Angola, which is the current vice chair of the Kimberley Process (KP), said any business including diamonds has risks involved in it.
This comment follows a report recently published by Financial Action Task Force, which alleged that the diamond trade was being used to launder money for criminal activities.
Angolan minister of Geology and Mining, Francisco Queiroz told Rough & Polished in an interview that although KP had successfully eradicated the trading of conflict diamonds, it was undeniable that there were few incidences of illegal exploitation and trading of the gems.
“The KP cannot control the money that is generated through the illegal selling of diamonds and when people get their money they use it in a way they want and some of the uses are not right, that happens with diamonds, oil and other minerals,” he said through an interpreter.
“So I think the question is not on the control systems that were established [by KP]”.
He also said that the private property right can be used to camouflage illegal activities and the underlining principle had to do with morality upheld by companies or individuals that derive revenue from diamonds.
“The right of private property is a right that you cannot violate…and if one gets money under the private property right then the person can use the money under private property right. It also has to do with moral code of the people who are using the money generated from the diamonds and they are right when they (Financial Action Task Force) acknowledged that we still have an opaque way of trading diamonds,” said Queiroz.
“…the private property right can give way for the use of money in ways that we do not agree with [so] the problem might be that.”
Meanwhile, the World Federation of Diamond Bourses and the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) have fired salvo at the Financial Action Task Force.
WFDB called the report "fraught with unfounded accusations and inaccuracies".
AWDC also said that although it not the centre’s intention to deny the possible occurrence of money-laundering activities in the diamond sector, it wanted to emphasise that “presenting case studies in the report, which lack complete information from all actors in the industry is not representative and presents a skewed picture of the business”.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
