© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A view reveals polished colorless and yellow diamonds produced at “Diamonds of ALROSA” manufacturing facility in Moscow, Russia April 30, 2021. Image taken April 30, 2021. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva/File Picture
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By Helen Reid
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Russia has torpedoed a Western-backed proposal to debate whether or not its diamonds are funding conflict forward of a global battle diamond assembly in Botswana, letters seen by Reuters present.
The rift within the Kimberley Course of (KP), which certifies tough diamond exports, dangers paralyzing the physique which makes selections by consensus.
The letters, which haven’t been beforehand reported, present a dispute over a proposal by Ukraine, the European Union, Australia, Britain, Canada, and the US to debate Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and whether or not to broaden the KP’s definition of battle diamonds to incorporate state actors at its June 20-24 assembly in Botswana.
The USA and Britain have already positioned sanctions on Russia’s Alrosa, the world’s largest producer of tough diamonds, which accounted for round 30% of world output final yr, and is partly state-owned.
A draft agenda dated Could 20 included an hour-long slot to debate the problem, however the merchandise was eliminated after objections from Russia, Belarus, Central African Republic (CAR) and Kyrgyzstan.
“We discover ourselves at an deadlock,” Botswana’s KP chair Jacob Thamage informed members – who embrace 85 nations, business representatives, and civil society organisations – in a June 9 letter urging them to search out widespread floor.
The KP defines battle diamonds as gems used to fund insurgent actions in search of to undermine respectable governments.
Formally labelling Russian diamonds “battle diamonds” would require widening the definition. The KP Civil Society Coalition has been calling https://www.kpcivilsociety.org/press/the-kimberley-process-should-stop-turning-blind-eye-to-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-and-take-fight-against-conflict-diamonds-seriously for such a change for years, together with some KP member nations.
The certification scheme, designed to get rid of the commerce in so-called “blood diamonds”, was arrange in 2003 within the wake of devastating civil wars in Angola, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, which have been largely financed by the illicit diamond commerce.
Russia’s KP delegate mentioned in a Could 20 letter that the scenario in Ukraine has “no implications” for the Kimberley Course of and is “completely past the scope” of its certification scheme.
Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and CAR all equally argued that the proposal was “political” or outdoors the scope of the KP, and that its inclusion on the agenda was inappropriate. Battle-torn CAR is the one nation on the earth presently below a partial KP embargo for tough diamond exports. Russia, with whom it has shut commerce and safety ties, has labored to elevate these restrictions.
“If the Kimberley Course of is to be a reputable guarantor that diamonds exported with a KP certificates are literally conflict-free, it can’t refuse to contemplate the legitimate questions which were raised about whether or not tough diamonds exported by Russia are financing its invasion of Ukraine,” Canada’s Ioanna Sahas Martin wrote to the KP chair earlier this month. In a letter to the chair on Monday, Ukraine KP consultant Andrii Tkalenko proposed two amendments to the certification scheme: To widen the definition to incorporate authorities actors, and to permit KP nations, by a majority vote, to expel a rustic that infringes on one other KP member’s sovereignty.
Britain, the European Union and the US additionally mentioned Russia ought to step down from the KP committees it presently chairs.
“Inaction would undermine the credibility and integrity of the Kimberley Course of not solely as a battle prevention mechanism but additionally as a commerce regulation mechanism,” the European Fee’s Marika Lautso-Mousnier mentioned in a letter.
