Blood diamonds – Kimberley Process comes under fire

The landmark Kimberley Process scheme established in 2003 to prevent trade in conflict diamonds is potentially failing in its objectives, campaigners said yesterday. Ahead of a key meeting of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) in Namibia, a coalition of civil society groups said that despite having all the tools in place, the scheme was failing to address effectively issues of non-compliance, smuggling, money laundering and human rights abuses in the world’s alluvial diamond fields. The groups highlighted a number of countries where there were issues of concern. (more…)