UN panel reports on gem, arms traffickin

A UN panel investigating illicit arms and diamond dealings with anti-government forces in Sierra Leone has recommended measures to curb the trade and protect other countries with nascent legitimate industries.

In a summary of its report made public on Wednesday, the panel recommends that, in the absence of a global certification system for diamond-producing countries, all exporting countries in West Africa should adopt Sierra Leone’s certification systems.
The panel said that this recommendation was “with special and immediate reference to Guinea and Cote d’Ivoire, as a protective measure for their indigenous industries” and to prevent being exposed to conflict diamonds.

“If this has not been completed within a period of six months the Security Council should impose an international embargo on diamonds from these countries,” it said.

The panel also suggests “a complete embargo” on all diamonds from Liberia until it demonstrates convincingly that it is no longer involved in illegally selling arms to or trafficking in diamonds from Sierra Leone. Liberia has steadfastly denied this charge.

“The ban should not be lifted until this condition has been met and until Liberia too has joined the proposed standardised certification system,” the panel added.

It called on the Security Council to place an immediate embargo on trade in so-called Gambian diamonds “until such time as its exports of diamonds can be reconciled with imports”. The Gambia does not produce diamonds.

In its search for conflict diamonds from Sierra Leone, the panel discovered that a large volume of the gems entering Europe are disguised as Liberian, Guinean and Gambian in order to avoid taxes and to launder money.
The report also describes flagrant examples in Belgium of fraudulent commercial reporting on the stones.

The summary concludes that “a country like Liberia, whose name has been used with or without its knowledge by illicit traders, can thus conceal its own very real trade in illicit and conflict diamonds behind larger rackets being perpetrated by others.”