Zimbabwe’s fate as to whether it can sell its diamonds from Marange on the open market will be decided tomorrow but there is already a complication- the Kimberley Process plenary which is meeting in Jerusalem has no specific recommendation to act on. A diamond industry expert says the KP review mission which visited Zimbabwe is August made a few dozen recommendations on various issues but refrained from making any recommendation about exports of the country’s rough diamonds from Marange.
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The daggers are drawn. Zimbabwe is once again the talking point. The topic: its diamonds, especially those from Marange. The question: should the country’s diamonds be certified by the Kimberley Process to trade openly or not? Those against: human rights abuses are still rife and it is Mugabe’s military that is benefitting from illegal trade in diamonds and not the country. Those for: the country should be certified so that its diamonds can be traded transparently because the country is going to sell its diamonds anyway, with or without KP approval. Besides, the country is now such a major force in the diamond industry that it cannot be ignored. Who will win? That is the question that will be decided this week when the Kimberley Process, the organisation tasked with ensuring the trade of conflict free diamonds, meets in Israel from Monday, November 1.
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