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Isdore Guvamombe
Today Zimbabwe starts hosting the week-long Kimberley Process and Certification Scheme (KPCS), conference in Victoria Falls at a time when the producers and consumers of the all-important gem face a turbulent future over which gems can be sold and which cannot be.
More than 400 delegates from 59 countries are gathered in Victoria Falls.
The brazen manoeuvres by Western Europe and its ally, the USA, to expel Russia from the KPCS at the Victoria Conference, has rocked the market.
Russia is the world’s biggest producer of rough diamonds by volume with 30% of the market and its expulsion, if allowed, will certainly cause shocks in the market.
The issue of contention has always been defining diamonds, referred to as “conflict diamonds.” The issue has always been in whose spectacles should diamonds be seen and defined?
The diamond indaba in Victoria Falls comes at a time when the world is battling Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Israeli-Palestine conflict and a hodgepodge of other conflicts in Central Africa, featuring France and African countries seeking to liberate themselves from its hegemony.
The Group of Seven, an intergovernmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States and additionally, the European Union as a “non-enumerated member” has already started fighting to expel Russia from the KPCS.
Organised around shared values of trampling on small and developing nations pluralism, liberal democracy, representative government, they have already tried to manipulate the conference to try and get rid of Russia.
But there is another side that is strong about the Russian issue, arguing it was giving advantage to western Europe and its allies against smaller nations. A unipolar market has been more critical to the market than a single market dominated by a few powerful nations.
Russia, they believe, has given the market stability and alternative and that weaponising the Russian diamonds will be the greatest mistake of all times.
In fact, African diamond producers and consumers as well as those from developing nations, plus those in developed countries will all be disenfranchised by Russia’s expulsion.
The expulsion of the biggest producer will create a huge parallel market that is not good for the industry.
All progressive thinking diamond producers and consumers must rally behind Russia in order to keep the world diamond industry in order and balanced.
Once Russia is ousted, do we know who follows? It could be any small or developing country and that will not be good for the world.
It is fact and not fiction that the desire to expel Russia from the KPCS is driven by hatred stemming from the Ukraine war and beyond.
The US and its allies are trying to get at Russia at every opportunity they get, without really worrying about other nations and how they could benefit.
Of interest is the fact that the G7 and its allies do not mention Israel-Palestine conflict. The G7 is brazenly ignoring the atrocities being executed by Israel on Palestinians, but is making a lot of noise and manoeuvres of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.
It is a tale of two wars, indeed. Fairness does not seem to exist in their vocabulary.
With direct sales of Russian gems already crushed by US sanctions on Russia’s state diamond miner Alrosa, the G7 is now in the process of thrashing out details of a further ban on indirect sales in its member countries.
Zimbabwe has run a year-long tenure as chair of KPCS and will, by the end of this indaba hand over the reins to the United Arab Emirates.
Established in 2003, following the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1459, the KPCS regulates trade in rough diamonds to increase transparency and eliminate trade in conflict diamonds.
Conflict diamonds are diamonds that originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognised governments, and are used to fund military action in opposition to those governments, or in contravention of the decisions of the Security Council.
KPCS members account for approximately 99,8 percent of the global production of rough diamonds. Last year, Zimbabwe realised about 4,2 million carats of diamonds from Chiadzwa and fetched US$220 million.
According to GlobalData Research Centre, Zimbabwe was the world’s seventh-largest producer of diamonds in 2022.
Zimbabwe accounts for 3 percent of global production, with the largest producers being Russia, Botswana, Canada and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Active producers in Zimbabwe include Russian miner, Alrosa, RioZim-Murowa and Chinese firm, Anjin, which are allowed to extract diamonds in line with Zimbabwe’s new Diamond Policy.
Whatever is going to take place, Zimbabwe has played its part through giving depth and balanced leadership for the year it has been chair.
The Victoria Falls diamond indaba will go into the annals of history as that conference that Zimbabwe hosted under critical moments.
The outcome of the conference will also go into the history of the diamond industry and there is need for all and sundry to think of the future of the diamond industry and not use emotions, hatred and jealousy to influence the world order.
Online Reporter