Diamonds are fueling the civil war, not religion!

"Global diamond trade is the main reason for the war in the Central African Republic – not religion!" This is what the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) stated in Göttingen on Wednesday, after the government of the African country had again requested a permission to export diamonds in the context of the Kimberley Process. Previously, the legal gem exports, which are very important for the country's economy, had gone back considerably – while the illegal exports had significantly increased. The Kimberley Process is a regulative instance for diamond certification that is supposed to inhibit the trade in blood diamonds.

The government hopes that legalized gemstone exports could help to stabilize the ailing economy and to secure the jobs of about 90,000 diamond miners. "The initiative cannot change the fact that politicians and militia leaders in the Central African Republic are fighting over control of the diamond mines – on the backs of the civilian population," said Delius. "The Kimberley Process has failed here: large numbers of blood diamonds were illegally exported from the war-torn country to Europe and Asia with fake certificates of origin, even after the diamond trade was suspended. The unscrupulous smugglers are not the only ones to blame – but also diamond dealers in Antwerp, Geneva, Zurich, Dubai and Mumbai (Bombay), who choose not to question the certificates of origin for the sake of profit."

For the Central African Republic, the plans to reform the gem trade in 2013 in order to stop illegal export and to establish ethical standards in the diamond industry have turned out a disaster. The legal diamond trade declined by two-thirds, while the illegal exports flourished. In 2012, the civil war country had legally exported gems worth 365 883 carats, but only 125 734 carats in 2013. The country is the world's tenth largest producer of rough diamonds.

"Despite the guidelines and control measures of the Kimberley Certification Process in the neighboring countries, the illegal trade with gems from the Central African Republic and fake certificates of origin has increased significantly," said Delius. Diamonds with hundreds of thousands of carats were smuggled out of the war-torn country, especially through Cameroon and the Republic of Congo. In recent weeks, even high-ranking representatives of the MISCA peacekeeping forces from the neighboring African countries had been caught in the act of trading blood diamonds.

Ulrich Delius, head of STP's Africa department, is available for further questions: +49 551 49906 27 or afrika@gfbv.de.