Ivory Coast: Lift UN diamond ban

Ivory Coast will lobby for the lifting of a UN ban on its diamond exports at a meeting this week, a government official said, arguing its stones are no longer a threat to the country’s stability now its civil war is over.

The UN Security Council put an embargo on the West African nation’s diamonds in 2005 to stop their sale funding arms purchases and fuelling the conflict, which began in 2002.

Ivory Coast is the last remaining source of so-called blood diamonds and is the only country under a UN export ban of such gems.

“We want the diamond embargo lifted. Today, Ivory Coast is not a country at war,” said Fatimata Thes, the ministry of mines official heading the lobbying effort. “We want to take full advantage of our wealth and practice good governance by exerting control over the marketing process.”

Blood diamonds — diamonds used to fund insurgencies — were thrust into the spotlight in the 1990s during a succession of conflicts where the trade financed arms purchases and led to human rights abuses.

At the height of wars in Sierra Leone and Angola, about a fifth of all rough stones worldwide were said to be blood diamonds.

Public outcry led to the establishment in 2002 of the Kimberley Process, a government, industry, and civil scheme aimed at certifying stones and preventing blood diamonds entering the international market.

The industry says such stones now represent less than 1% of world supply.

The government of president Alassane Ouattara, seeking funds for post-war reconstruction, is striving to bring Ivory Coast’s diamond sector into compliance with the Kimberly Process, a step towards lifting the UN ban.

An Ivorian delegation plans to submit a plan for its diamond sector during a four-day Kimberley Process meeting that begins in Washington today.

The UN Security Council voted in April to maintain the ban on Ivorian diamond exports. UN monitors said illegal trafficking continued despite the embargo, with revenues going to rebel commanders now integrated into the army.

“Military, guns and control of diamonds don’t mix,” said Alan Martin of Partnership Africa Canada, a civil member of the Kimberley Process.