Anti-blood diamonds team implicates Zimbabwe army

By Violet Gonda
6 July 2009

A visiting delegation from the Kimberley Process has just concluded a week long investigation into Zimbabwe’s controversial diamond mining trade and found that the country’s military and police were major contributors to the illegal activities, human rights abuses and murders that took place in the Marange diamond fields, despite denials by government officials.

The Kimberley Process is an initiative by international govenments and civil societies to stem the flow of conflict diamonds. Although the full report has not been publicised, the interim report said: “There cannot be effective security where diamonds are concerned, with the involvement of the military.”
The anti-blood diamonds group recommended that the army should be immediately removed from the diamond fields. Liberian Deputy Mines Minister Kpandel Fayia, who is the head of the Kimberley Process delegation, is quoted in the Herald saying the full report on Zimbabwe would be issued within a month.
Human Rights Watch senior researcher Tiseke Kasambala said: “If this is truly the case, then that is indeed a positive statement from the Kimberly Process and was one of the key recommendations from our report we released about a week and a half ago, calling for the de-militarisation of the diamond industry in Zimbabwe.”

The rights group also said government denials of killings, especially by the army, are a cover up as gross abuses have been taking place in the Chiadzwa area since the diamond fields were discovered in 2006. Kasambala said it is disappointing the authorities are denying the atrocities that took place, instead of addressing what happened and trying to bring about accountability and transparency in the mining of diamonds in Zimbabwe.

“The army has carried out terrible abuses, including forced labour of children, women and men and took part in the massacres that took place in October and November 2008.” According to the group, at least 200 people were killed by military personnel during a crackdown on so called illegal diamond dealers.
Last week the MDC criticised its own minister for making ‘inaccurate’ statements about what transpired in the Chiadzwa area. Deputy Minister of Mines, Murisi Zwizwai, said there had been no killings in the diamond fields. But his party said: “We view the remarks as premature and inaccurate in the absence of an investigation into the murky dealings in the Chiadzwa diamond fields where a lot of things happened out of the public eye. Hon Zwizwai's claims are therefore fact-hostile and evidence-free.”

It is understood the Kimberly Process fact finding mission also spoke with victims of the military crackdown, some with gunshot wounds, and to some relatives of those killed.