Arcadia Foundation

In a bold yet controversial move, Kimberley Process Chairman Mathieu Yamba of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has authorized Zimbabwe to resume exports of its rough diamonds, including back stock, IDEX Online reports.

In a recent letter to Kimberley Process members, Yamba said that all unresolved issues surrounding Zimbabwe’s diamonds (which unfortunately are many) would be addressed at a Working Group on Monitoring meeting scheduled to take place this November.

Yamba also wrote that any decision by the Kimberley Process to stop a country’s diamond exports must be subject to a “more credible mechanism that includes verification of allegations and due process.”

IDEX reports that the US has issued a warning to the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, and India that the names of all diamond companies receiving diamonds from Zimbabwe will be published on a government website. The US also reportedly plans to ask the Office of Foreign Assets Control to keep a close watch on all diamond transactions.

The EU, in the meantime, argued that Yamba’s decision had not been taken through due process. Kimberley Process procedure mandates that all decisions be reached through consensus, one of the reasons why the difficult issue of Zimbabwe’s diamonds has taken so long to resolve.

Zimbabwe’s Minister of Mines and Mining Development Obert Mpofu maintains that his country has fully complied with KP standards and that the continued sanctions are a “politicization” of the KP process. Human rights organizations and diamond industry activists in Zimbabwe, meanwhile, continue to report human rights violations and abuses by security forces in the country’s diamond fields.

There is an onus on the international community to subtly acknowledge progression from a political infrastructural standpoint in Zimbabwe, however one doubts institutional oversight taking action against what are in fact abhorrent abuses to human rights for the sake of (albeit significant) diamond finds.

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