THE British government coordinated a campaign by Western governments and some non-governmental organisations to have the Kimberly Process (KP) ban diamonds from Marange, previously secret diplomatic cables revealed by WikiLeaks have shown.
The cables, which were released by WikiLeaks on Friday show the United States and the British governments planning "separate but coordinated" efforts to get the KP to ban imports of diamonds from Marange.
Mark Malloch-Brown – who was minister for Africa in Gordon Brown’s government – was at the centre of the campaign according to a US embassy communication from January 2009.
“Malloch-Brown has instructed the Foreign Office to push the Kimberley Process (KP) to investigate Zimbabwe's KP eligibility and issue a statement about Zimbabwe's trafficking of conflict diamonds.
“In the interim because KP "is so slow," Malloch-Brown has requested NGOs like Global Witness and Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) be approached to do research and reporting on the situation,” the cable read.
Global Witness and Partnership Africa Canada supported by the US, UK and Canadian governments led opposition to the lifting on the KP ban during the diamond watchdog’s meeting in Tel Aviv, Israel, in June 2010.
However, a Zimbabwe desk officer in the British foreign office said some European countries were opposed to the ban.
“Zimbabwe Desk Officer Tracy Walton noted that the EU was considering a ban on the import of Zimbabwe diamonds, but said that Belgium had mounted opposition.
“According to Walton, Belgium was amiable to UN -- not EU -- sanctions because Belgium did not want any country in the world to trade the diamonds if Belgium could not,” the cables said.
The UK efforts were also frustrated by Russia which was said to be “the biggest obstacle in the UN to implementing sanctions” while China was "uninterested" in the diamonds issue.
Western countries supported by some NGOs claim that the Marange gems are “blood diamonds” and should be banned from the international market.
However the Zimbabwe government dismisses allegations of rights abuses and insists that measures have since been taken to ensure compliance with KP requirements.
Officials say the vast alluvial deposits in Marange could supply 25 percent of the world's diamond demand and help drive up the country’s economic recovery.