4. INITIATIVES OF THE BELGIAN GOVERNMENT REGARDING CONFLICT DIAMONDS^[6]

4.1. Installation of an inter-ministerial Diamond Task Force

In September 1999, the Belgian government installed a Diamond Task Force that comes together on a weekly basis.

The Task force is composed of members of cabinets and public services that are directly or indirectly involved in the conflict diamond issue, namely the Cabinets of Justice, Foreign affairs, Foreign Trade and Development, the Ministry of Finance (Customs), the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Security Services, the Office of the public prosecutor of Antwerp and the National Magistrate are also part of this group.

The objective of the Diamond Task Force, under co-presidency of the Ministries of Economic Affairs and Foreign Affairs, is to exchange information, to make inventories and identifications of the pressure points and to take necessary measures to make the diamond sector more transparent.


4.2. Import regulation and procedure concerning Angola

Since the UN Resolutions 1173 and 1176, in force since July 1998, the import of rough diamond from Angola is only allowed with a certificate of origin from the official Angolan Authorities. The Ministry of Economic Affairs controls if such a certificate of origin accompanies the diamond shipments from Angola.

As diamond imports and exports are already covered by the licence system, it was not necessary to issue a specific Ministerial Decree.

The customs procedure, under the competence of the Ministry of Finance (Customs) and the Ministry of Economic Affairs (Licensing Office), for the diamond import from Angola, contains the following specific measures:

As soon as the provenance of the goods is determined as being Angola, the Angolan certificate of origin that goes together with other documents in the packing of the shipment is transferred to the officials of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. They punctually control the authenticity of the document, they contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which in turn contacts Luanda to obtain text and explanation.

An import licence is only issued after verification by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. A licence for the import of rough diamond from Angola is valid for only one shipment.

If it is certain that a certificate has been falsified, it will be communicated by the Ministry of Economic Affairs to the Customs Authorities, who will confiscate the goods and institute proceedings.

After the import licence has been issued, the customs officers in Diamond Office fulfil the inward clearance formalities (see Regulations and Procedures: point 3) and the expertise of the goods is made by sworn experts, under the supervision of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Belgium and especially the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Finance (Customs) strictly apply the UN Resolutions: a certificate of origin of the official Angolan Authorities must accompany all the goods that are imported from Angola.


4.3. Import regulation and procedure concerning Sierra Leone

With the UN Resolution 1306 of 5 July 2000 the import of rough diamonds from Sierra Leone is now also only authorised with a certificate of origin from the official Sierra Leonine Authorities.

In this case both the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Finance (Customs) will make sure that such a certificate of origin accompanies diamond shipments from Sierra Leone.

The import of diamonds from Sierra Leone will follow the same customs procedure as the one for Angola (see above point 1).


4.4. Import procedure concerning other "sensitive" African countries

For the import of diamonds from other "sensitive" African countries the Ministry of Economic Affairs issues an import licence on the name of the individual diamond dealer.

The system of certificate of origin is non existent in all African countries, except for Angola and soon Sierra Leone.

In order to prevent conflict diamonds to enter the legitimate trade through third countries, the Ministry extended, as from 24.02.00, the system of individual import licences to :

Liberia

Democratic Republic of Congo

Ivory Coast

Uganda

Central African Republic

Ghana

Republic Guinea

Namibia

Congo Brazzaville

Mali

Zambia

After the inward clearance formalities by the Belgian Customs the goods are submitted to a physical inspection (expertise). When the sworn experts and officials of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, after the advice of a gemmologist, determine that the goods do probably not correspond to the mentioned origin, Customs intervene immediately. Customs will always make an investigation when a country of origin is mentioned, that has no diamond production.

More attention will also be paid to the mention "unknown origin", which is often used for mixtures of different origin. The use of that mention is limited as much as possible: the correct origin must truthfully be mentioned on the documents that accompany the shipment.

Moreover the importer has to declare on the import licence that it is not valid for goods from Angola and Sierra Leone. That mention is applied to any import licence issued by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. By that mention is recognised that a particular import system is applied to both countries.


4.5. Other measures from the Belgian Government

A number of measures have been taken, others still require further preparations and elaborations. The UN sanctions committee – Angola has been informed about all the measures that have been taken by Belgium.

• The Belgian Customs have intensified the controls outside the Diamond Office.
  
  A better control on the flying and board staff on the Belgian airfields has been strengthened. The flights coming from Africa are particularly checked. In general the control on diamonds is intensified. The Belgian Customs have asked their colleagues of other European countries to look closer at clandestine import of diamonds from African countries.
  
  
• The collaboration between the services of Customs and the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Antwerp is even more intensified.
  
  
• The Ministry of Economic Affairs has taken initiatives to guarantee the independence of the sworn experts.
  
  
• Angola and the Belgian Ministry of Economic Affairs work on the implementation of a new system of "double checking". An "Import Confirmation Certificate" that is used in addition to the certificate of origin, aims at a better control of the goods arriving in Belgium by sending the confirmation document back to Angola^[7].
  
  
• The Belgian Ministry of Economic Affairs participated to the technical mission of the USA, UK and HRD to Freetown in June 2000.
  
  
• The Belgian Ministry of Economic Affairs implemented in October 2000 a new certification scheme and electronic data exchange between the Sierra Leone and Belgian Authorities. This concept should also be used in the trade of the other African countries with the most important international diamond trade centres^[8].
  
  
• The Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs participated in an active way to the negotiations of the "Kimberley-process", together with Belgian industry and attended to the London Conference of October 2000.