WDC Seeks Amnesty’s Help to Resume Trade with Central African Republic

140 95 Rapaport News

RAPAPORT… World
Diamond Council’s president Edward Asscher called on Amnesty International to
return to the Kimberley Process (KP) and help resume
diamond trading with the Central African Republic. The country has been suspended from the KP since 2013.

Asscher, who led a delegation of 13 diamond
and jewelry industry representatives, joined more than 300 delegates from 50-plus
countries at the five-day KP plenary meeting at Luanda in Angola last week, the industry body said in a
statement November 24.

His
speech followed an Amnesty report on diamond trafficking from the Republic that
alleged gem sales still funded violence in the country. The
WDC president reinforced the tripartite foundation of the KP and reiterated no
conflict diamonds should, under any circumstances, enter the legitimate diamond
trade.

The
report was described by the NGO’s legal adviser Lucy Graham as “a damning indictment of the
Kimberley Process.”

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