Zimbabwe diamonds row legacy leaves monitoring process in crisis

The future of the Kimberley Process (KP) now hangs in the balance as civil society groups consider leaving the organisation, as disagreements over the Zimbabwean diamonds crisis threaten to engulf it.

The NGO coalition involved in the diamond monitoring process, having announced it will boycott a KP plenary next month, has threatened ‘complete withdrawal from the scheme’ over institutional shortcomings and, especially, the handling of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe’s Marange diamond fields.

A joint letter to the diamond body’s chairman, Mathieu Yamba, said: “We have grave concerns about the ability of the Kimberley Process to respond effectively to situations where diamonds are fuelling armed violence and gross human rights violations.

“We remain particularly concerned that this plenary will likely end all meaningful oversight of Marange despite ongoing and credible concerns about its compliance and co-operation with the KP in meeting minimum standards.

“We also note the reluctance within the KP to adopt the institutional reforms necessary to ensure robust and credible oversight of the rough diamond supply chain.”  

The KP’s problems stem from 2009 when it backed down on a threatened suspension of Zimbabwe after clear human rights abuses in the country’s rough diamond trade seemed to breach the rules the organisation was there to implement and oversee.

It decided to ask Zimbabwe to conduct a phased withdrawal of military personnel from mining areas, and to send a monitor to examine shipments. However, the NGOs believe this has done nothing to stop the flow of blood diamonds from the region.

Replying to the NGO letter, Yamba, now nearing the end of his term as chairman and without a successor in place after further disagreements over stances on Zimbabwe, said the plenary would go ahead regardless and the KP would “continue to work with those who wish so”.

The KP is already viewed with cynicism over its handling of Zimbabwean diamonds and looks unlikely to remain meaningful without the oversight of parties independent of diamond production or trading.

The NGOs say they will continue ‘supporting a diverse range of initiatives’, some ‘outside of the Kimberley Process’.

Diamond entrepreneur Martin Rapaport says the KP has simply reached the limit of its original remit, and that the industry should now find other ways to implement ethical standards.

He said: “It’s not the fault of governments or the KP that they are unable to solve the problem of human rights in the diamond industry.

“The KP was designed to respond to UN Security Council resolutions that embargo diamonds to stop wars – as was the case in Sierra Leone in the late 1990s. It was not designed and never had a consensus for the elimination of human rights violations.

“So let’s make it clear: the problem isn’t the KP and the solution isn’t the KP. The real problem is the fact that the diamond and jewellery industry refuses to take responsibility for the human rights violations that are taking place in the artisanal mining sectors.

“The dishonest attempt by trade organisations to lay human rights problems at the feet of the KP, which is incapable of dealing with them, is shameful, wrong and evil.”

Zimbabwean politicians are already dismissing the KP as ‘defunct’, and many commentators feel a full withdrawal of NGO support would kill the scheme.

Global Witness, a UK-based non-profit body at the forefront of opposition to the KP’s recent actions, even though it formed the organisation in 2003, said: “It is too important to fail, and that is why we have not walked away from it yet ... [But] are we endorsing a system that we cannot believe in any more?”