2008

Partnership Africa Canada Says There are Too May Illicit Diamonds

November 2008

Partnership Africa Canada, an NGO leader in the campaign against conflict diamonds, said there is "a large and growing trade in illicit rough diamonds," running in parallel with the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.
PAC warns, in a new report it's released, that "the trustworthiness and reputation of the world's entire diamond industry should not depend on the willingness of NGOs to act as its watchdog."
This Review charges that the Kimberley Process is becoming less effective in curtailing abuse and criminality.

The Review relates, for example, that in Venezuela, a shocking 100 percent of the country's diamond production vanishes without a trace every year.
The report concentrates on the development challenge in countries like Sierra Leone, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, emerging from years of war.

"Just as peace is not simply the absence of war," explains PAC, "an end to conflict diamonds does not necessarily mean that diamonds will create prosperity, or that human security will prevail in the areas where they are mined."