RAPAPORT… Non-profit group CENADEP will attend this year’s Kimberley
Process (KP) plenary next month after the KP chair urged
the Civil Society Coalition to end its boycott.
The Democratic Republic of Congo-based organization said it
recognized the progress the KP had made in response to the Civil Society’s
demands.
“CENADEP accepts the invitation and believes that the best
way to lend credibility to the KP process is by re-enlisting within the KP
family to address different challenges inside and not outside,” the KP cited
Albert Kabuya Muyeba of CENADEP as saying in a letter.
CENADEP said it welcomed the process of discussions about
diamond valuation and efforts by the KP to address the issue of synthetics, as
well as KP chair Ahmed Bin Sulayem’s proposal of a permanent secretariat to
oversee the return of suspended countries to the process.
Update: CENADEP later said it stands by its boycott of the Kimberley Process. See the latest story here.