Let’s assume I want to convince consumers that there are good things to be had from diamonds, and that diamonds are, and can be, a part of a ‘green’, ‘ethical’ world (which do I intend to do). To make this point, I would direct those people to certain executives and watchdogs that represent the best of the industry. I’d direct them to Martin Rapport, who has long been an advocate for fair-trade diamonds, and famously had to wear a bullet-proof vest for two years and received bomb threats at his office after publishing his price list for diamonds, then resigned from the World Diamond Council in 2010 following inaction on Marange while human rights abuses were ongoing. I’d direct them to Edward Asscher, president of the World Diamond Council, who has been vocal in advocating for changing the definition of “conflict diamonds” “to include all rough diamonds directly associated with acts of organized and institutionalized violence”. I’d direct them to Ian Smillie, executive director of the Diamond Development Initiative, and witness #1 at Charles Taylor’s war crimes trial (if a notorious warlord has your name on his shortlist, you know you’ve done something good in the world).

On the other end of the spectrum, who makes it difficult for me to do this job and tell this good story to whoever will listen, at significant risk to myself?

Peter Meeus is the chairman of the Dubai Diamond Exchange (DDE), and someone I’d like to one day meet, but also, to learn a bit more about. I want to understand his point of view better, so that I don’t fall victim to surface pronouncements, because what I read on the surface does make my mission much more difficult.

I want to know why he happily shakes the hand of and poses for photos with of one of the world’s most brutal “elected” officials who famously recently paid North Korea $5MM for two bronze statues of himself (being the least of Mugabe’s crimes). How does this look from the outside?

I’d like to know why he had appointed to the board of the DDE, Robert Mugabe’s former personal helicopter pilot (Robert Mhlanga), who now chairs Mbada Diamonds, one of the leading companies mining in scandal-plagued Marange. Does this fit in to a “positive” view of the diamond industry, while some of the industry’s largest and most influential retailers (Tiffany, Ritani, Blue Nile) and trading networks (RapNet) have specific anti-Marange sourcing policies?

I’d like him to explain what changes have taken place at the DDE since the former CEO, Noora Jamsheer, resigned her position “rather than ignore suspicious diamond shipments”, and why Dubai seems to be the destination of choice for conflict stones from the Central African Republic. I’d also like him to explain why UN investigators saw it important to mention a “lack of vigilance” in Dubai in their report on Côte d’Ivoire.

I’d like to know whether he agrees with Chindori Chidinga, the late Zanu PF MP, when he asks “What is the value of the KP certificate if it comes from places that are also tax havens?”

I’d like to know why he walked out of the Precious Stones Multi-Stakeholder Working Group in Paris when confronted with allegations of under-invoicing and transfer-pricing (An issue which he already acknowledges exists).

I’d like to know where this tirade and this tirade come from, why he seems convinced that there is “a broader and hidden agenda”, and why the US, Israel and Botswana (amongst others) view a KP chaired by Dubai to be a threat enough to coax Australia in to running for vice-chair?

Finally, I’d like to know if he thinks the KP is really even necessary any more. After all, there is no civil war in either Angola or Sierra Leone, and since Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire and CAR represent less than 0.2% of global production, why the expense and effort?