CAR "Needs Support" as Diamond Ban is Lifted
November 25, 24
(IDEX Online) - The lifting of an 11-year ban on rough diamond exports from the Central African Republic (CAR) is the right decision, says the observer group KP Civil Society Coalition (KPCSC).
It ultimately did more to support smugglers than to protect the diamond mining communities it was meant to help, according to Jaff Bamenjo, Cameroon-based vice coordinator of the organisation of mostly African diamond-producing countries.
But he spoke of his concern that the Kimberley Process plenary in the UAE had barely touched on the complex and ongoing challenges of poverty, conflict, and fraud linked to CAR's diamonds.
"It has been disheartening to see so much energy spent defending positions and so little directed toward finding solutions," he said in his closing remarks published after the plenary ended (on 15 November).
"These dynamics have oversimplified a deeply complex situation, reducing it to a binary debate on lifting the embargo when, in fact, we needed a thoughtful assessment of where the KP has fallen short and how we can better support CAR's diamond mining communities."
KP members voted at the plenary in UAE to re-admit CAR, in light of what it described as "an improving security situation" even though the civil war that started in 2013 is still raging.
Diamond exports have been outlawed from the so-called red zones - representing two thirds of his country's diamond mining areas, but will now be allowed.
Pic shows Jaff Bamenjo.