UN Sets Ivory Coast Rough Diamond Ban

The United Nations Security Council approved a resolution to ban exports of rough diamonds from the Ivory Coast. The Council is also threatening to set individual sanctions, adding that cocoa also plays an important role in providing funds for the “off-budget and extra budgetary military procurement efforts”.

The Security Council has “renewed for another year the arms embargo and the travel and financial restrictions imposed on the country on 15 November 2004 and decided to ban imports of rough diamonds from the country,” the resolution said.

A civil war has been raging in the West African country for three years.

The UN said it is willing to impose travel bans and freeze assets of persons believed to have interfered with the peace process, committed human rights violations, publicly incited hatred and violence, or violated the arms embargo.

However the resolution fell short of placing Individual sanctions.

The ban on rough diamond exports follows a report by a UN team of experts from November that rebels were selling rough diamonds to finance military procurements. According to the report, income from cocoa was also used to fund the war efforts.

“Cocoa plays an important role in providing funds for the off-budget and extra budgetary military procurement efforts of the Government,” the report stated.

According to the WTO, the country supplies about 32 percent of the world cocoa, and serves as a major source of its income.

The UN Security Council has also imposed a ban on rough diamond exports on Liberia.