Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and Acting Commissioner of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) William Woolford met recently with Brazil’s Deputy Minister of Mines and Energy Claudio Seliar to discuss the ongoing commitment of the two countries to controlling the international trade in conflict diamonds.

Guyana and Brazil are signatories to the Kimberley Process, a regulatory system backed by the United Nations which seeks to track the international production and movement of diamonds. The Process stipulates that freshly mined diamonds should be sealed in registered containers that certify their country of origin and that diamond exporters do not accept unregistered gems that might profit insurgents or criminals.

The meeting between the Guyanese officials and the Brazilian Deputy Minister took place ahead of a planned meeting of diamond-producing countries to discuss the strengthening of the Kimberley Process and this newspaper has learnt that another meeting of Guyanese and Brazilian officials is scheduled to take place prior to the international forum to discuss recommendations designed to strengthen the Kimberley Process.

The Kimberley Process evolved out of international concern over the role that diamonds have played in sustaining guerilla and terrorist operations in various parts of the world, notably in conflict ridden regions of Liberia, the Congo, Angola and Sierra Leone.

Five years after its implementation signatories to the Kimberley Process agree that the initiative has been effective insofar as it serves as an instrument to assure importing countries that the gems are not supporting bloodshed.

Since its implementation the Kimberley Process has been chaired by some of the world’s leading diamond producers including South Africa, Canada and Russia.

The process was initiated in May 2001 when diamond-producing countries in Southern Africa met in Kimberley, South Africa in May 2000 to discuss ways of stopping the trade in “conflict diamonds” and ensuring that diamond purchases were not funding violence.

Diamond experts estimate that “conflict diamonds” currently represent a fraction of one per cent of the international trade in diamonds compared with estimates of up to 15 per cent in the 1990’s.