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.
.