Legislation on conflict diamonds this year

Proposed international legislation to outlaw the sale of "conflict diamonds" will be presented to the UN General Assembly this year, Namibia's acting Diamond Commissioner Kennedy Hamutenya said on Friday. He said that if stricter measures were not taken, an international boycott of diamonds might result and smuggling could become rife, AFP reported.

"You can bet there is going to be civil strife in Namibia, in Botswana, in South Africa," Hamutenya warned. "We promised that we would have (the draft) ready in time for the 56th session of the UN General Assembly. If we can do it in a shorter time, if it is at all humanly possible, we will do it quicker," he said.

Hamutenya, who chaired a three-day conference in Windhoek on proposed legislation to outlaw diamonds that help fuel conflicts in Africa, said participants from the industry and 26 countries involved in the trade had agreed to a minimum set of standards that would be applicable internationally. The implementation could still take some time as issues of sovereignty and national legislation would have to be brought in line with proposed international measures, Hamutenya conceded at a press conference.