A Zimbabwean on Sunday news team that toured the area last Wednesday witnessed overzealous police officers thoroughly searching cars at the roadblocks. The police appeared to mostly target vehicles bearing foreign registration plates and high value cars driven by the rich such as Range Rover, Toyota Land Cruiser 4X4, Mercedes Benz cars.
“You are no longer allowed to go into the area which has been cordoned off to the public,” a Mutare-based journalist told our news team.
“You are not allowed to take pictures or use your cell phone once you are allowed into the area. As a journalist you must make a request to the police bosses and tell them the angle of the story that you intend to publish . and they escort you (around the diamond field)
But this is a very sensitive area and they do not usually want anybody including journalists especially the white ones to go into Chiadzwa,” the journalist said. The police are said to step up patrols around the diamond field at night when illegal dealers invade the area in search of gemstones for sale on the illegal market for precious stones.
The Chiadzwa diamond field that is also known as 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.
Diamonds from the Chiadzwa region are banned for exports as part of measures to force Zimbabwe to adhere to rules and standards set by the Kimberley Process that regulates the world diamond industry. The Zimbabwean army is accused of alleged human rights abuses at the Chiadzwa, including engaging in forced labour and smuggling.
Post published in: Manufacturing