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AMBASSADOR MILOVANOVIC OPENING REMARKS TO
KIMBERLEY PROCESS PLENARY
NOVEMBER 27, 2012, 10:00 AM
Assistant Secretary Fernandez,
Madam Minister Susan Shabangu,
Honorable Vice-Chair Welile Nhlapo,
Honorable Ministers,
Honorable Deputy Ministers,
Delegations from Participant Governments,
Esteemed Observer Colleagues from the
World Diamond Council,
KP Civil Society Coalition,
Diamond Development Initiative, and
African Diamond Producers’Association,
Distinguished Guests,
Members of the Media,
Friends:
THANK YOUs
Good morning and welcome. First let me start the meeting with expressions of
gratitude. I begin by thanking our Vice Chair South Africa, and particularly
Minister Susan Shabangu, whose presence here this morning is an extremely
eloquent statement of her continued dedication to the Kimberley Process. Let me
also thank Assistant Secretary José Fernandez for his dedication to the

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strengthening of the Kimberley Process and for his unfailing support throughout
the year.
Thank you to the International Diamond Manufacturers Association, the World
Federation of Diamond Bourses, and our extraordinarily gracious Indian hosts, for
the opportunity to address the World Diamond Congress last month. And thank
you to the organizers of the recent Victoria Falls conference for the opportunity
they afforded me as KP Chair to address topics regarding the future of the
Kimberley Process.
Thank you as well to the Antwerp World Diamond Center that has very generously
funded the Kimberley Process website throughout the year. Without their
tremendous financial support we could not have achieved a key goal of our
Chairmanship, namely vastly enhanced communication, transparency and
information flow within the KP and between the KP, outside partners, the media
and the general public.
I want also to express my deepest gratitude to our generous industry colleagues
who have once again fully funded all of the meals and breaks at this Plenary
conference, and to Cecilia Gardiner who has masterfully coordinated this
extraordinary effort.
Overall, industry has engaged vigorously and boldly in the effort to reform the
Kimberley Process. I want to thank you for your engagement and for embracing
the need for evolution and change, informed by practical expertise, and designed to
reduce any unintended consequences.

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Recognition and gratitude also go to the Chairs of the Working Groups. I realize
this is not a full-time job for you, though I am sure it often seems to be one. Your
consistent willingness, despite the heavy responsibilities of your regular jobs, to
devote enormous time and energy to serving as Working Group Chairs is very
much appreciated. Here I must add that the work of the Working Group Chairs
and my own has been aided by the readiness of so many of you here today to work
with our Chairmanship to improve, strengthen and consolidate the Kimberley
Process.
I want also to acknowledge the outstanding, creative, and truly tireless work of my
KP team. Whatever the U.S. Chairmanship achieves will be due to their
exceptional dedication and to their determination never to be discouraged but
instead to find solutions to every challenge.
WELCOME
I am delighted to welcome all of you to the 2012 Plenary meeting of the Kimberley
Process. We have a full agenda that has been the subject of sustained dialogue in
recent months. Like the Intersessional, we have designed this Plenary as a forum
for the exchange of ideas, concerns, proposed solutions, and generally as a window
of opportunity to focus the wealth of experience and expertise each of you can
provide on addressing the challenges of keeping the KP strong and relevant. As
Chair, I have frequently stressed that “take it or leave it” is not our approach.
There is much work to be done this week, and I expect all of you will participate

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constructively with your ideas to craft the best possible set of proposals to be
considered for approval by consensus on Friday.
Speaking as Chair, I see two tasks before us: to strengthen the KP; and to set a path
ensuring the Kimberley Process will meet the challenges of the future.
If we all work together, in a constructive spirit, we will be able to look back with
pride on the year 2012 as a time when Kimberley Process Participants and
Observers laid the foundation for our colleagues in South Africa to launch the KP
into its second decade as a stronger and more effective institution.
Let me take a moment here to emphasize the importance i attribute to maintaining
a collaborative and collegial tone to our discussions and debates over the next four
days. While convictions and emotions seem to run strong among KP participants,
observers, and guests, I think you will all agree that productive discussions require
that we all leave confrontation aside and focus on the free flow of information and
on constructive communication.
Let me give you a brief overview of what we, together, have done this year so as to
set the stage for the tasks we will tackle here over the next four days.
This year we have focused first on implementation and enforcement. After all,
compliance with the minimum requirements of the KPCS is at the core of our
efforts. That is why we sponsored a customs seminar in West Africa, in February,
and why we brought enforcement experts to Intersessional for an innovative panel
discussion and follow up sessions that allowed you all to discuss matters in greater

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depth with colleagues who share your location in the supply chain. That is also
why we launched electronic mailing lists for each sector of the supply chain, which
we hope you have now made a habit to use regularly. Implementation and
enforcement are also why we made sharing fraudulent certificates within the KP,
and with the World Customs Organization a standard practice. It is also why we
arranged, with the help of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the
WCO, to hold a KP Enforcement Conference here in Washington D.C. tomorrow.
This year we have facilitated increased awareness regarding fake certificates and
have streamlined the KP’s system for notifying the WCO about such fakes.
A range of decisions will be brought to the Plenary this week. We anticipate
adoption of updated technical definitions that will clarify a host of issues for
customs officials, and in so doing, also facilitate trade. We hope to adopt
Participation Committee updates to the existing guidelines on non-compliance.
And we will ask you to institutionalize the data anomaly questionnaire from the
Working Group on Statistics. The DAQ is intended to identify potential
compliance problems early, making it easier to correct them.
This year we have looked at diamonds holistically, as part of a broader
development picture. We established the Development and Assistance section of
the website. It is now the first step in a matchmaking effort that brings together
those seeking technical assistance with other KP Participants or Observers in a
position to offer their expertise, all in a no fault environment. We began issuing a
monthly Technical Assistance Bulletin in hopes of pairing those in need of expert
assistance with those who can provide it. The bulletin has already resulted in the
United Arab Emirates hosting a compliance training seminar, and the Gemological

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Institute of America plans to hold several seminars in 2013 that focus on rough
diamond grading and evaluation. The U.S. Geological Survey has also developed
a “toolkit” to train others on how to undertake multi-stakeholder monitoring of
remote artisanal mining sites, and they are making this toolkit available to
everyone this week.
I want to thank the UAE, USGS, and the GIA for extending themselves to respond
to the needs of KP colleagues. This kind of sharing of best practices and technical
expertise reinforces the image of the KP as a family whose members help each
other and who simultaneously strengthen the whole of the KP system. I urge all of
you, in industry and governments, to identify your areas of expertise and to
determine what kind of assistance you can provide in the future.
A conference on Diamonds and Development, which immediately followed the
Intersessional in June, laid the groundwork for regular meetings at which
development goals can be addressed. This week, the Plenary will be asked to adopt
the proposed update to the Moscow Declaration that has been prepared by the
Working Group on Alluvial and Artisanal Production. I am especially grateful
to Paulo Mvika and the Republic of Angola for spearheading this very worthy and
much needed effort. Integrating development into diamond production by artisanal
and alluvial producers reduces the potential for conflict and improves the lives of
those who are at the very beginning of the supply chain.
This year we have sought to extend the KP to new countries. The Republic of
Cameroon was admitted into the KP in August. The Republic of Panama and the
Republic of Kazakhstan have already hosted visits by teams of experts, and we

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look forward to the Participation Committee’s review of their progress this week.
The Kingdom of Cambodia has submitted all of the required documentation and
will also be the subject of Participation Committee discussions this week. I am
pleased to see colleagues from Mali and Kenya here as well. I hope they can enter
into the KP family in the near future.
This year the Chairmanship has also focused on communication and transparency.
I have personally engaged in a press outreach campaign that emphasizes the
successes of the Kimberley Process to date while not shying away from the
challenges of the future. As I mentioned before, with very generous support from
the Antwerp World Diamond Center, we overhauled and dramatically expanded
use of the KP website — www.kimberleyprocess.com.
The KP is in great need of an Administrative Support Mechanism, whose role will
be exclusively to provide administrative support and that has no spokesperson or
policy role of any kind. I anticipate that during this Plenary we will be able to
identify an entity to run an ASM and get that support underway. An ASM will help
South Africa with its Chairmanship and should improve how the KP functions
providing continuity from one Chairmanship to the next. It is my belief that now is
the time for the KP to select an ASM and get it up and running. With the initial
arrangement covering something like one year, both the Plenary and the ASM itself
will have the opportunity to test out the concept in real situations and make any
adjustments or changes needed as a result of actual experience.
During my travels this year, it has become clear that the KP’s actions affect the
livelihoods of millions of people around the world. We need to do everything in

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our power to keep the KP relevant and effective so that a diamond remains
synonymous with love and commitment, and a robust diamond market continues to
help millions of people pursue a better quality of life. This is why the work of the
Committee on KPCS Review is so critical. I sincerely thank Botswana for its
leadership and all committee members for their hard work.
The question that I believe motivated Plenary to decide in Kinshasa last year to
establish the CKR is, “Are we investing in the future of the KP?” For the KP to
respond appropriately to this challenge it set for itself, we cannot simply say all is
well. We must be willing to go to the heart of the difficult issues and ask whether
the KP certificate still provides the assurances that consumers want, and that the
KPCS established to produce those certificates is implemented with sufficient rigor
and attention to the development of the people working within it.
Are we confident that we are sufficiently investing in the future? Respectfully, I
would submit that we must do more; consumers are – or will be – looking for
more. Change is both healthy and inevitable. We must all agree that the core
definition of “conflict diamond” therefore needs to be updated, whether here in
Washington or next year in South Africa, through a careful and considered process
that minimizes unintended consequences, as our own investment in the KP’s
evolution as a modern and relevant system of certification.
I have believed all along that – because of the responsibility we have to the
diamond supply chain’s stakeholders and the market – we could approach even the
most challenging questions and discuss them constructively. Now, as we approach
the end of the U.S. Chairmanship, I believe I can say that the KP is doing just that.

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Dialogue about the mandate continues to progress, with a basic recognition shared
across the board that this effort is absolutely necessary. The conversations may be
difficult at times, but that is to be expected when you tackle the most challenging
issues. What they must not be is aggressive or confrontational, for such
discussions deepen divisions instead of bringing us together for the good of the
Kimberley Process and all who depend on diamonds. We must solidify our
progress this week and look to South Africa to guide the next stages.
It is my fervent hope that the next four days will be extremely productive, and that
we can set the stage for a successful South African Chairmanship in what will be
the ten year anniversary of the Kimberley Process. Thank you all.