Sitting Here In Tel Aviv, A

Sitting here in Tel Aviv, a cutting centre, it might be comfortable to think that the heat is all on the retailers so we can relax, but I can assure you it is not confined to them. International media and NGO attention at the end of this year, driven not just by the UN and GAO reports but also by the high profile trial of Liberia's ex-President Charles Taylor and the 'Blood Diamond' movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio (about which Gareth Penny spoke earlier), will focus once again on what we are all doing or, more importantly, not doing.
There is evidence to suggest that some diamantaires are still purchasing rough of dubious provenance directly in Africa and others buying at second hand in the cutting centres without conducting due diligence into the origin of the rough. Although they may be doing so inadvertently, unaware of, or unconcerned by, the Kimberley provisions - including the System of Warranties - ignorance of the industry's commitments will be no defence. If they don't wish to feature in a television documentary, be named and shamed in a United Nations report or be subject to a government investigation, they need now to get their act together. For any DTC Sightholder to be involved in such purchases would be a Major Breach of the Diamond Best Practice Principles, with all the consequences that would entail.
The other area where the diamond industry is particularly vulnerable is the informal artisanal mining activities in central and West Africa. Countries in the region have now largely emerged from conflict and are looking to their diamond revenues for essential post-conflict reconstruction and future development, and are exporting quite legitimately with Kimberley Process certificates, the circumstances in which many of the miners, or diggers, are working are not acceptable and fall very far short of those we - you or I - would allow in our own operations.
How can any decent member of the diamond industry allow themselves to gain from the misery of others, or turn a blind eye and pretend that they are unaware? We have to be deeply concerned, not just because this situation has the potential to blight our business, but because we cannot allow such abuses to go unchallenged or cruelty to be visited upon fellow human beings on our behalf. We owe it to Africa, from whence we have derived so much of our wealth and our comfortable lives, and with which our industry, as I said at the start of these remarks, is inextricably linked. We owe it to ourselves.
I should add that Liberia and Ivory Coast remain subject to UN sanctions, so diamonds originating there are illegal, and the South American producers are currently under close scrutiny. So it is essential to know, to question, to check the source of any rough you may be offered and demand the Warranties. De Beers has been active in capacity-building in Sierra Leone and has now been asked by the United Nations to extend such assistance to Liberia, so it too can become Kimberley compliant.
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