KP man tours Zims Marange diamond field

Chikane, who government officials had initially said was expected in the country on Wednesday, arrived in Harare yesterday morning and immediately went into talks with Mines Minister Obert Mpofu.

He will be in Zimbabwe until Friday and will during the time meet officials from the governments Minerals Marketing Authority of Zimbabwe that oversees trade in precious minerals such as diamonds.

Chikane will also meet army and police commanders as well as members of civil society groups who have accused government security forces of committing human rights abuses at the diamond field and have been pushing the KP to impose a world ban on trade in Marange diamonds.

We are expecting him tomorrow (Tuesday) to go to Marange. He is set to meet with the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe, if all goes well he also will meet with the police and the army to hear their side on the issue of security during transportation of diamonds,” said a ministry of mines official on condition he was not named.

Zimbabwe cannot sell diamonds from the Marange field also known as Chiadzwa until the KP through Chikane certifies them for release on the international diamond market

Both Mpofu and President Robert Mugabe have in recent weeks accused Western governments of manipulating the KP to frustrate efforts to sell diamonds from Marange to raise cash for the broke Harare government.

But human rights activists say previous sales of diamonds from Marange have not benefited the government but the top military brass and powerful politicians from Mugabes ZANU PF party who they say have smuggled gems out of the country for sale on the international black market for precious stones.

Marange is one of the worlds most controversial diamond fields with reports that soldiers sent to guard the claims after the government took over the field in October 2006 from a British firm that owned the deposits committed gross human rights abuses against illegal miners who had descended on the field.

The KP last November ignored calls by human rights to ban diamonds from Marange and instead gave Harare up to next month review operations at the diamond field in the eat of the country to ensure compliance with its standards and regulations.

However two joint venture companies established by the governments Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation and some South African private investors have sparked more controversy amid reports that some directors of the companies once ran illegal drug and diamond trafficking rings in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sierra Leone.

Some of the directors of the two firms are also known to have close ties with Zimbabwes military establishment that is accused of siphoning millions of dollars worth of diamonds from Marange for sale on the black market.