Kimberley - An international gathering of governments, diamond industry participants and non-governmental organisations that met in Kimberley last week, agreed to a wide-ranging set of proposals aimed at regulating the international diamond trade to halt the sale of diamonds originating from conflict areas.
The proposals, which came out of a technical forum hosted by the South African government, have no force in law but they will be presented to a meeting of Southern African mining ministers in July, where it is hoped individual countries will agree to begin regulating the trade.
The parties agreed that countries should not permit the importation of diamonds unless they carried forgery-proof certificates of legitimacy. It is hoped that by regulating the flow of legitimate diamonds, governments and the industry could begin to progressively freeze diamonds from conflict areas out of the market.
The technical forum also recommended that strong action be taken against people trading in, transporting or financing the trade in illicit diamonds.
It suggested that the state should seize illicit diamonds as well as the aircraft and vehicles in which they are transported.
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the minister of minerals and energy, said the government would also take the proposals to the Organisation of African Unity and other multilateral institutions.
She said delegates to the conference from G8 leading industrial governments, which included the US and UK, would take the proposals back to their countries before they would be discussed by the G8.
``Governments must create and strengthen a conducive environment for fair and transparent trading of diamonds in order to prevent smuggling,`` she said.
``Support has to be given to those countries whose law enforcing systems have broken down.``
Andrew Coxon, a director of the De Beers Central Selling Organisation, put forward a seven-point plant to cut down diamond smuggling and the flow of conflict diamonds.
He called on the World Federation of Diamond Bourses and other trade bodies to banish traders found guilty of sanctions busting.
Global Witness, an organisation that played a key role in first raising the question of conflict diamonds, said that this was the first forum in which governments and the industry had sought common solutions to the problem of conflict diamonds.
But several participants to the conference were sceptical over the willingness of governments to implement the recommendations.
``It is significant that Israel, which is one of the top cutting centres, declined an invitation to be here,`` said one industry source.
An investment analyst who asked to remain anonymous said reaching an agreement in principal to control the trade was easy, but actually regulating and policing it would be an almost impossible task.
``The real problem is that half the people here don`t actually understand the industry and how it works,`` he said.