Financial Gazette (Harare)
10 April 2009
Harare — THE World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) has banned trade in rough diamonds originating from Zimbabwe except those certified by the Kimberley Process, The Financial Gazette heard this week.
Last week, the WFDB called on members to take all measures necessary to ensure they do not trade in diamonds originating from Zimbabwe.
This follows reports of violations of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) by illegal diamond panners.
"The WFDB and its membership worldwide are committed to do all it can to prevent conflict diamonds from Zimbabwe or from any other source, for that matter, to be traded by our members," said WFDB president Avi Paz in a statement issued from Antwerp, Belgium.
"As founding members of the World Diamond Council and as signatories to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, it is our duty to remind not only our own members, but all those who operate in the diamond industry and trade of the devastating impact of conflicts fuelled by the trade in conflict diamonds on the peace, safety and security of people in affected countries, and the systematic and gross human rights violations that have been perpetrated in such conflicts," the WFDB president said.
"The WFDB and its member bourses have a cast-iron rule that rough diamonds can only be traded when they are accompanied by KP certificates," Paz stated. "Any bourse member who trades in rough diamonds without KP certification is liable for expulsion from this bourse, which in all practical terms, means the exclusion from the entire diamond business community," Paz concluded.
Founded in 1947, the WFDB unites diamond exchanges under one roof to provide a common set of practices for bourses trading in rough and polished diamonds, as well as coloured stones.
But the origins of the WFDB actually date back to 1946 when Jack Sigman, the then president, held discussions in Antwerp about creating a vehicle that would look out for the collective interests of the diamond trade.
The inaugural meeting of the WFDB took place in Antwerp in July 1947, at what today is recognised as the premiere World Diamond Congress.
The ability of the WFDB to react to changing conditions in the market has, since 1947, provided the diamond sector with an ability to act decisively and in unison, despite the great distances between the various manufacturing and trading centres. This is almost to ensure that the world federation remains the industry's most important representative body for years to come.
Paz said comprehensive data, descriptions and photographs of the rough diamonds mined at the Marange deposits have been widely circulated by the Working Group of Diamond Experts of the Kimberley Process, making identification of these illicit diamonds easier.
The warning issued by the WFDB does not pertain to diamonds mined at the Murowa deposit in Zimbabwe, since the production from this source is in compliance with the Kimberley Process.
There has been a strong push worldwide to ban trade in diamonds originating from Zimbabwe following reports of rampant illegal goal mining at the diamond fields in Chiadzwa, Marange.
Last month a team from the Kimberley Process visited the country on a fact-finding mission seeking, among other issues, to establish whether mass murders occurred in Marange late last year during a crackdown by security forces on illegal diamond mining.
Government has since responded by restoring order at the fields and allowing the state-run Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) to extract the resource on its behalf.
Government officials were quoted recently saying that the Chiadzwa operation was realising 50 000 to 60 000 carats per week and might produce diamonds worth US$60 000 a day if state-of-the-art mining equipment was procured.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, Gideon Gono, has previously bemoaned the lack of adequate equipment at ZMDC, describing its diamond mining methods as "mechanised gold panning".
"We are processing applications from companies that are interested in cutting and polishing diamonds," Mines Minister Obert Mpofu was quoted saying.
Government seized the Chiadzwa diamond claim from British-based Africa Consolidated Resources in 2007.
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An imprudent decision.
Anyway, anyone in the know knows that the WFDB is a toothless bulldog, a proxie for Canadian and South African rogue mining monopolies.
All commodities that circulate in the global market can reasonably be characterized as "blood" commodities, depending on one's definition of "blood." Are American cars "blood cars" because of the vestiges of "racial" discrimination in Detroit, or Chinese toys, "blood toys" because of labor standards that are deemed inferior by the masters of capitalism or Indian fabric "blood fabric" because of the use of child labor?
Accordingly, the Kimberly process is a trick by mining capitalists who do not want to compete; it is well-known that although capitalism presupposes competition, NO CAPITALIST wants a competitor.
We suppose that since the INVADERS can't steal the land, their new strategy is to impose their values on world trade; now, it is well known that traders don't give a rat's tail about the values of cultural formations, and this for thousands of years. Their interest is in buying and selling, not a seminar on moral philosophy.
This new shuffle in buffonery will be demolished in short order.
Buggerson:
Trick or not, the Kimberly Process CONTROLS the world diamond trade!
How are you going to "rock" diamond merchants who are not in ZImbabwe, are not subject to it's laws, who don't care what you and your ilk will "rock".......
They can get all the "rocks" they want elsewhere - without Kimberly Process certificates, you can't sell them.......
Oh! The Chinese? What have they done recently to assit the "Look East" strategy? Have they ponied up the $10 Billion U.S. yet? No?
I suppose the first shopper can impersonate Marie Antoinette, "Let them eat diamonds".
We all know how well THAT turned out.........
"Total Empowerment!" - empty words for empty minds............
JUBOOBS, your knowledge of the business of rough diamonds is sophomoric.
If you think that "the Kimberly Process CONTROLS the world diamond trade[]," you must be "on something" (Curtis Mayfield}.
By the way, we are reasonably certain that your xenophobic references to the Chinese and other Asian peoples and nationalities have not gone unnoticed by the editors of this site, which, we hope is not a site for xenophobic rants.
Zimbabwean diamonds can not be labelled as blood diamonds neither conflict diamonds.The WFDB should not be in Belgium, since they dont mine diamonds. The WFDB should have an HQ in the largest country which produces the mineral and the member countries drawn from diamonds producing countries, that would be democracy. Racism comes with hidden rules and regulations which are drawn to protect those who market and polish the diamonds. For those who want to know how this diamond trade is run, will find out that to hold and trade in diamonds, 1) One has to be Jewish 2) One has to have a sponsor to be allowed to enter the trading floor in Belgium. 3) The polishers have to be registered by Belgium.
How come DRC, Angola, Seirra Leone dont even have a say in diamond trading yet they produce more diamonds than any other country. These countries diamonds are all blood diamonds if they are in black man's hands. Call it what you want, the truth is so clear not just to the Zimbabwean issue. Antwerp having the last say, how, they dont produce a single stone?
TuTu, it is called a blood diamond, because before it even makes the polishing and marketing floors some poor African soul has been tormented by his own fellow African to scratch for them under horrendous circumstances and conditions.Whist greed and stupidity reigns over the diamond fields there will never be any country in Africa able to sustain itself on it's own resources.It's times like this that guys like you got off their knuckles and started walking around like the rest of us.
For all the whites who think that africa will ever be a colony again forget and relux ,this happened and will never happen again .Sorry britain sorry europe you are uused to get rich with other people `s things
Oh dear, how is Bob going to afford his lavish lifestyle now that the blood diamonds have been banned.