"Blood" or conflict is the name of the diamonds which are illegally mined in the "hot spots": in Angola, Congo, Sierra Leone and Liberia. The money from their sale is used to finance anti-government and terrorist movements. The fight against "blood" diamonds (they account for the estimated 1 - 1.5 percent in the total diamond trade) has been waged for the fourth year now within the framework of the Kimberley process, an informal club of diamond producing and processing countries, which has been named after a town in the South African Republic.
Russia is also a participant in the Kimberley process. On January 1, 2003 this community announced about the instituting of a global system of controlling the trade in diamonds.
The plenary session of the Kimberley process, which opened yesterday in Ottawa, promises to become one of the most scandalous in all the four years of its existence. The day before, the non-governmental Global Witness organization, an authoritative one in the diamond quarters, accused the Russian authorities of not keeping their promise to declassify their diamond statistics by October 27. That means, it says, that Russia is not ready to head the Kimberley process in 2005.
The pressing with regard to Russia comes not only from the Global Witness. Another non-governmental organization, Partnership Canada Africa, also lays claims to us. It has an even tougher position with regard to Russia.
Nevertheless, chairmanship in the Kimberley process is a great honor for a diamond producing country. Apart from that, for a whole year the country coordinates the entire activity of the world community in creating a global system of controlling the movement of diamonds.
