Global Policy Forum

Mining ministers from central Africa's diamond-producing countries have agreed to set up a committee to oversee the trade in diamonds and other precious gems in the region. The mining ministers of Angola, the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo Republic and Gabon signed the declaration yesterday after two days of talks in Brazzaville setting up an organisation to "efficiently monitor the trade in rough diamonds in central Africa in order to end smuggling and cross-border fraud". The oversight board will be "the first step towards the creation of an African diamond organisation", the ministers said.

They also vowed to "apply the recommendations made by experts" just before their meeting, including to "better follow the movement of diamonds, to improve border checks, and fight against corruption and the potential implosion of the (diamond) sector". The Congo Republic organised the two-day meeting of mining ministers in a bid to crack down on the illegal trade in diamonds in the region.

Congo was excluded from the Kimberley Process, which groups 43 countries and international organizations, after its huge neighbour, Democratic Republic of Congo, said the smaller of the two Congos could not account for the vast bulk of its exports, estimated at between three and five million carats a year.

Members of the Kimberley Process have agreed to a certification system designed to enable the purchaser of a diamond to tell where it came from and to guarantee that it was legally exported. Artisanal miners in Congo's northern Likouala region unearth about 50,000 carats a year and the DRC alleged that the difference was made up by diamonds smuggled from its territory, Angola or the Central African Republic.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C íŸ 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.