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Ghana warned on conflict gems
07/11/2006 15:07 - (SA)
Gaborone - A diamond watchdog seeking to stamp out trade in "conflict diamonds" agreed on Tuesday to put Ghana on probation after allegations that it had been certifying gems coming from war-ravaged Ivory Coast, said delegates.
A Western government delegate to the Kimberley Process said: "We have an agreement in principle. A satisfactory solution has been found to the Ghanaian situation."
The Kimberly Process's annual meeting of 46 governments and the European Union in Botswana has been seeking to close loopholes ahead of the release next month of the new Hollywood movie, Blood Diamond starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
Ivory Coast was the focus since it was the last source of black-market diamonds being smuggled out by rebels after earlier civil wars in Angola, Liberia and Sierra Leone, which were partly fuelled by gems.
'Prove yourself serious or else'
Non-governmental organisations said that up to 200 000 carats of rough diamonds, worth $23m a year from the rebel-held north of Ivory Coast were being smuggled out, mostly into Ghana, where they were being certified as legitimate despite a United Nations embargo.
Under the agreement, which was due to be formally adopted on Wednesday, Ghana would be given three months to halt the bogus certifications after which a review mission by the Kimberley Process would determine if it had been successful.
Another delegate said: "A review mission is a pretty big shot across the bow, telling them 'prove yourself serious or else'."
If the mission determined Ghana had not complied, it could be thrown out of the Kimberley Process, cutting off even its own national diamond output from gaining certificates.
Delegates said Ghana would be given technical help to bolster monitoring during the three-month probation period.
A delegate said Botswana, the world's biggest producer of high-quality diamonds and current chair of the Kimberley Process, impressed upon Ghana the seriousness of the situation.
He said: "Botswana has been extraordinarily active in getting the attention of the Ghanaian authorities to the problem that they have. At the highest level, there were president-to-president talks when they just met in China during a summit last week."
NGOs said the certification scheme by the Kimberley Process - under which governments monitor exports - had helped cut the amount of conflict diamonds to less than one percent from as high as 15% 10 years ago.
The diamond industry said conflict diamonds never accounted for more than around four percent of total world production of raw diamonds, worth around $12bn a year.
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