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KP Clarifies Position on Central African Republic Diamond Exports
Mar 23, 2016 4:19 AM
By Rapaport News
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RAPAPORT... The office of the Kimberley Process (KP) chair has clarified
reports of a deal to resume diamond exports from the Central African Republic
(CAR).
Earlier in
March, Joseph Agbo, CAR’s minister of mines, met with Viken Arslanian, an executive of Sodiam, the
country’s largest diamond miner, and agreed to follow a framework set out in
July 2015 to gain KP compliance. The meetings were facilitated by KP chair
Ahmed Bin Sulayem.
“The outcome was
that both groups would abide by what was agreed in Luanda in July 2015 and to
request the KP Monitoring Group provide a timetable for the resumption of
diamond exports,” Evgeny Garanin, a spokesperson for Bin Sulayem, said in an
email to Rapaport News.
The 2015 agreement
noted that CAR could resume rough exports when it implements a program that,
among other things, compelled it to ensure traceability of diamonds from
certain areas defined as compliant zones.
Garanin added
that the chair has shared the outcome of the meeting with the Monitoring Group,
which will review the agreement and consider further action. The matter is
likely to come up for discussion again at the KP intersessional meeting in
Dubai from May 23 to 26.
UAE newspaper The
National on March 12 cited Bin Sulayem saying he had managed to “break
the deadlock” in the quest to restart exports from the Central African
Republic.
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Tags:
car, Central African Republic, Kimberley Process, mining, Rapaport News
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