The World Diamond Council has urged the trade to “practice enhanced vigilance” over the coming year when handling rough diamonds believed to have originated from the Central African Republic (CAR). It says that this is required because the restructured Operational Framework System finalised at the recent Kimberley Process (KP) Plenary Meeting held in New Delhi, India, “shifts some of the burden of verifying the provenance of the goods to the trading centers”.

The caution comes in the wake of a provisional modification that will be in operation for a period of one year, that seeks to improve the efficiency of the current Operational Framework System.

Under its terms, the CAR government will be allowed to issue KP certificates to rough diamond shipments at will, for goods being sourced in the eight currently approved green zones. Till now, KP certificates could only be issued after obtaining approval from the CAR Monitoring Team (CAR MT) prior to each export.

The CAR Government, which is responsible for securing the local supply chain, including buying houses and cooperatives, remains obliged to provide comprehensive information about rough diamond exports under its purview on a monthly basis.

The CAR MT will continue to monitor all legal exports from the country and will cross-check copies of all KP export certificates received from the CAR government against the confirmations of imports of the corresponding shipments, which will be supplied by the authorities in the importing countries/trading centers.

In a notice to members of the diamond industry outlining the steps that they need to take in the light of this change, Udi Sheintal, Secretary, WDC, asks members of the trade to ensure that “import shipments from CAR only include goods that have been sourced from the approved green zones, and always are accompanied by a duly authorized CAR Government KP certificate”.

He adds, “Importers seeking to ensure transparency are encouraged by the KP to provide the CAR MT with confirmation of shipments of diamonds imported from the country.”

The notice also draws attention of the trade to a recent UN report that “provided the identities of foreign diamond traders suspected of operating illegally in CAR” and whose “names have been forwarded to local law enforcement authorities for further investigation”.