Fears mount over diamond cash

Zimbabwe is said to be sitting on a fortune of 4.5 million carats of stockpiled diamonds after the KP that regulates the world diamond trade banned exports of the Marange stones following reports of gross human rights violations and smuggling by soldiers guarding the alluvial mines. According to government estimates, the stockpiled gems are worth more than US$1.7 billion nearly 80 percent of Harares US$2.2 billion budget for 2010.

Pressure group Kubatana said the money should go towards improving food security at a time when a third of Zimbabwes children is said to be chronically malnourished. Where is the money going? the group said last week. Zimbabwe has struggled to attract meaningful economic aid from rich Western nations despite the formation of a coalition government by

arch-rivals President Robert Mugabe and former opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in February 2009.

The country desperately needs about US$10 billion to revive an economy battered by a decade of mismanagement by Mugabes former regime as well as resuscitating its collapsed social services such as health and education. Analysts fears about effectiveness of any KP-monitored diamond exports were confirmed by none other than Mugabe himself who told mourners during the burial of his sister that influential politicians were benefiting from the Marange operations.

Mugabe said Zimbabwes vast diamond resources should benefit the country, and promised to make sure greedy politicians will not steal the gemstones.

“Diamonds should not be pocketed by some individualsthey should help to improve the whole country. Those with an appetite for individual aggrandisement, please blunt your appetite, Mugabe said. Syndicates involving senior politicians – including Mugabe’s wife Grace – government officials and army generals are allegedly behind the looting of the Marange diamonds. Sources at the Ministry of Mines said Chikane would meet Zimbabwe government officials and assess operations at the mines operated by the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) in partnership with two South African-based firms.

The visit (by Chikane) will coincide with a review mission by a delegation from the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme as agreed during last months World Diamond Congress in Russia, a source told The Zimbabwean On Sunday. Under the agreement reached between the KP and Zimbabwe, Harare would be allowed to conduct two supervised exports of rough diamonds from the Marange production by September. The Kimberley Process Monitoring Committee would then review the

report issued by the review mission to formulate a position regarding future exports.

Chikane has in a previous report compiled in June given the Marange operations a clean bill of health, saying Zimbabwe has met KP mining standards and was on track to start trading in rough diamonds. Last months Russia meeting which approved the sale of Marange diamonds came after an earlier KP meeting in Israel in June failed to reach consensus on recommendations by Chikane that Zimbabwe be allowed to export the gemstones because the country had met all conditions set by the regulator.

At the meeting in Israel most African nations excluding West African states as well as India and Russia rallied behind a Chikanes recommendation to allow Zimbabwe to sell its precious stones. But the United States, Australia and the European Union raised the red flag over concerns that the southern African country had not met the minimum requirements of the KP.

Human rights groups had also piled the pressure on the KP to maintain the diamond ban, publishing several reports to show that abuses and other illegal activities were still taking place at Marange.

Various reports by local and international newspapers say senior officials of the two firms, Mbada Diamonds and Canadile Mining, have become a key source of stolen diamonds for mostly Lebanese and Israeli dealers operating from nearby Mozambique. The companies deny the charge.