Zimbabwe: Kimberley Process fails to suspend Zimbabwe from blood diamond scheme

Zimbabwe: Kimberley Process fails to suspend
Zimbabwe from blood diamond scheme

Act By: 12/6/2009
Sponsor: Global Witness & Partnership Africa
Canada
Other Contact Info: mail@globalwitness.org &
mail@pacweb.org
Action Site: hhttp://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/865/en/failure_to_suspend_zimbabwe_from_blood_diamond_sch
& http://www.pacweb.org/media-news-releases-e.php

Summary & Comment: The Kimberley Process rough
diamond certification scheme failed to reach a consensus to suspend
Zimbabwe at this week’s Plenary meeting in Namibia....said civil
society groups today. JS

Failure to suspend Zimbabwe from blood diamond scheme
undermines efforts to end abuses and clean up international trade

The Kimb! erley Process (KP) rough diamond certification scheme
failed to reach a consensus to suspend Zimbabwe at this week's Plenary
meeting in Namibia, in spite of evidence of serious non-compliance with
the KP's requirements and widespread government-sponsored human rights
abuses, said civil society groups today.

"Governments' failure to suspend Zimbabwe points to fundamental
weaknesses in the scheme's procedures and to a serious lack of
political will to take decisive action when countries are not
implementing minimum standards," said Annie Dunnebacke from Global
Witness. "This undermines the scheme's effectiveness and compromises
those participants who implement the system in good faith. It also
sends the message that there will be no serious consequences for those
who break the rules."

A joint action plan was agreed with the government of Zimbabwe to bring
the country back into compliance, which provides for a KP-appointed
monitor to verify all shipments of diamonds from the Marange diamond
fields prior to ! export. However, the plan does not address the wider
context of non-compliance in Zimbabwe's KP system. There is no mention
of the central role the Zimbabwean army continues to play in mining and
smuggling, nor does it refer to past and ongoing human rights abuses.

Susanne Emond from Partnership Africa Canada said: "If Zimbabwe
cooperates with the KP and implements the provisions it has agreed to
on paper, it will be an improvement from the status quo. But the action
plan falls short of addressing the most serious issues raised by the KP
review mission team last July. The Government of Zimbabwe must bring to
an end the horrific abuses in the Marange diamond fields, and hold to
account those responsible for the extra-judicial violence."

This week's proceedings were dominated by the KP's attempt to tackle
the crisis in Zimbabwe, to the detriment of progress on other key
issues, including the need for reform of the Process itself. The KP
must clar! ify its approach to human rights in the diamond sector,
develop a more rigorous and independent capacity for monitoring
implementation and develop more effective decision-making procedures.
All these will require renewed political will.

"We hope that the Israeli Chairmanship in 2010 will provide the
leadership and direction that has been so conspicuously absent
throughout this year," said Alfred Brownell from Green Advocates,
Liberia.

The meeting also expressed concern about the growing trade in conflict
diamonds from Côte d'Ivoire and the challenges in implementation of KP
controls in West Africa. Governments, industry members and civil
society renewed their commitments to increase collaboration and improve
Kimberley Process implementation at the regional level. This will
include the development of tools to identify Ivorian diamonds, as well
as measures for closer KP monitoring of rough diamond exports from
Guinea. Constructive and positive discussions also took place about the
links between diamonds and developm! ent, but will need to be followed
up by concrete action in order to make a real difference to diamond
mining communities.

Contact:
Annie Dunnebacke, Global Witness: +44 7703 108 401
Susanne Emond, Partnership Africa Canada: +1 613 882 6778

Notes:

1. The Kimberley Process is a rough diamond certification scheme,
established in 2003. It brings together governments, industry and civil
society, and aims to eradicate the trade in conflict diamonds. Member
states are required to pass national legislation and set up an
import/export control system. Over 75 of the world's diamond producing,
trading and manufacturing countries participate in the scheme.

2. Since the discovery in 2006 of significant alluvial diamond deposits
in Marange, eastern Zimbabwe, controls over the diamond sector have
been nonexistent and communities in and around the diamond fields have
borne the brunt of a seri! es of brutal measures to restore state
control over the area. The auth
orities have failed to stop the military from carrying out abuses and
profiting from the illicit trade in diamonds, effectively condoning -
and perhaps even encouraging - the looting and attendant violence
against civilians.

3. The Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition includes Green
Advocates (Liberia), CECIDE (Guinea), COOPERGADI and COOPERGAC
(Brazil), CLONG (Republic of Congo), CENADEP and GAERN (Democratic
Republic of Congo), GRPIE (Côte d'Ivoire), the Network Movement for
Justice and Development (Sierra Leone), Centre for Research and
Development (Zimbabwe), Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) and Global
Witness (GW).