BOTSWANA/FILE: Ghana faces diamond export ban after accusations of trafficking in "conflict diamonds"

Record ID: 452179

  • Title: BOTSWANA/FILE: Ghana faces diamond export ban after accusations of trafficking in "conflict diamonds"
  • Date: 17th November 2006
  • Summary: (AD1) GABORONE, BOTSWANA (FILE) (REUTERS) ROUGH DIAMONDS BEING POURED ONTO SORTING TABLE DIAMOND SORTER AT WORK IN DIAMOND SORTING CENTRE VARIOUS OF DIAMONDS BEING EXAMINED VARIOUS OF DIAMOND SORTERS AT WORK VARIOUS OF PILES OF SORTED ROUGH DIAMONDS
  • Embargoed: 2nd December 2006 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Economic News
  • Reuters ID: LVA46XEJBSOJE6LU8VMUT7EP18GN
  • Story Text: A diamond watchdog seeking to stamp out trade in "conflict diamonds" threatened to expel Ghana this week over allegations it was certifying gems coming from war-ravaged Ivory Coast, the chairman of the group told Reuters.
    The Kimberly Process's annual meeting of 46 countries and the European Union held this week in Botswana.
    The Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KCPS) is a joint government, international diamond industry and civil society initiative started in 2002 to weed out the illicit gem trade that fuels civil wars.
    "Today, the percentage of diamonds that we estimate as coming from conflict areas has dropped from 4 percent in ten years to about 0.2 percent today," said Karel Kovanda, chairman-elect of the Kimberly Process.
    On Tuesday (November 7), Kimberly Process officials gave Ghana three months to stop the flow of black market diamonds.
    "We know that Ivory Coast is wracked by civil war, with the South being challenged by the North, the diamond production in Ivory Coast is actually in the north of the country and for a diamond to appear legally on the international market, it needs to have a Kimberly Process certificate, now diamonds mined in the north of the country have no chance of getting an Ivorian Kimberly Process certificate and therefore there have been significant efforts, and there is significant traffic in these illicit diamonds into the neighbouring countries, into Ghana," Kovanda explained.
    Under an agreement to be formally adopted on Wednesday (November 8), Ghana will be given the three-month window to halt the bogus certifications after which a review mission by the Kimberley Process will determine if it has been successful.
    If thrown out, Ghana would not be able to certify its diamonds and would have to reapply to rejoin the group.
    Participants to the KPCS account for 99.8 percent of global production of rough diamonds, according to the organisation's website.
    Efforts to close loopholes that make the illicit trade possible come ahead of a potential wave of negative publicity next month, when a new Hollywood movie "Blood Diamond" starring Leonardo DiCaprio will be released.
    Ivory Coast, where a civil war has still not been resolved, is a focus of the meeting since it is the last source of black-market diamonds on the continent.
    Up to 200,000 carats of rough diamonds, worth 23 million US dollars a year, are smuggled from rebel-held northern Ivory Coast, mostly into Ghana, where they are certified as legitimate despite a United Nations embargo, non-governmental organisations (NGOS) say.
    Earlier civil wars in Angola, Liberia and Sierra Leone were partly fuelled by gems and bloody images of those conflicts, beamed around the world, caused world outrage at the sale of diamonds from conflict zones.
    Ghana will not have to halt its diamond exports during the interim period, a measure urged by the NGOs.
    The western African nation also will be given technical help to boost monitoring during the probation period, delegates said.
    Botswana, the world's biggest producer of high-quality diamonds and current chair of the Kimberley Process, won praise for pressuring Ghana to comply with the restrictions.
    But others were disappointed by the transition period saying Ghana should have volunteered to suspend its exports.
    The certification scheme by the Kimberley Process -- under which governments monitor exports -- has helped cut the amount of conflict diamonds to less than 1 percent from as high as 15 percent 10 years ago, NGOs say.
    The diamond industry says conflict diamonds never accounted for more than around 4 percent of total world production of raw diamonds, worth around 12 billion US dollars a year.
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