WFDB Warns Not To Trade in Conflict Diamonds from Zimbabwe

Avi Paz, president of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB), has called on members of the 28 bourses affiliated to the WFDB to take all measures necessary to ensure that they do not trade, directly or indirectly, in diamonds originating from Zimbabwe.

The call comes in reaction to numerous reports of violations of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme in Zimbabwe.

“The WFDB and its membership worldwide are committed to do all it can to prevent conflict diamonds from Zimbabwe or from any other source for that matter to be traded by our members,” Paz stated.

According to Paz, it is the WFDB’s duty to remind all those who operate in the diamond industry of the devastating impact of conflicts fuelled conflict diamonds on the safety and security of people in the affected countries.

“Any bourse member who trades in rough diamonds without KP certification is liable for expulsion from his bourse, which in all practical terms means the exclusion from the entire diamond business community,” Paz concluded.

While the KP system was established to battle illicit trade in diamonds, it has been lately argued that the industry cannot turn a blind eye to human rights abuses carried out in the process of mining diamonds. This has been the case with Zimbabwe, where diamonds are exported legally by state authorities, while the mining itself involved great violence on the part of the government and the army.