone, Botswana, in June.
We have approached KP for comment.