Naomi Campbell diverts attention from bigger issue

According to the chair of the KP, Boaz Hirsch, the decision showed the scheme had “teeth” and “is able to achieve results” because exports would now be supervised by a monitor from the regulator.

“If this is a victory for anyone, it is a victory for the Kimberley Process,” he said last month.

It’s anything but. No one has been brought to justice for the crimes committed and the case of Zimbabwe has raised serious doubts as to whether the regulator can fulfil its role.

Under the KP provisions, Robert Mugabe’s regime has technically done nothing wrong: “Conflict diamonds means rough diamonds used by rebel movements or their allies to finance conflicts aimed at undermining legitimate governments” (emphasis added).

And as Human Rights Watch points out: “The abuses committed by Zimbabwe’s police and army did not occur in armed conflict …”

It is incredulous that diamonds from Marange are not considered blood diamonds.

Yet the current structure of the scheme means any real action against Zimbabwe, or any other country that follows its lead, is unlikely to be taken.

“… the KP’s reliance on consensus among members has allowed regional allies to veto tough decisions on Zimbabwe, which remains a member despite the state-sponsored murder of hundreds of diamond diggers,” Annie Dunnebacke, a diamond campaigner for human rights group Global Witness, says.

The KP cannot effectively deal with governments that commit abuses because it was established as a response to conflicts involving rebel groups such as in Sierra Leone. Ad-hoc penalties such as temporary bans are hardly an effective response to murder, rape, forced labour and so on.

Zimbabwe is the latest in the number of incidents that cast serious doubt over whether the KP can do its job.

Back in 2007, Global Witness found illegal trade in diamonds worth more than $10 million was happening between KP members and non-members.

The group exposed serious failings in the KP’s ability to detect illegal trading. In 2006, the United Nations revealed the Ivory Coast smuggled US$23 million of blood diamonds out of the country.