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Liberia Exports First Diamonds Since UN Ban Ends
Sep 10, 2007 4:04 AM
By Avi Krawitz
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RAPAPORT... Liberia has exported its first shipment of diamonds in six years after a moratorium on the country’s rough was recently lifted, the Associated Press reported.
Government spokesperson Laurence Bropleh told the AP that Liberia had shipped its first consignment of diamonds valued at $222,000.
Deputy spokesperson, Gabriel Williams, added that Liberia --which is a Kimberley Process member-- received a royalty of about $6,000 from the shipment. "This amount may look small but we have to start from somewhere," he was quoted as saying.
The government declined to reveal where the shipment was sent to.
The United Nations imposed a ban on Liberia’s diamonds in May 2001 in response to former President Charles Taylor’s use of the diamond trade to arm rebel forces in neighboring Sierra Leone’s civil war. Taylor is awaiting trial for his involvement in the decade long civil war in Sierra Leone, which is not expected to proceed before January 2008.
President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf lifted the rough export freeze at the end of July 2007, two months after the Kimberley Process approved the nation as a member state.
Liberia is estimated to have an diamond export potential of about 200,000 carats per year, with government revenues from the sector likely to come in at around $500,000 to $750,000.
In a report released in August, NGO’s expressed their doubt the diamond sector would greatly enrich Liberia’s government coffers, saying the sector as still in danger of having a negative effect on peace and security in the country. Liberia’s export sector is largely dominated by rubber and timber.
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Tags:
Charles Taylor, Government, Kimberley Process, NGO
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