The World Diamond Council renewed its call for the continued boycott of Zimbabwean diamonds "until the Kimberley Process monitor is actively controlling exports from the area," Jeweller Magazine said.

The World Diamond Council has been a longtime advocate for an international boycott of Zimbabwean diamonds, as it blames the country for gross human rights violations in its diamond fields.

The Kimberley Process monitor for Zimbabwe, Abbey Chikane, held a preliminary tour of the Marange diamond field in early March.

The Zimbabwean government announced last week that it was taking steps to clean-up its diamond trade by ending human rights abuses in its diamond fields, but industry experts have been skeptical as to the statement's sincerity.

The statement has also been questioned by diamond industry veteran and one of the Kimberley Process founders Martin Rapaport, chairman of the Rapaport Group. The Kimberley Process, "Does not seem to have the structural capacity or the political leverage to deal effectively with Zimbabwe,” the website quoted Rapaport as saying.

Rapaport added that the Zimbabwean government was exploiting loopholes in Kimberley Process regulations: “The Kimberley Process has been so manipulated by Zimbabwe that the organization failed to recognize its own peer review accounts of murder, rape, mass burials and other human rights abuses carried out by state personnel at the Marange fields," he said.

A World Diamond Council statement advised those trading in diamonds to use the System of Warranties to ensure they are buying ethically mined diamonds: “This system was designed to provide assurances through the entire supply chain down to the consumer that they do not purchase diamonds that have been traded in violation of any KP requirements.”