Rapaport Diamond may expel members
Source: Agencies |
August 18, 2010, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
IN what's being hailed as an unprecedented move that will boost buyer awareness of blood diamonds, a global diamond trading network has vowed to expel any member who knowingly trades gems from two Zimbabwe mines where laborers have been killed and children enslaved.
Monday's announcement by the US-based Rapaport Diamond Trading Network, an industry diamond price and information provider, comes after international regulators declared the stones from the Zimbabwe mines conflict-free, backing off a ban they imposed in November and allowing 900,000 carats of diamonds to be auctioned last week.
"This is the first time that we've heard of a large group like the Rapaport group actually taking such a strong stand," said Tiseke Kasambala, a Zimbabwe specialist with Human Rights Watch.
"Consumers will certainly ask questions" about the stones they buy, she added.
The international regulators, whose group is known as the Kimberley Process, said the two mines are operating at "minimum" international standards. The Rapaport group, though, said that does not guarantee the stones are "free of human rights violations" and vowed to publish the names of members knowingly trading in diamonds from the diamond fields near the eastern city of Mutare in Zimbabwe.
Kimberley Process officials did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment on the move by Rapaport, which has 10,000 members. Stephane Chardon, chairman of the group, noted that the Kimberley rules apply only to blood diamonds mined and sold by rebel movements or their allies to finance armed conflicts aimed at toppling legitimate governments.
Monday's announcement by the US-based Rapaport Diamond Trading Network, an industry diamond price and information provider, comes after international regulators declared the stones from the Zimbabwe mines conflict-free, backing off a ban they imposed in November and allowing 900,000 carats of diamonds to be auctioned last week.
"This is the first time that we've heard of a large group like the Rapaport group actually taking such a strong stand," said Tiseke Kasambala, a Zimbabwe specialist with Human Rights Watch.
"Consumers will certainly ask questions" about the stones they buy, she added.
The international regulators, whose group is known as the Kimberley Process, said the two mines are operating at "minimum" international standards. The Rapaport group, though, said that does not guarantee the stones are "free of human rights violations" and vowed to publish the names of members knowingly trading in diamonds from the diamond fields near the eastern city of Mutare in Zimbabwe.
Kimberley Process officials did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment on the move by Rapaport, which has 10,000 members. Stephane Chardon, chairman of the group, noted that the Kimberley rules apply only to blood diamonds mined and sold by rebel movements or their allies to finance armed conflicts aimed at toppling legitimate governments.
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