Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) has called on the government of Venezuela and the Kimberley Process (KP) to push the country to comply with KP provisions it has flouted despite being a member of the KP.

PAC, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that reported on the Venezuela issue in November 2006, said it has repeatedly urged the government to meet its obligations and for KP officials to get tough.

"The silence has been deafening," PAC Research Coordinator Ian Smillie said in a statement. "Venezuela made a half-hearted attempt to supply a few statistics earlier this year, but the numbers are simply not credible."

Members of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) are required to submit quarterly diamond-trade statistics and semi-annual production statistics while demonstrating a system of effective internal controls. PAC said Venezuela has been in default on its statistics since 2005 and claims to have exported no diamonds in more than two years. The 2006 PAC report, The Lost World: Diamond Mining and Smuggling in Venezuela, details how the country's diamonds are being openly mined and smuggled into Guyana and Brazil in full view of government authorities.

The report also provides details on the country's active artisanal-mining operations and the millions of dollars worth of diamonds PAC said have been smuggled into the legitimate trade.

"The Kimberley Process was designed to stop all of this, but for some reason, where Venezuela is concerned, the Chair and other members of the KP have lost their resolve," Smillie said. "Venezuela is not just a weak link in the chain, it demonstrates that the KP is simply not serious. Why should Dubai or Canada or South Africa implement tough regulations, when Venezuela is allowed off the hook without more than a frown?"

Smillie noted that Venezuela is the only country in the KPCS that has not hosted or invited a review mission to study its diamond controls.

"It would not stand up to a moment's scrutiny," he said.

The organization calls upon the KP to take tough and immediate action by expelling Venezuela.

"That would disallow any diamond exports to other member countries," Smillie said. "It would be a clear signal to the world's diamond industry and diamond consumers that the Kimberley Process is absolutely serious about putting an end to the criminal behavior that led to blood diamonds and to the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent people over the past 15 years."