Campaigners call for urgent action on Zim blood diamonds

By Alex Bell
29 October 2009

A coalition of civil society groups on Thursday called for urgent action on Zimbabwe from the international diamond trade monitor, the Kimberley Process (KP), saying inaction will compromise the group’s efforts to eradicate the global trade in conflict diamonds.

The Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition, whose members include Global Witness, Partnership Africa Canada and the Liberian based Green Advocates, said KP members must act on what it called the ‘overwhelming evidence’ of Zimbabwe’s failure to comply with the minimum requirements of the rough diamond certification scheme. They warned that failure to make a decision about Zimbabwe’s status is compromising the scheme’s credibility and undermining chances for the successful eradication of the trade in conflict diamonds.

“What is going on in Zimbabwe is against both the spirit and the law of the Kimberley Process. At the meeting next week, member governments must agree to suspend Zimbabwe from importing and exporting rough diamonds,” said Annie Dunnebacke from Global Witness.

Dunnebacke continued that Zimbabwe’s suspension alone will not address the challenges at Chiadzwa. She explained that KP members must also engage closely with Zimbabwe to ensure that promises of reform at the diamond fields and in their trading standards becomes a reality. A further reform of the KP itself is also urgent, Dunneback explained, saying, critically, there must be provisions made by KP members for the protection of human rights in diamond trading, as well as a reform of the KP decision making process, to allow for swift action in non-compliant countries.

The call by the Coalition comes as a final KP report on Zimbabwe was finally published this week, months after a KP delegation completed their eye-opening tour of the Chiadzwa diamond fields in June. The final report has recommended that Zimbabwe be banned from the world diamond market, because of the mass human rights violations at Chiadzwa, and other diamond trade irregularities. The delegation that toured the diamond fields in June had originally called for a temporary ban of six months or more to allow Zimbabwe time to comply with KP standards. The team’s interim report also said that should Zimbabwe opt to ‘self-suspend’ the KP “should undertake necessary processes to implement the self-suspension,” because the Zimbabwean government could not be trusted to implement recommendations without supervision.

The team had also urged the government to demilitarise the diamond fields, but no such action was taken, and the ongoing militarisation in Chiadzwa has seen the human rights abuses there escalate. The final report is impressively more hard hitting, accusing authorities of knowingly allowing illicit diamond trading. The report also accuses the government of attempting to mislead the KP probe team, in an effort to hide its involvement in violence and smuggling.

The final report is expected to be tabled at the KP annual meeting scheduled to begin next week in Namibia.