New deal to stop 'conflict diamonds'

Angola rebels - funded by conflict diamonds

The smuggling of diamonds which finance some of the world's bloodiest civil wars would be a thing of the past under proposals agreed in Pretoria on Thursday.

Ministers from 20 countries and representatives from the diamond trade agreed to an international certification scheme which will trace the origin of all diamonds which enter the global market.

The agreement is a lifeline out of a situation in which people felt unable to distinguish between diamonds from conflicts such as Sierra Leone and Angola and diamonds legitimately mined

British Foreign Minister Peter Hain

Illegal exports of diamonds have exacerbated the current civil wars in Angola, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo, giving rise to the name 'conflict diamonds'.

The proposals will now go to the United Nations for ratification by member countries.

Under the scheme, all uncut diamonds would be accompanied by internationally-recognised papers which declare the diamonds' origins.

Governments of diamond exporting countries would be responsible for enforcing the scheme on uncut stones mined on their territory.

Britain's foreign minster for Africa, Peter Hain, expressed satisfaction with the deal: "The agreement we have decided upon today is actually a lifeline out of a situation in which people could feel that they were unable to distinguish between diamonds from conflicts such as Sierra Leone and Angola and diamonds legitimately mined."

The Pretoria agreement builds on a scheme agreed at the World Diamond Congress in Antwerp, Belgium, in July.

That stipulated that uncut diamonds could only be exported in sealed packages containing a certificate of origin.

Any country knowingly trading in illegal diamonds would lose its industry accreditation.

From raw material to finished product

A BBC correspondent in South Africa says countries which produce legitimate diamonds, like South Africa, and those which market the stones, like Belgium, are keen to enforce the proposed laws so that the diamond industry and the tens of thousands of people employed in it do not suffer from the bad publicity associated with the trade in conflict diamonds.

However some analysts argue that the certification scheme will be ineffective unless governments in countries affected by war have full control over the areas where the richest diamond mines are situated.