RAPAPORT… Liberia is not doing enough to comply with the minimum Kimberley Process standards for rough diamond exports, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon said in a recent progress report on the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).
According to the report presented to the UN Security Council yesterday, Liberia’s presidential task force has not met in a year, while its technical committees convened in early July for the first time in seven months.
“The government’s capacity to control diamond mining and trade, a vital part of the certification scheme, continues to be weak, with the network of regional offices of the government’s diamond office lacking basic capacity to monitor the movement of diamonds out of affected counties,” the report concluded.
The report also said the U.S. Agency for International Development indicated that it will stop funding the property rights and artisanal diamond development program established in 2010 to help the Liberian government improve compliance with the Kimberley Process, partly due to Liberia’s lack of commitment to the scheme.