PAC: “Conflict Diamond Controls Failing”

Calling the upcoming Blood Diamond movie “a needed wakeup call”, NGO Partnership Africa Canada claims in a new report that while the Kimberley Process (KP) has been very successful in some ways, recently it became clear that it has large blind spots.

According to PAC Research Coordinator, Ian Smillie, in the past couple of years implementation in some countries has been poor, and major problems have emerged. Massive KP-related fraud was uncovered by Partnership Africa Canada in Brazil and Guyana, and a recent UN report has documented the wholesale laundering of conflict diamonds from Ivory Coast through neighboring countries.

The report, Killing Kimberley? Conflict Diamonds and Paper Tigers, goes on to warn that it is not the film that should be concerning the diamond industry and the governments that benefit from diamonds, but rather “the weak controls they have put in place to deal with the reality of conflict diamonds”.

“In each case the Kimberley Process behaved like a disinterested bystander,” Smillie accused, “its response tepid, late or non-existent.”

Blood Diamond will be a major focus of attention at the Kimberley Process diamond control annual meeting in Botswana, November 6-9. An internal three year review of KP to be presented at the Botswana meeting has virtually ignored the growing problems, PAC claims.

It goes on to blame government members of a review committee that vetoed almost every recommendation that might have tightened or professionalized the system. A draft report was watered down and sanitized by virtue of the Kimberley Process’s concept of “consensus”, it says.