DIAMONDS are helping Botswana sparkle with contribution to the economic and social development of the country. Permanent representative to the United Nations, Samuel Outlule expressed Botswana’s satisfaction that Kimberley Process (KP) membership at U.N. meet on December 30, 2006. The KP membership comprised of a wide range of diamond producers, exporters and importers. He further reiterated Botswana’s readiness to chair the Kimberly Process in 2006.

Outlule told the U.N., “Botswana is a clear example of how revenues from clean diamonds are used to build the country’s infrastructure. In particular, diamonds are essential to Botswana’s education and health systems. We are therefore committed to the twin objectives of breaking the link between the illicit transaction of rough diamonds and armed conflict on the one hand,” said Outlule, “and maintaining the contribution of legitimate diamonds to prosperity and development on the other."

Outlule congratulated the international community on the success of the Kimberly Process and said that it demonstrates the U.N.’s determination to act decisively to save lives. However, the challenge of enhancing and sustaining the credibility of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme still lies ahead, said Outule.