ADC speaks on absence of permanent KP offices

The African Diamond Council (ADC) said that the absence of permanent Kimberley Process (KP) offices or staff leaves the course wide open for unjustifiable permeation and exploitation by those presently administering the organisation.
Council chairperson Dr. André Action Diakité Jackson said in a statement seen by Rough & Polished that while many KP supporters continue to lose time “fantasizing” about establishing a permanent base of operations that they can have full command over, the ADC will continue to offer defense, guidance and clarity for its members in anticipation of the Plenary Meetings in November.
He said the existing system had never achieved any bona fide victory in tracking stones from mine to consumer.
“It does not prevent ‘diamonds being mined as a result of human suffering’ and the diamond success that Angola has achieved in recent times, should not be attributed to overseas leadership, supervision or control,” he said.
Jackson said KP had proved to be more successful at undermining itself as well as everything that it had hoped to effectively stand since its existence.
He said that the KP chair’s recent visit to Angola in addition to her enthrallment with South African Mining Minister Susan Shabangu and Endiama’s Carlos Sumbula proved that the trade body was not only desperate to regain its contaminated footing, credibility and effectiveness, but it was also an unambiguous indication and admission that the U.S. State Department had lost its impetus on the African continent.
The African Diamond Council (ADC) consists of the continent’s diamond-producing Heads of State, Mining Ministers as well as the controllers of each state-owned diamond company.

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished