Persaud says looking into status of local diamond trade

Robert Persaud

Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Robert Persaud is currently making internal inquiries on the status of Guyana diamond trade with regard to compliance with the Kimberley Protocol which has again placed Guyana’s diamond trading under scrutiny.

In a comment to this newspaper yesterday, the minister said he preferred to wait until he would have completed compiling the relevant information before giving a comprehensive comment on an article published in the Stabroek News of December 7, 2012 and headlined ‘Diamond smuggling from Venezuela into Guyana mocks international pact’.

The Reuters article detailed the actions of diamond buyers as they made their way through the bushes of Venezuela to seek out and buy diamonds. It demonstrated that Venezuelan