In reaction to reports of violations of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme in Zimbabwe, the World Federation of Diamond Bourses has called on its members to take all measures necessary to ensure that they do not trade, directly or indirectly, in diamonds originating from Zimbabwe.
WFBD president Avi Paz said the WFDB was committed to doing all it could to prevent conflict diamonds from Zimbabwe, or any other source, being be traded by its members.
“As founding members of the World Diamond Council and as signatories to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, it is our duty to remind not only our own members but all those who operate in the diamond industry and trade of the devastating impact of conflicts fuelled by the trade in conflict diamonds,” he said.
“The WFDB and its member bourses have a cast-iron rule that rough diamonds can only be traded when they are accompanied by KP certificates,” Paz stated.
“Any bourse member who trades in rough diamonds without KP certification is liable for expulsion from his bourse, which in all practical terms means the exclusion from the entire diamond business community,” Paz concluded
