The chairman of the Kimberley Process has agreed to allow Zimbabwe to sell diamonds from its disputed Marange fields.
|||The chairman of the Kimberley Process has agreed to allow Zimbabwe to sell diamonds from its disputed Marange fields, deputy mines minister Gift Chimanikire said on Friday.
But the World Diamond Council, a global industry group, warned its members not to trade in the gems after key members, including the United States, Canada, Israel and the European Union, questioned the validity of the decision.
“Permission for sale was issued by the KP chairman,” Chimanikire told AFP.
“But I do not know when the actual sale would take place.”
He said the decision was probably taken in February, when Zimbabwe Mines Minister Obert Mpofu travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo to meet with Kimberley chairman Mathieu Yamba.
Kinshasa holds the rotating chair of the Kimberley Process, and has close ties to President Robert Mugabe.
The Marange fields, touted as Africa's richest diamond find of the decade, have been at the centre of a years-long controversy over mining rights and abuses by the military.
The Kimberley Process, created to prevent the trade in “blood” diamonds that fuel armed conflicts, normally takes such decisions by consensus at its regular meetings. Yamba's decision appears to have been taken unilaterally.
The World Diamond Council said in a statement that the United States, Canada, Israel and the European Union have indicated that the diamond sales should not yet be permitted.
The council “advises members of the international diamond industry to refrain from trading in and exporting goods from the region until the situation and the status of these goods becomes clearer”. - Sapa-AFP
Source: http://www.iol.co.za/kimberley-to-allow-zim-diamond-sales-1.1047446
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