20th July, 2017
An EU court on Thursday upheld the bloc’s freeze on the funds of two companies charged with trafficking in conflict diamonds and supporting armed groups in the Central African Republic (CAR).
In 2015, the European Union decided to block the European assets of Badica, a large diamond trading firm in the CAR, and its Belgian unit Kardiam.
The companies argued that the freeze was not warranted saying it was not sufficiently proven that they had supported armed groups by trading natural resources.
The court rejected this view.
“By continuing to purchase diamonds from collectors, Badica and Kardiam necessarily provided support to armed
groups,” the EU’s General Court said in a statement.
The companies did not immediately comment on the ruling.
NAN reports that on Aug. 20, 2015, UN Security Council blacklisted the Belgian branch of CAR’s diamond trading company and three people linked to the country’s more than three-year-old conflict.
The blacklisted diamond trading house is Kardiam, which UN sanctions experts say is the Antwerp, Belgium-based operation of the CAR’s diamond-trading company Badica. U
Under UN sanctions, the firm’s assets are to be frozen and business with it will be illegal.
The Security Council sanctions committee published the announcement of the new designations on its website.
CAR descended into chaos in March 2013 when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power, triggering reprisals by “anti-balaka” Christian militias who drove tens of thousands of Muslims from the south in a de facto partition.
The three individuals facing travel bans and asset freezes are Alfred Yekatom, an anti-balaka commander who goes by the nom de guerre of “Rambo”, Habib Soussou, another anti-balaka commander, and Oumar Younous, a former Seleka general and diamond smuggler, the sanctions committee announcement said.
CAR was a major exporter of diamonds until May 2013, when the Kimberley Process banned shipment of its rough diamonds.
The Kimberley Process is a group of 81 countries, including all the major diamond producers, formed to prevent so-called blood diamonds from funding conflict.
A UN mission in Central African Republic, known as MINUSCA, was deployed to shore up the precarious stability established under a transitional government.
A UN sanctions regime for Central African Republic was set up in December 2013.
In May 2014, the committee imposed its first targeted sanctions by blacklisting former President François Bozize and two other men, Nourredine Adam, an original leader of Seleka, and Levy Yakete, an anti-balaka Christian militia leader.
Yakete was de-listed after he reportedly died in November.
The sanctions announced on Thursday are the first to be imposed since then.