Zim diamond ban ‘unlikely’ as gov argues lack of evidence

The government’s delegation to the annual meeting of the Kimberley Process (the regulatory body tasked with ending the global trade in conflict diamonds) has argued there is insufficient evidence to support claims of human rights abuses at the Chiadzwa diamond fields, prompting fears that a hoped-for ban on Zimbabwe’s diamonds is unlikely.

The government delegation, led by Mines Minister Obert Mpofu, arrived in Namibia this week armed with denials about the ongoing abuses at the Chiadzwa diamond fields. The denials were not surprising, as Mpofu and other government officials have all previously said reports about rights violations at the diamond fields are fabrications. Mpofu this week also verbally threatened NGOs, as well as a Kimberley Process delegation that was in Zimbabwe recently, for reporting on the abuses, calling them ‘deranged and requiring psychological examination’. It is now also understood that a so called ‘lack of evidence’ about the abuses will lead to a feared lack of action from the Kimberley Process.

During the regulatory body’s mission to Zimbabwe more than four months ago to investigate the reports of rights abuses, the team met with a key witness, Newman Chiadzwa. Chiadzwa offered up testimonies and eye witness accounts of beatings, torture and even murders at the hands of the military controlling the diamond fields. He even detailed how he had been arrested and harassed before the Kimberley Process delegation’s visit and as a result was invited as a key witness to the annual meeting in Namibia.

But in recent weeks a confusing side-story of Newman Chiadzwa’s involvement in illicit smuggling at the diamond fields has led to him, conveniently for the government, retracting his statements. He reportedly said in a letter that he had lied to the Kimberley Process to deliberately force a ban, allegedly for the illicit diamond trade in the country to be allowed to boom. The government delegation to Namibia has since argued there is no evidence to support the reports of rights abuses, and NGOs and other groups gathered in Namibia are now concerned a trade ban is ‘unlikely’.

But Farai Maguwu from the Mutare based Centre for Research and Development (CRD), which has done extensive investigations into the rights abuses at the diamond fields, has said there is extensive evidence to show that the reports of abuse in Chiadzwa are true. He was speaking from Namibia where he travelled with other rights groups to provide an update about the situation in Chiadzwa. Maguwu explained how he has faced increasing threats and intimidation from government officials in Namibia for providing the evidence he has, saying his “presence at the meeting has not gone down very well with some officials.”

The CRD has documented and compiled evidence of abuse at the diamond fields since the government sanctioned ‘operation hakudzokwi’ (you will not return) was launched there almost a year ago. More than 200 civilians were murdered in the campaign, and hundreds more were beaten and abused. The CRD has described how listening to the victims narrate their nightmares “is as terrible as listening to survivors of the holocaust.”

The group also recently spoke to 20 women survivors of the attacks, all of them informal traders in the diamond fields, who gave ‘chilling but similar accounts’ of gross human rights abuses they suffered at the hands of state security agents. Of the 20 women interviewed, 12 confessed to having been raped either by soldiers or were forced by soldiers to have unprotected sex with diamond panners at gunpoint. All of them were first beaten severely with iron bars and gun butts to disorient them and break any resistance. After the beatings the women complied with orders given by the soldiers. Two of the victims went for HIV tests after being raped and they tested positive. Some didn’t go for HIV tests after being raped

Meanwhile the pressure from human rights groups and NGOs across the world is building on the Kimberley Process to ban Zimbabwe from international diamond trade. A decision is expected from the regulatory body on Thursday, prompting an online petition to be widely circulated across the world calling for a ban. The petition, by online petition group Avaaz, explains how diamond jewellery as a traditional expression of love, is financing and profiting Robert Mugabe’s ‘vicious political militia’.

“All diamond producing countries know that their profits are dependent on the brand reputation of diamonds, and that increasing awareness of ‘blood diamonds’ threatens that brand. A massive global petition will show them that the diamond-buying public is demanding action,” the petition reads.