With the seeming loss of credibility of the Kimberley Certification Scheme nine years after its coming into being, there is less confidence in the market that diamonds are ‘clean’ but a former head of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) believes Guyana still has strong mechanisms for trading in the gem.
In the past, one of the two NGOs that worked to establish the Kimberley Process – Partnership Africa Canada – reported that diamonds from Venezuela were being mixed with Guyana’s stones and being passed off as coming from Venezuela.
In a press release on December 5, the other NGO instrumental in the commencement of the Scheme – Global Witness – said it was leaving the Kimberley Process as an observer and called for the diamond industry to be accountable.
“The Kimberley Process’s refusal to evolve and address the clear links between diamonds, violence and tyranny has rendered it increasingly outdated,” Global Witness said.
It noted that despite intensive efforts over many years by a coalition of NGOs, the scheme’s main flaws and loopholes have not been fixed “and most of the governments that run the scheme continue to show no interest in reform.”
The press release from Global Witness quoted Charmian Gooch, a Founding Director of Global Witness, who pointed out that nearly nine years after the launch of the Kimberley Process, “the sad truth is that most consumers still cannot be sure where their diamonds come from, nor whether they are financing armed violence or abusive regimes.”
In the release, he said that the scheme has failed three tests. “It failed to deal with the trade in conflict diamonds from Côte d’Ivoire, was unwilling to take serious action in the face of blatant breaches of the rules over a number of years by Venezuela and has proved unwilling to stop diamonds fuelling corruption and violence in Zimbabwe. It has become an accomplice to diamond laundering – whereby dirty diamonds are mixed in with clean gems,” the release quotes Gooch as saying.
“The diamond industry should be required to demonstrate that the diamonds it sells are not fuelling abuses – by complying with international standards on minerals supply chain controls, including independent third party audits and regular public disclosure. Governments must show leadership by putting these standards into law,” the release said. “Consumers have a right to know what they’re buying, and what was done to obtain it,” added Gooch. “The diamond industry must finally take responsibility for its supply chains and prove that the stones it sells are clean.”
Reasonable
Speaking to Stabroek News last week, former commissioner of GGMC, William Woolford, said that the agency would have a sense of what is reasonable where diamond declarations are concerned. He made this statement in response to a question on the possibilities of figures of diamond production being inflated as a result of laundering of diamonds from another country with Guyana’s diamonds.
He said he has heard of cases where diamonds leave Venezuela – not through Guyana – and are sent to other countries without the relevant checks and balances being applied to it.
But he acknowledged that the huge border stretching between Guyana and Venezuela poses a challenge for its policing and that it is fraught with possibilities for smuggling. He said that while he does not want to say too much about the movement of items across the border, persons coming from Brazil or Venezuela will have a difficulty in finding a willing accomplice in Guyana to mix the incoming diamonds with the local ones in order to escape the controls of the country of origin.
On the prospect of the Kimberley Process being rendered ineffective, Woolford said that Guyana has had decent checks and balances for the export of diamonds long before the process came to life. He said he does not foresee a catastrophic fallout in Guyana’s diamond trade from any eventual failure of the Kimberley Process.
He said one complaint that players in the local diamond industry had was the length of time it took for the diamond exportation regulations to be processed, in accordance with the Kimberley Process. He said they wanted the process to be a faster one.
Efforts to reach new Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Robert Persaud, for a reaction to Global Witness’ announcement proved futile on Saturday.
