Posted on 07/11/2004 10:45:19 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
KINSHASA, Congo -- A U.N.-backed body assigned to curb the sale of conflict diamonds suspended the Republic of Congo from the legitimate diamond trade on accusations the African nation sent millions of dollars in smuggled gems onto the world market.
The suspension followed a May 31-June 4 mission to Republic of Congo that found the country was dealing in millions of carats of smuggled diamonds from other African countries.
The West African country was sending the gems through the lesser diamond centers of Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates to avoid rigorous controls at the world's diamond hub, Antwerp, Belgium, investigators found.
"The findings of the review mission are clear," Tim Martin, chairman of the Canada-based Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, said in a statement that was released late Friday night in Canada.
"The Republic of Congo cannot account for the origin of large quantities of rough diamonds that it is officially exporting."
Therefore, suspending Republic of Congo "was necessary to safeguard the credibility and integrity" of the certification process, Martin said.
The Kimberley Process was established with industry backing in late 2002 to keep illicitly traded diamonds out of the $60 billion a year diamond industry.
The certification program is the diamond industry's response to growing world concern about "blood diamonds," which fueled and funded 1990s' wars in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Congo.
Forty-five countries have signed on. Suspension closes legitimate diamond-trading channels to Republic of Congo, barring the gems from Kimberley Process signatories including Belgium, the world's diamond-trading center, and the United States, which buys two-thirds of the world's diamonds.
In their report, investigators found Republic of Congo was exporting diamonds at a rate "approximately 100 times greater than its estimated production."
Almost all the diamonds it sent to market were therefore smuggled into Republic of Congo illegally, they concluded.
Republic of Congo officials - apparently seeking to evade taxes and hide revenues - also were formally declaring the gem-quality stones in Switzerland at far less than their market price, investigators concluded: just 98 cents U.S. a carat on average, compared to the average market price of $75.90 a carat for uncut, unset stones.
Republic of Congo denied the allegations.
Republic of Congo mines ministry official Louis-Marie Djama said Saturday he hadn't been informed of Republic of Congo suspension from the Kimberley Process, but said such a move would be "arbitrary."
"We observe that certain member countries have been wanting to exclude us," Djama said, citing specifically Republic of Congo's larger neighbor, similarly named Congo.
An expulsion of Republic of Congo would throw into question "the credibility of the Kimberley Process," he said. "I can't see what conflict diamonds could come into our country."
The suspension was the third worldwide from the Kimberley process, and the second active one.
Central African Republic, another of Republic of Congo's gem-rich neighbors, was suspended last year because of concerns over fighting there, but allowed back in.
Lebanon was suspended in March this year, because its president did not pass into law legislation making the Kimberley Process a legal entity in his country. It remains suspended.
An international diamond embargo still stands on Liberia. The West African nation was a major trafficker in smuggled arms and diamonds under former President Charles Taylor, who fled into exile last August.
A report commissioned by the U.S. Congress and released earlier this week recommended that the United States propose broadening the Kimberley Process to block alleged African diamond trade benefiting terror groups, including al-Qaida.
Why do I get the feeling that "Conflict diamonds" are much less about "conflict", and more about keeping the price high for the DeBeers cartel?
Oh you are SO cynical.
Governments and the U.N. act to protect us.
Otherwise there would be anarchy.
I made up a new word!
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