KP Review Team in Angola

A Kimberley Process (KP) Review Team is in Angola this week, on a mission to review the country’s compliance with the system’s diamond monitoring regulations. According to an AFP report, the team would meet with government officials and survey diamond fields.

According to a timetable obtained by AFP, the KP team is planned to travel to northeastern Angola to the Lunda Norte province, near the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) border.

Many illegal diamond diggers and traders infiltrated the border to work in the region. In response, Angolan authorities conducted periodical mass deportations of hundreds and thousands of people.

The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) condemned these repatriations, denouncing, “the pervasive and systematic use of rape and violence perpetrated by the Angolan army during the expulsions of Congolese migrants working in diamond mines in…Lunda Norte.”

The KP team will meet with the Angolan National Police, diamond companies and the state-owned diamond firm Endiama.

The KP holds regular reviews of KP member countries, ensuring compliance with the international standards of the KP system. A recent mission to Zimbabwe filed a critical report that was leaked, but not publicized.

One of the criticisms of the KP system concerns its lack of transparency, which stands in contrast to its main goal of bringing transparency to the international rough diamond trade.