De Beers calls for action

De Beers Consolidated Mines has sent a letter to diamond associations and exchanges, urging them to prohibit the use of “conflict diamonds” in Africa.

The term refers to diamonds that are stolen from legitimate producers or produced from illegal diggings and then smuggled into other countries to finance civil wars and terrorist groups.

It is estimated that conflict diamonds account for between 4% and 10%, by weight, of the world diamond market.

The letter was signed by Nicholas Oppenheimer, chairman of De Beers, and Gary Ralfe, managing director, and addressed to the World Federation of Diamond Bourses and the International Diamond Manufacturers’ Association, among other groups. It calls for the expulsion from the diamond industry of anyone found to be dealing in conflict diamonds.

“(There) is an urgent expectation . . . that the international diamond industry will itself do everything in its power to limit, restrict and, finally, stop the trade in rough diamonds from areas of conflict,” the letter states. “There can no longer be any place in the industry for the few who jeopardise and sully its reputation by trading in stones which fund suffering and conflict.”

De Beers hopes that the World Diamond Congress will table and pass a resolution calling for the expulsion of conflict diamond traders when it meets in Antwerp in July. Such a move was recently adopted by the Israeli Diamond Exchange.

The letter goes on to propose that:

– importing countries use standard documentation to determine the origin of all stones;

– diamond import control offices be granted the right to refuse entry to wrongly declared or described rough diamonds;

– those same agencies acquire run-of-mine alluvial samples from each producing country, so as to determine the true origin of imported rough diamond parcels;

– banking facilities be withdrawn from customers who refuse to declare that they will not deal in conflict diamonds;

– rough diamond import/export statistics by countries handling rough diamonds be published annually.

Meanwhile, De Beers says it will continue to work with the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the British Foreign Office to isolate trade in conflict diamonds.