The United States-based Responsible Jewelry Council (RJC) has welcomed last month’s agreement reached by the Kimberley Process (KP) that enabled the renewal of rough diamond exports from Zimbabwe’s Marange fields but said its members would undergo independent auditing to ensure their systems do not allow trade in conflict gems.
RJC chief executive Michael Rae said the council looked forward to the full implementation of the agreement reached between the Zimbabwe government and the KP during a World Diamond Council meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, on 15 July, 2010.
He said to aid the implementation of the agreement, all RJC members would be required to comply with the organization’s code of practices, which include four provisions requiring conformity with the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) for rough diamonds.
“As part of the RJC certification process, RJC members will undergo independent, third party auditing of their relevant business practices to evidence their conformity with the RJC’s requirements for compliance,” Rae said in a statement.
Under the agreement reached, Zimbabwe was authorized to export some of the diamonds mined in Marange in the course of August 2010 provided it meets certain prior requirements, including the provision of an audit of its diamond stocks and the receiving of a review mission.
The southern African country is reportedly sitting on a stockpile of 4.5 million carats of diamonds believed to be worth more than US$1.7 billion.
Diamond exports from the Marange area were banned in October 2009 after a KP fact-finding mission exposed rampant smuggling and human rights abuses allegedly committed by soldiers employed to guard the fields.
The soldiers were accused of murdering illegal miners who descended on the area soon after diamonds were discovered in 2006.
Source African Press Agency
African News from NetNewsPublisher.com
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