Congo Confirms Cannot Stop Illegal Diamond Trafficking
June 07, 04
The government of Congo has confirmed that illegal diamond trafficking is taking place in the country and neighboring states and it is unable to stop it.
"Diamonds are being smuggled in without us or other diamond producing countries able to control the situation," Mining Minister Philippe Mvouo told reporters. "It is difficult to control our borders and we maintain our total innocence."
The ministry was unavailable for comment on the reports.
Mvouo’s remarks followed a fact-finding mission to Congo between May 31 and June 3 to assess its diamond production as part of the Kimberley Process that aims to curb trade in "conflict diamonds".
Abbey Chikane, the former chairman of the Kimberley Process who led the delegation to the Congo, attacked the paucity of controls on small diamond mines, the few statistics on production and sales and the lack of sourcing of some of the diamonds.
"Small-scale producers, collectors and trading centers must have registries that mention the origin of diamonds," Mvouo agreed. But he added that the problem lay not with diamonds mined in Congo but those that are smuggled into the country.
Congo started mining diamonds in the 1960s. Since then production has soared from 988,000 carats to 4.6 million carats last year.
Congo has been a member of the Kimberley Process since March 2003.