BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Congo Republic was readmitted to an international mechanism regulating the diamonds trade on Thursday after convincing experts it had tightened controls on so-called “blood diamonds”.
Rough diamonds during their sorting process are seen in Gaborone on August 26, 2004. Congo Republic was readmitted to an international mechanism regulating the diamonds trade on Thursday after convincing experts it had tightened controls on so-called "blood diamonds". REUTERS/Juda Ngwenya
The central African country was expelled from the Kimberley Process (KP) in 2004 because it could not account for most of its exports, which were some 100 times more than its estimated output.
Industry officials believe the Congo Republic had been used as a conduit for diamonds mined in the larger Democratic Republic of Congo, scene of a war in 1998-2003 that was funded in part by illicit gems.
A statement issued by the 48-nation Kimberley Process after a four-day meeting in Brussels said Congo Republic had been readmitted. The move could prompt the U.N. Security Council to end a trading embargo against the Congo Republic.
KP chairman Karel Kovanda said Ivory Coast, which would then be the last remaining country subject to such an embargo, could be readmitted too after this year’s ceasefire in its civil war.
“We have been reviewing what steps are needed so that, in the fullness of time, Ivory Coast can rejoin the Kimberley Process as well,” Kovanda, deputy director-general of external relations at the European Commission, told a news conference.
The Commission holds the rotating chair of the KP, which has been criticised for not acting fast enough against errant countries. The issue returned to prominence after last year’s Hollywood blockbuster “Blood Diamond”.
The meeting also approved a declaration on internal controls to be implemented by states with rough diamond trading and manufacturing sectors, such as spot checks on trading companies, inspections of imports and verifiable records of inventories.
The move was welcomed by non-governmental organisations at the meeting who nonetheless noted it was only voluntary and called for states to put in place legally binding controls.
KP supporters say the share of conflict diamonds is now less than 1 percent of the overall world trade of gems from a peak of 15 percent.
In 2006 the process monitored some $35.7 billion (16.9 billion pounds) of rough diamond exports representing more than 480 million carats.
Reporting by Mark John; Editing by Robert Woodward
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