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Ghana will pass the Kimberley Process
"test" by March - Fobih
Accra, Jan. 05, GNA - Government on Friday said come early
March 2007 it would pass all the requirements of the
Kimberley Process to clean the name of Ghana in the illegal
trade in diamonds coming from conflict regions.
Professor Dominic Fobih, Minister of Lands Forestry and
Mines, said Ghana was committed to the Action Plan developed
at Gaborone, Botswana that would assist the country to deal
with conflict diamonds issues.
"The Action Plan is so critical to Ghana since it presents
another opportunity for us to clean our image," he said.
The Minister was speaking in Accra when the Acting Head of
the European Commission in Ghana, Mr Paulus Geraedts led a
team that arrived in the country to provide Ghana with
technical support towards implementing the Kimberly Process
(KP).
The EC, which took over the Chairmanship of KP on January 1,
2007, is providing the assistance through South African
Experts to help Ghana to strengthen its regulatory,
monitoring and supervision mechanisms for the KP.
Prof. Fobih announced that the US would also be supporting
the country in the process but was quick to add that in all
these, "Ghana must be seen to be championing the process
itself".
He said currently the Government had put in place a general
supervisory body Chaired by a Deputy Minister of Mines to
give the entire process a ministerial prominence.
He said the Precious Mineral Marketing Company was also
being empowered to tighten its monitoring and supervision
mechanisms.
Mr Geraedts lauded the KP and said it was successful in
curbing illegal trade of conflict diamonds and proved to be
an effective and innovative instrument of international
cooperation involving multilateral corporations,
governments, nongovernmental organisations and the diamond
industry.
He said having assumed the Chairmanship; the EC's overall
objective would be to promote continuity through
consolidation by strengthening the KP.
Mr Geraedts said the EC would do so by pursuing and
strengthening implementation of the peer review system;
research the traceability of diamonds; increase transparency
and accuracy of statistics; promote inclusiveness and
participation; improve Information and Communication and
improve national implementation capacity of KP participants.
Mr Abbey Chikane, Chairman of the South African Diamond
Board, who was part of the team, said Ghana could meet all
the requirements but noted that the country was yet to
quantify the exact volumes of diamonds produced at the
various mines.
"By the end February 2007 we are optimistic that Ghana will
be ready to receive a special mission from the EC KP for
assessment of its implementation.
"The more countries that are involved in the process, the
more we do away with more countries that serve as safe
places for illegal trade in conflict diamonds," Mr Chikane
said.
GNA
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