NEW YORK – U.N. panel of experts has established that gold and diamond sales are being used to finance conflict in Central African Republic (CAR).
The panel, in a report submitted on Wednesday to the UN in New York, advised that the UN peacekeepers should monitor mining sites to clamp down on illicit trade.
They said the peacekeeping mission (MINUSCA) should deploy troops to the remote north of the country and use drones to monitor the rebel-controlled region to put an end to simmering violence there.
The panel said that more than 3,000 people had been killed between December 2013 August this year, when the UN Security Council imposed an arms embargo.
They said that the number of civilian deaths was falling.
They said that the “Kimberley Process’’, a group of 81 countries including all the major diamond producers formed to prevent ‘blood diamonds’ from funding conflict, have imposed an export ban on raw gems from CAR.
They estimated that said since then an additional 140,000 carats of diamonds valued at 24 million dollars had been smuggled out of the country.
Seleka fighters withdrew from the south of the country, including the capital Bangui, after their leader Michel Djotodia resigned the presidency in January under international pressure following months of killing of civilians, looting and rape. (Reuters/NAN)
