Mr. President,

The United States is pleased to co-sponsor the resolution on the role of diamonds in fueling conflict.

The international community has much to be proud of when it comes to the efforts of the Kimberley Process.  It is a tribute to the Kimberley Process that conflict diamonds today make up only a small percentage of the world’s diamond market.  With the Kimberley Process, the international community now has the tools to head off future conflict and promote stability and security in diamond-rich regions of the world.

The unique manner in which governments, the diamond industry and civil society have worked together in the Kimberley Process to monitor and control the rough diamond trade should stand as a model as we confront other sources of conflict.  This multi-stakeholder effort demonstrates what can be accomplished when governments join forces with the private sector and non-governmental organizations.

We salute our European Community colleagues who have led the Kimberley Process in 2007 to encourage the major diamond trading and manufacturing centers to strengthen internal controls over the diamond markets.  European leadership also positioned the Kimberley Process to address the ongoing problem of diamond smuggling from Cote d’Ivoire through neighboring West African countries.  We are confident that these initiatives, launched under the European leadership, will remain the hallmark of Kimberley Process efforts in the years ahead.    

We were particularly pleased in 2007 to welcome Liberia as a participant in the Kimberley Process.  The Liberian government moved quickly in the past year to capitalize on international support.  Liberia set up a credible diamond monitoring system to enable the lifting of United Nations Security Council sanctions on its diamond exports and to participate in the Kimberley Process.  We appreciate the long way Liberia has come from an era when diamonds financed brutal atrocities to the point today when diamonds are playing a positive force in the country’s economic reconstruction.

The United States also welcomes the efforts of donor countries to provide technical assistance to help Kimberley Process participants strengthen their internal controls.  We believe that one of the best means to support stability and prevent renewed conflict in diamond-producing areas is to foster Kimberley Process controls at the same time that we support development opportunities for mining communities.

We look forward to working closely with India as it assumes the chair and Namibia as assumes the vice-chair of the Kimberley Process in 2008.