Caution: Trouble Ahead Warns Global Witness

Speakers at the World Diamond Council’s fifth annual meeting devoted a lot of time to the organization’s achievements during the past year. In particular, much was said about the industry’s response to the Blood Diamond movie, about the WDC’s efforts to prevent any fallout from the film, and the organization’s continuing endeavors to educate the public and the trade. While many speakers looked to the future, Alex Yearsley, head of special projects at Global Witness, told the gathering what obstacles really lie ahead.

Although previously troubled African countries, such as Liberia, have joined the Kimberley Process (KP), Yearsley warned of trouble from elsewhere in the continent.

The first hot spot he mentioned was the Central African Republic where fighting is currently taking place. Unlike in other African conflicts, in CAR diamonds are not in rebel hands but are controlled by what Yearsley termed the “alleged” government. The situation, he says, “has the possibility to spill over and cause a headache for the diamond community,” urging close monitoring of the situation so diamonds won't fuel conflict in the region.

Yearsley termed the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo as “truly volatile”. Despite the fragile peace in the country, Yearsley told the Council that he has seen detailed photographs of “armed shipments flown in there recently from our old friends in the conflict diamond trade.”

As with the CAR, he urged very close monitoring of diamonds emanating from the DRC. He pointed to human rights abuses occurring in DRC diamond mines. Even though these are not Conflict Diamonds in the true sense of the word, he said, they do involve diamonds.

Yearsley also drew the council’s attention to human rights abuses in Angola, where he said the treatment of alluvial diamond miners was “dire.” Such abuses have been documented by the U.N., he said and “do not bode well for the future,” especially for any initiative for Angola to chair the KP. 

Yearsley reminded listeners that on June 4 former president of Liberia Charles Taylor will stand trial in The Hague. He warned that once the trial gets underway, 'blood diamonds' will again be in the public eye. Yearsley urged the council to get positive stories into the press to show the public how much has been done since Taylor’s reign of terror. “I have read some of the reports [that will be included in the trial] and they present sober reading,” he said.

Another legal issue that could bring the conflict diamond issue front and center are the RUF trials in Sierra Leone. Yearsley recommended that industry members read the transcripts and testimonies to see what actually happened during those terrible years. There is, he said, quite considerable mention of the role that diamonds played in that regime.

Moving away from African, Yearsley talked about Venezuela, a country well known for its KP violations. “Venezuela has no positive part in the Kimberley Process,” he said, before calling for KP member countries to lobby their governments to have the country thrown out of the process. “We cannot have them holding it back,” he said.

Besides looking to the future, Yearsley also congratulated the WDC on their achievements, especially for their role in returning Ghana to the process. “The Ghana missions [of the WDC Technical Committee] have really set the benchmark."

He also mentioned the positive work that the industry is doing to help the lives of people across the diamond pipeline, especially the establishment of the Diamond Development Initiative.