Concerns grow over blood diamonds

Campaign group Global Witness has raised concerns over the effectiveness of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, which aims to stop the use of diamonds to fund conflict in Africa.┬á  Officials are currently meeting in Namibia for a three-day conference to review the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), which was set up in 2002 to prevent diamonds being traded to fund fighting across Africa.  However, Global Witness has warned that the Scheme is ÔÇ£potentially failing in its objectives.ÔÇØ It cites a failure to ÔÇ£address issues of non-compliance, smuggling, money laundering and human rights abuses in the world's alluvial diamond fields.ÔÇØ The Scheme, which forces participants to certify the origin of any diamond being traded, thereby reassuring consumers, failed to ban the sale of diamonds from Marange, Zimbabwe, where up to 150 miners were reportedly slaughtered by the military last year.  In addition, Global Witness reports a 500% increase in diamond exports from Guinea, where corruption in the mining industry is widely acknowledged.  "The clock is running out on Kimberley Process credibility,ÔÇØ says Annie Dunnebacke, a spokesperson for London-based Global Witness.┬áÔÇ£The work it was set up to do is vital ÔÇô it would be scandalous if uncooperative governments and industry succeeded in hobbling it into ineffectiveness".  Global Witness also reports that despite agreeing to suspend its diamond trade in 2008 until new control systems could be implemented, Venezuela was found in May 2009 to be mining and smuggling its diamonds into the world's legitimate trade, prompting questions over the effectiveness of the KPCSÔÇÖs monitoring function.  Concerns have also been raised around continued diamond production in the Ivory Coast, despite UN sanctions.  The group is repeating calls for the ongoing problems to be ÔÇ£addressed and solved as a matter of urgency.ÔÇØ *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *