Cracks in blood diamond scheme

A landmark international safety net to stop the use of diamonds to fund fighting is close to collapse. The Kimberley Process, a system agreed in response to appalling civil wars in Africa fuelled by illegal gems, seeks to assure buyers that by purchasing diamonds they are not funding war and human rights abuses. It works by forcing participants to certify the origin of any diamond being traded. But one of the people behind the scheme, which started up in 2003, said he had walked out on because governments are failing to act on violations. "It isn't regulating the rough diamond trade," Canadian expert Ian Smillie said yesterday. "It is in danger of becoming irrelevant and it's letting all manner of crooks off the hook," he told The Independent newspaper.

Campaign group Global Witness, which lobbied to get the scheme set up has also said the scheme is failing. It highlighted diamonds smuggled from Ivory Coast and an alleged massacre of diamond diggers by the army in Zimbabwe last year. Today officials finished up a three-day meeting in Namibia to review the Kimberley Process in the light of a growing list of concerns. The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme originally helped renew consumer confidence in precious stones and now regulates 99.98 per cent of the rough diamond trade. But if it loses credibility, experts have warned that criminals will re-enter the trade. They say conflict diamonds will quickly reappear in shops in London, Paris and New York.

The army killed hundreds of diamond miners in Zimbabwe as the government took control of a key mining area late last year. People working in the precious stones industry have questioned whether Zimbabwe’s gems match the definition of conflict diamonds because they are helping to fund a government, not a rebel army, but Mr Smillie said: "They are blood diamonds, they have blood all over them." He said the system’s motto has become "let's not do anything now" and accused its enforcers of "fiddling while Rome burns".

The Namibia meeting made plans to send an inspection team to the troubled southern African nation next week. But commentators say it's unlikely the inspectors will be given access to the Marange area where the killings happened. Many of the people they want to interview have been arrested or intimidated. One hundred per cent of Venezuela's diamonds are being smuggled, according to figures from Global Witness. Guinea has reported an unlikely 500 per cent increase in diamond production year on year; and Lebanon is exporting more rough diamonds than it imports. But while inspection teams have been sent out and reports written, none of those countries have been suspended from the process.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children