CAR Denies Involvement in Diamond Smuggling
January 26, 03
Andre Nalke Dorogo, Central African Republic (CAR) Mines and Energy Minister has denied that conflict diamonds from the Democratic Republic of Congo are being laundered through CAR and that the country is in collaboration with Jean-Pierre Bemba's Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC).
"We have never, ever been in contact with MLC diamond dealers," Dorogo said in a news conference in Bangui, the CAR capital. "If they overfly the CAR with their planes loaded with diamonds, do you expect me to hail them and seize their freight from my office?"
Partnership Africa Canada (PAC), a development agency based in Ottawa recently published a report saying Bemba's diamonds were being laundered through CAR, using the country's certification system and, although CAR had a "reasonably good" tracking system for locally mined diamonds, it was not being applied thereby rendering the country an attractive channel for diamond smugglers from other countries.
In his rebuttal to PAC's charge, Dorogo said, "Those who want to combat the MLC chairman should use other means."
Jean-Pierre Bemba, head of the MLC blames the illegal diamond trade on independent miners. "Certainly some miners sell their diamonds in Bangui, about 500km from their small-scale diamond production centers in the DRC. They are free to sell them to whomever they wish in the CAR."