Latest meeting on curbing “conflict diamonds” being held in Moscow

Representatives of 38 nations involved in the diamond trade are currently meeting in Moscow in continuing efforts to prevent the gems from being used to finance conflicts in the DRC, Sierra Leone and Angola, the BBC reported on Wednesday. The conference is part of the “Kimberley Process”, an ongoing international effort aimed at working out a set of minimum standards for certifying that diamonds exported from producer countries are legal and not being sold to fund wars. In a press release issued on Sunday, Fatal Transactions (an international a coalition of European and African NGOs leading a consumer awareness campaign regarding the role of natural resources in funding conflict), the London-based investigative human rights and environment NGO Global Witness, and the Ottawa-based Partnership Africa Canada called on governments and diamond industry representatives attending the meeting “to ensure that significant and positive progress is made in bringing an end to the longstanding and devastating problem of conflict diamonds”. “The Kimberley Process negotiators must remember that hundreds of thousands of people in Africa live in daily fear from guns and bullets bought from proceeds of conflict diamonds that continue to be traded in international markets,” they said. “The matter is urgent. The Kimberley Process must not become bogged down in vested interests if it is to contribute to peace and meet the deadline of the 56th session of the UN General Assembly later this year.” Global Witness estimates that smuggling of “conflict diamonds” was worth about US $500 million last year alone.