Blood Diamonds on the way back

Kimberley Process failing Africa - campaigners

KINSHASA, (Reuters) - The diamond industry's Kimberley Process is failing due to a lack of accountability and follow-up, paving the way for an illegal trade that could see a return of conflict stones to world markets, campaigners said.

The certification scheme, designed to eliminate the trade in so-called "blood diamonds", was set up in 2003 in the wake of devastating civil wars in Angola, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, which were largely financed by the illicit diamond trade.

Before its implementation, conflict stones made up about 15 percent of the world market. Though they are believed to account for less than 1 percent of stones bought and sold today, millions of carats produced annually remain untraceable.

"The only thing they really need to be able to do is to track diamonds in Africa, in countries coming out of conflict, and they simply can't," said Ian Smillie, co-author of an annual review of the industry... in 2008, Congo produced more than 33 million carats, accounting for around 20 percent of the world diamond market. However, the study found that nearly half of the country's exported stones were untraceable. "The case of Congo is absolutely emblematic of the problems plaguing the Kimberley Process," said Elly Harrowell, a campaigner with conflict resource watchdog group Global Witness.

...in 2008, in a move recognised and accepted by fellow members, Venezuela officially suspended diamond exports for at least two years while it reorganised the sector. But visits by watchdog groups have confirmed that the trade continues, meaning that Venezuela's entire diamond production is now off the books and illegally smuggled..."Diamonds could very quickly again be at the centre of a very major problem," Smillie said.