DELEGATES at the Kimberley Process (KP) Conference in Tel Aviv, Israel failed to reach a consensus after three days of intensive negotiations over a possible solution to the issue of rough diamond exports from Zimbabwe's Marange fields.
"We so far haven't been able to reach consensus on the Zimbabwe issue," said Boaz Hirsch, chairman of the Kimberley Process, a group made up of government, human-rights and diamond-industry officials representing 75 countries.
Participants at the meeting said the U.S., Australia, Canada and the European Union were opposed to the resumption of exports from Marange.
On the other hand most African countries as well as Brazil, China, Russia, India and the United Arab Emirates want the trade injunction lifted, based on the Kimberley Process's recent report of conditions there.
Zimbabwe government officials at the proceedings accused the U.S., Australia, Canada and the EU of playing politics, and opposing Marange diamonds in order to change Zimbabwe's government regime.
The Kimberley Process suspended approval of diamonds exported from Marange in 2009 following allegations of human rights abuses and the involvement of security services in the extraction of the gems.
However, South African Abbey Chikane, who was appointed by the KP to assess measures taken by the government to comply with world body’s guideline, reported that the country had now met the minimum standards and exports should resume.
But several human-rights groups and some in the diamond industry itself have ramped up pressure on the KP to maintain the ban, claiming Marange is a site of forced labor and funds President Robert Mugabe and senior officials in his Zanu PF party.
"We think resumption of the export of Marange diamonds, even in a limited capacity, would make the flow of blood diamonds out of Zimbabwe even easier, and the average consumer won't be protected," said Tiseke Kasambala, a Human Rights Watch spokeswoman.
She further alleged smuggling of Marange diamonds was continuing netting Mugabe and his allies "millions of dollars."
The military, which is controlled by Mugabe, occupies the area of the Marange mine, Kasambala said.
Still, there is no doubting the impact Marange would make in the global diamond industry.
Chaim Even-Zohar, head of an Israel-based diamond consulting and research firm, said that, if fully mined, diamonds from Marange could make up 25 percent of the global supply, an estimate that was backed by the Zimbabwe's mines minister Obert Mpofu.
Diamond mining has become a lucrative business in Zimbabwe, with government officials estimating that the trade could earn the country $1.2billion per month, a huge boom for a country whose annual gross domestic product was only US$4.4 billion in 2009.
Story from : NEWZIMBABWE.COM NEWS:
Published On: Thursday, June 24, 2010 1:28 AM GMT
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