UN Report: Rough Diamonds Smuggled Across Ivory Coast Border

An as yet unpublished report commissioned by the United Nations Security Council claims that diamonds mined at areas controlled by rebels in the Ivory Coast (C?te d’Ivoire) are entering the legitimate diamond trade. According to the Kimberley Process KP), these rough diamonds should be blocked from sale.

A report in the Financial Times on Friday first revealed preliminary conclusions by the UN appointed panel of experts commissioned to investigate a ban on diamond trading. The report is due to be submitted to the Council later this week.

According to the report, diamonds mined in the Ivory Coast are smuggled across the border into Ghana. NGO’s monitoring the diamond trade in Africa said today that the panel discovered that the diamonds are certified as legitimate in Ghana, before being shipped elsewhere as KP compliant goods.

NGOs Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) and Global Witness say the group of experts is recommending that international trading centers introduce better systems for identifying suspicious shipments of rough diamonds.

The Kimberley Process is currently undergoing a review intended to make it more effective in stemming the trade in conflict diamonds. The two NGO’s claim that there has been strong resistance by some governments to any meaningful change in the status quo.

Earlier this year, NGO investigations uncovered diamond fraud in Brazil and Guyana. As a result, Brazil has suspended all diamond exports for more than six months, the NGOs said in a release today. In the case of Ghana, a KP review team that visited the country in 2005 has still not completed its report.

“If the Kimberley Process cannot demonstrate at its upcoming annual meeting in Botswana, in November 2006, that it has closed the loopholes, it will be in danger of becoming irrelevant,” Global Witness and Partnership Africa Canada said today.

“We are extremely concerned about the findings contained in this UN report,” said Ian Smillie of Partnership Africa Canada, “not just because the Kimberley Process has been unable to identify the problem itself, but because it shows that weak government controls in one place can make a mockery of the entire system.”

Partnership Africa Canada has been deeply involved in the international efforts to bring good governance to the international diamond trade and to eliminate conflict diamonds.