HARARE The United Arab Emirates is emerging as one of the main conduits for illicit diamonds smuggled from Zimbabwe amid reports that more gems from the controversial Marange fields have been confiscated by Belgian authorities while being exported from Dubai.A shipment of rough diamonds sent from Dubai was held up in Antwerp, Belgium, on September 6 by the Diamond Office of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) on suspicion that the diamonds originated from the controversial Zimbabwean fields.
Although the diamonds were presented with official Dubai KimberleyProcess (KP) export certificates, the European Community’s economic authorities have seemingly adopted a broader approach regarding the interpretation of the European economic sanctions against Zimbabwe.
As a result, the EC authorities believe that the government of Zimbabwe or blacklisted individuals were smuggling the diamonds via the UAE to circumvent European Union sanctions.
President Robert Mugabe and about 200 officials from his Zanu (PF) party are barred from travelling to or trading with the EU as part of targeted sanctions imposed by the bloc in 2002 in retaliation to allegations of election rigging and human rights abuses by the veteran Zimbabwean leader.
This is the second time the UAE has been fingered in the smuggling of diamonds from the Marange area where the army has been accused of murdering alluvial diggers and using forced labour to illegally extract the stones.
The Brussels-based Kimberley Process (KP) Working Group on Monitoring (WGM) revealed in May that there had been multiple shipments of rough diamonds moved from Zimbabwe to the UAE during the period December 2009 through April 2010.
Dubai is one of the UAE states and has lately become a popular destination among well-to-do Zimbabweans.
This could explain the sudden emergence of the Gulf state as a conduit for smuggled Zimbabwean diamonds.
Zimbabwe cannot sell the Marange diamonds until KP monitor Abbey Chikane certifies them for release on the international diamond market.
The KP has so far allowed only two sales of Marange diamonds as part of an agreement hammered at a meeting in July.
The first auction was held in August while the last one took place a fortnight ago.
Marange is one of the worlds most controversial diamond fields with human rights groups accusing soldiers sent by the government to secure the field from illegal miners of gross human rights abuses.
The KP monitors the diamond trade worldwide in order to prevent the sale of conflict diamonds to sponsor rogue regimes or rebel armies.
Post published in: Manufacturing