(Rapaport…April 12, 2002) Botswana ambassador Alfred Majaye Dube said he is very optimistic following the latest round of Kimberley Process meetings held in March in Ottawa, Canada. Government representatives, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and diamond industry officials reached a general agreement at those meetings on a system for providing certificates of origin for all stones. Dube said that before the world sees any tangible outcome, however, governments will first have to work together on a way to put the guidelines into practice.
“Now it is important to go back to the drawing board to see if we can implement these guidelines,” Dube said. “All countries will have to come to an agreement on how to best do that.”
Dube said that some countries are in a better position than others to have an implementation procedure approved by their legislators and that assistance will be provided to those countries having a harder time working with their governments.
“The efforts will also have to include the diamond industry,” Dube said.