Peace process and conflict diamonds in Côte d’Ivoire

In cooperation with the international campaign Fatal Transactions, BICC (Bonn International Center for Conversion) published a special edition in the “Focus”-series about conflict diamonds and the peace process in Côte d’Ivoire. The paper is based on the findings of a research trip by BICC / Fatal Transactions to Côte d’Ivoire in April 2008. The paper concludes that more attention is needed to pre-assess alternative mechanisms to break the link between natural resources and conflict and how they could effectively be combined with other sanctions (in particular financial sanctions) against key actors of the conflict.

Côte d’Ivoire is the only country, which is currently under embargo by the United Nations for the export of ‘conflict diamonds’ since December 2005. The conflict and years of ‘no war, no peace’ have been profitable for both the military and the Forces Nouvelles (FN) rebels, thereby paralyzing the peace process. Along with other natural resources (e.g. cocoa, timber, cotton, oil, gold), diamonds contributed to the financing of the military as well as the FN rebels in the North.

However, since the Ouagadougou Political Accord (OPA) signed in March 2007 between the rebel leader Guillaume Soro and the Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo, modest progress can be noticed in the main areas of the agreement: The “identification” of the population, the preparation of the first round of presidential elections (now announced for 30 November 2008), the restoration of state authority and unity of the country, and the reform of the army, including the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DD&R) process.

Fatal Transactions took part as a civil society representative in the joined Kimberley Process/United Nations expert mission to Côte d’Ivoire in April 2008. The aim of the mission was to evaluate the current control systems of the government and to study the diamond situation in the country. Last week, at the Kimberley Process Intersessional meeting in India, the findings of the mission were presented to the plenary, and the government of Côte d’Ivoire expressed its wish for the sanctions on diamonds to be lifted soon after the upcoming elections in November. At the same time, the actual situation of conflict diamonds being smuggled out of Côte d’Ivoire is a serious challenge to the enforcement of the sanctions against diamonds. This failure of control systems needs urgent attention in order to guarantee that the KPCS stay a credible system for setting an example as a conflict prevention mechanism that truly contributes to breaking the link between natural resources and conflict.

Download the paper In English or French:

In September, BICC/Fatal Transactions will publish a full report of their research on natural resources in Côte d’Ivoire.

For more information please contact:
Susanne Heinke, spokesperson BICC, tel.: +49-228-91196-0, e-mail:pr@bicc.de or
Anneke Galama, International Coordinator Fatal Transactions tel: +31-20-5206210,
e-mail: anneke.galama@niza.nl