KP Accelerates CAR’s Diamond Exports

RAPAPORT… The Kimberley Process (KP) has agreed to shorten the amount
of time it takes to clear diamond exports from the Central African Republic
(CAR) to one week.




The KP monitoring team that polices CAR’s exports made the
decision following the KP intersessional meeting in Antwerp last week, the
nation’s ambassador to Belgium said Tuesday. Approval of shipments previously
took two weeks.




The global supply-chain watchdog suspended CAR in 2013 after
rebels took over the nation’s government, meaning it could not legally export
diamonds. It readmitted the country in 2016, permitting it to resume shipments from
certain regions that the KP deemed compliant.




“I am very satisfied with the progress made at the
intersessional meeting,” said Leopold Mboli Fatran, CAR’s minister of mines and
geology. “The discussions were very fruitful and so were the solutions agreed
upon.”




This year is crucial for CAR’s standing within the KP, as
the country is at a “decisive stage in the reform of its diamond sector,” the
minister added.




Earlier this month, CAR appointed Peter Meeus, the former
head of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre and the Dubai Diamond Exchange, as a government
adviser as part of its attempts to achieve full compliance with the KP.




Image: A soldier from a former CAR rebel group. Credit: Pierre Holtz for UNICEF/hdptcar