Calls for Evolution, Zimbabwe Center Stage, As KP Session Opens

Zimbabwe's Minister of Mines Obert Mpofu and Human Rights Watch Associate Director Carroll Bogert, perceived as standing at opposite sides, discussed the imbroglio under the watchful eye of WDC President Eli Izhakoff, on the sidelines of the KP meeting in Tel Aviv

The 2010 Kimberley Process Intersessional opened in Tel Aviv Monday morning, with calls for changes in the rough diamond tracking system. All eyes, however, are on Zimbabwe, the country expected to be in the center of many of the talks in the three day conference.

Referring to the debate over Zimbabwe's exports, in his opening remarks Israeli Minister of Industry, Trade & Labor Binyamin Ben-Elezer said that it is important that the "illusive solution be found."

Speaking about the efforts to find a solution to the Zimbabwe quagmire, KP Chairman Boaz Hirsch said that the arrest of NGO activist Farai Maguwu by the Zimbabwe police escalated the tensions in the Process. Members of the NGOs handed out T-shirts printed with 'Free Farai' as Hirsch was speaking.

All participants in the conference agree that the export of Marange goods needs to be resolved, with most saying that the compromise that needs to be reached is one where an external body, such as the UN, should investigate, or "deal," with the human rights violations in the African country.

World Diamond Council President Eli Izhakoff had the clearest call for change in KP. "Just as in nature evolution is a response to a change in environment and ensures survival, so KP needs to evolve," he said.

Izhakoff suggested four changes in the KP:  the creation of an administrative body that would support KP chairs in daily management of the system; end the requirement for unanimous vote in the KP; increase transparency in KPs internal discussions and reports; and to vigorously enforce the Chain of Warranties, the voluntary system that tracks polished diamonds from manufacturing – the point where KP stops tracing trade in diamonds.