The UN Security Council lifted on Friday a more than
three-year-old ban on diamond imports from Liberia, applauding the
government's cooperation with the "Kimberley Process," a mechanism
set up to keep so-called "blood diamonds" from reaching world
markets.
Unanimously adopting resolution 1753, the council terminated the
measures on diamonds imposed in resolution 1521 passed in 2003,by
which all states should prevent the direct or indirect import of
all rough diamonds from Liberia to their territory, whether or not
such diamonds originated in that country.
The termination would be reviewed in 90 days, after
consideration of the report of the United Nations Panel of Experts
on the matter and a report of the "Kimberley Process" on Liberia's
application of its proposed Certificate of Origin regime.
The United Nations-backed Kimberley Process Certification Scheme
of 2000 was designed to protect the legitimate diamond industry by
stopping the marketing of "conflict diamonds" or "blood diamonds"
-- the rough gems traded by rebels or their allies to finance
violence. The initiative now governs diamond production and
importation in 70 countries.
Trafficking in illegal diamonds is considered one of the root
causes of the back-to-back civil wars in Liberia since 1989, as
well as of the 10-year brutal conflict in neighboring Sierra Leone
that ended in 2001.
(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2007)
