BELGIUM: DEMARCHE DELIVERED ON ILLICIT DIAMOND

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRUSSELS 001858 SIPDIS AF/S - BRIAN WALCH AND RUSH MARBURG; EEB FOR S. SAARNIO; TREASURY FOR OFAC E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/05/2018 TAGS: PREL ETRD ECON EFIN ASEC ZI SUBJECT: BELGIUM: DEMARCHE DELIVERED ON ILLICIT DIAMOND ACTIVITY IN ZIMBABWE REF: STATE 126054 Classified By: POL/ECON COUNSELOR RICHARD EASON, REASONS 1.4 (b) (d) ¶1. (U) Economic officer delivered reftel demarche in a meeting on December 5 to Mr. Henk Mahieu, General Counsellor for Economic Issues, Ms. Karla Basselier, attache for Kimberley Process Issues, and Ms. Annick de Smedt, attache for Zimbabwean affairs, all from the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation. ¶2. (C) Mahieu said the current situation in Zimbabwe clearly shows that President Mugabe must go; he said the region must be the first to press for Mugabe to leave. Turning to diamonds, Mahieu said Belgium, which has been aware of the Zimbabwe diamond issue for some time, similarly believes Zimbabwe's neighbors must become more involved in finding a solution to Zimbabwean diamonds moving into the market; he cited the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in particular, which he suspected was one of the main escape routes. He thought many of the stones from Zimbabwe were being sent to India to be cut. ¶3. (C) Belgium very recently has begun to take steps to monitor the flow of Zimbabwe-sourced diamonds through Antwerp's Diamond Office, where the Government of Belgium examines all inbound/outbound shipments of diamonds. But Mahieu quickly added that the Government lacked sufficient judicial/legal grounds to take strong action against trading companies, because those involved in the Zimbabwean illicit trade were savvy enough to mingle Zimbabwean diamonds with those from other countries such as the DRC, for example, and then send them to other diamond trading centers in India and Dubai where they could receive legitimately-issued Kimberly certificates that indicated the source was "mixed," and then be sent on to Antwerp. He did say that Belgian security service authorities were following some cases of suspected Zimbabwean diamonds, and suggested that if the United States were interested, the two countries should consider involving their intelligence services. But even those efforts, if successful, still would run up against the fact that there is little Belgium can do legally when the diamonds have a Kimberley certificate. This shows one of the weaknesses of the Kimberley Process, Mahieu stated. When asked whether Zimbabwe could be added to the Kimberley sanctioned-country list (which currently lists only Cote d'Ivoire),Mahieu did not discount the possibility, but said he thought that Russia and China in particular would likely not approve, arguing that Zimbabwe's situation would not qualify as one of "conflict," and thus not be applicable to the Kimberley process. ¶4. (C) In response to a question of whether Belgian nationals were directly buying illicit Zimbabwean diamonds, Mahieu said they had no firm information but that authorities were tracking a few individuals of Lebanese-origin carrying Belgian passports who may be involved in some way. The Zimbabwe desk officer said that Belgium's embassy in South Africa (which covers Zimbabwe, where Belgium has no embassy) had not received any information about involvement of Belgian nationals in the illicit Zimbabwe trade. ¶5. (C) Mahieu did say Belgian authorities have been working with Mark Van Bockstael of Antwerp's World Diamond Council and current Chair of the Kimberley Process Working Group for Diamond Experts and Technical Issues to develop a "footprint" of Zimbabwean diamonds to assist the experts working in the Diamond Office in recognizing and tracking suspeced Zimbabwean diamonds. Garnering statistics about the size of the trade would be a useful initial step in learning about the scope of any Zimbabwean diamonds through Antwerp, Mahieu said. .