I think now it's time to get your suitcase packed, fasten your seatbelt and get ready for a trip to Zimbabwe.

Thanks to a thumbs-up from the Kimberley Process, which had previously banned Zimbabwe from trading diamonds mined in the Marange fields due to concerns over reported human rights violations and smuggling, the country will soon put a stock of diamonds worth at least $1.7 billion up for sale.

The Kimberley Process decided last week to allow Zimbabwe unload the 4.5 million carats worth of diamonds extracted from the Marange fields in two supervised sales. The decision on Zimbabwe's Marange diamonds was taken at a meeting last week in Russia that included two days of intense discussion on the issue.

Zimbabwe's monitor for the Kimberley Process Abbey Chikane will be a member of the KP review mission set up to oversee the diamond sales and report on them. The mission's report will serve as a basis for future KP decisions on diamond exports from Zimbabwe.

According to Zimbabwe's Mines Minister Obert Mpofu, the nation's cabinet had agreed to start selling off the diamonds immediately. Speaking in Harare Wednesday, Mpoful noted that the government was finalizing the details of the sale, and the auction would take place "within weeks."

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Tel-Aviv – The Intersessional Meeting of the Kimberley Process (KP), presided over by Israel as Chair of the KP, has concluded today June 24th. On the agenda of the meeting were a number of initiatives relating to the on-going work of the KP and to the consolidation of the process such the creation of an office for administration and support and the establishment of a Working Group on Trade Facilitation.

The center of attention, however, was the KP minimum standards implementation in the Marange diamond fields in Zimbabwe. The meeting convened in light of the second report of the KP monitor to Zimbabwe. In question was the continued implementation of the Joint Work Plan (JWP), agreed upon at the Plenary meeting in Swakopmund, Namibia in November 2009. The meeting was clouded by the arrest of NGO activist Farai Mguwu by the Zimbabwean authorities three weeks earlier and the reports of his condition.

The Intersessional could not reach consensus regarding the implementation of the JWP and the work carried out by the KP Monitor to Marange. As such, the meeting ended at an impasse. The KP Chair, Mr. Boaz Hirsch, has declared an impasse after night long discussions through the morning and called for another a meeting to attempt to resolve the differences followed by an extension to the Intersessional.

Mr. Hirsch, along with the Chair of the Working-Group on Monitoring, Mr. Stephane Chardon and Mr. Eli Izhakoff, President of the World Diamond Council (WDC), played a pivotal role in attempting to breach the gap between the sides. "This situation is unprecedented in the Kimberley Process meeting," declared the Chair, "but all parties are committed to further engagement. The KP is based on a partnership between governments, the diamond industry and the civil society.

I am committed to that end and I have asked Mr. Izhakoff to jointly convene within the WDC Annual Meeting coming July 14th-15th, in St. Petersburg, a mini-summit of the KP major stakeholders. Deliberations will continue in order to find a consensus based resolution." Israel will host the Plenary meeting in Jerusalem between the 1st and 4th of November of
this year.

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The Kimberley Process Intersessional meeting, due to end in Tel Aviv on June 23, has yet to conclude as discussions continue over the issue of Zimbabwe’s diamond exports. Guests from more than 27 countries attended the conference.

Following a lively debate during a session that was due to conclude the Intersessional, participants from the Working Group on Monitoring held a closed session to try to reach consensus. The session continued through the night and ended at 7am arriving at no consensus.

Deliberations are expected to continue later today. One of the participants in the closed door session described the meeting as ‘taking one step forward then two steps back’.

The Kimberley Process Report on Marange by monitor Abbey Chikane following his recent trip to Zimbabwe concluded that the country had reached the minimum standards of compliance with the Kimberley Process rough diamond certification scheme.

While the majority of countries participating in the Kimberley Process expressed support for Chikane’s submission, a number of countries and civil society participants objected to the concept that Zimbabwe would immediately commence exporting diamonds from Marange.

Swaziland   - Another Possible Candidate

Her Royal Highness Princess Tsandzile Dlamini of Swaziland, who acts as Minister of Natural Resources and Energy, has granted IDI a short interview, while attending the Kimberley Process intersessional meeting in Tel Aviv.

Though Swaziland has no diamond production, HRH Dlamini said her country's role in the diamond industry, "Is to facilitate and ensure a conducive environment for (diamond) production, and the compliance with the minimum KP standards is created and sustained."

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