Angola Wants to be KP Vice-Chair in 2014

Angola hopes to be appointed vice-chair of the Kimberley Process (KP) for 2014, Angolan vice-president Manuel Domingos Vicente told The Angola Centenary Diamond Conference on Thursday.

Endiama said the decision regarding would be taken at the next KP Plenary Meeting in Johannesburg in December. The KP Chair for 2014 is China. If Angola is appointed vice-chair for next year, it would take over as Chair in 2015.

Vicente told the conference that diamonds were used to fund the country's 1975-2002 civil war. With the end of the war the government has worked to curb conflict diamonds.

Meanwhile, World Diamond Council President Eli Izhakoff praised Angola and the KP for their work in stopping trading in conflict diamonds. When the KP was formed in 2000, Angola was a top example of a country whose diamond resources were being squandered to fund a civil war. "Violence raged, and was fueled in part by rebel groups selling rough diamonds that had been obtained under the most terrible human conditions." Angola's 27-year civil war ended in 2002.

"But through persistence, dedication and consistent support for the Kimberley Process, they have regenerated a viable diamond industry, with a tremendous upside. Some 60 percent of the country’s production potential has not been prospected nor systematically examined. This means that Angola and Endiama are most likely to remain growing forces in our business for many years to come. That is very good news for the Angolan diamond sector, for the international diamond industry, and for the people of Angola.

"It has been my honor to be associated with the diamond sector in Angola, as it has to have been associated with the diamond sectors in other parts of Africa, and, if the work that we have done under the umbrellas of the World Diamond Council and the Kimberley Process have in any way gone to improve the lives of ordinary citizens in these countries, the hours, days, months and years of hard work that so many of us have invested will have been well worth it. The fact that we are all here today – members of governments, industry and civil society – celebrating a milestone in the life of great African mining center, says it all," he concluded.