Defense is now asking about Smillie’s report to the Court.  Questioning statistics of Liberian exports and Belgian imports: pressing the witness to admit that the Liberian statistics are based on estimates by the US Geological Service and Liberian government statistics, whose reliability he cannot guarantee.

Def: Are you really suggesting that the Belgians only realized the surge in diamond imports to Belgium due to the Partnership Africa-Canada report?

IS: Yes.

Def: How many of these diamonds actually arrived in Antwerp and Tel Aviv through Liberia, or were only listed as coming through Liberia?

IS: We can’t know.  Before the Kimberly Process, the diamond industry was confused about the terms “country of origin” and “country of provenance”.

Defense is now asking about the Russian diamond trade and the DeBeers company.  The Russian diamond industry had an exclusive contract with DeBeers, with an exception for “domestic consumption”.  Defense has the witness agree to the proposition that it is not possible to know how many additional diamonds were sold through this “window”.  Defense is trying to establish that the diamond industry was in such a confused state that there was no way to determine how many “so-called” Liberian diamonds going into Belgium were actually Liberian. The witness agrees that the Belgian figures are worthless as an indication of diamonds mined in Liberia or Sierra Leone.