Zim diamond decision expected this week

A meeting of the international diamond trade watchdog, the Kimberley Process (KP), was set to get underway on Monday, to discuss amendments to a proposed agreement on Zimbabwe. Last year, KP members failed to reach consensus on an agreement that would see full exports resume with KP certification. That original agreement was also rejected by Zimbabwean authorities who threatened to sell the diamonds without approval.

Earlier this month, Deputy Mines Minister Gift Chimanikire said that the KP had given Zimbabwe the green light to go ahead with two diamond auctions. He claimed that the KP had said this in a letter, but he has not produced the letter so far. Meanwhile a KP spokesperson has been quoted as saying that no decision has been made, and that the watchdog group was still waiting for consensus from KP members of the proposed agreement.

The state-owned mineral marketing agency in Zimbabwe is reportedly making preparations for two diamond auctions, despite there being no official decision from the KP. Alan Martin from civil society group Partnership Africa Canada, told SW Radio Africa that the government is actually free to have an auction, and that the only issue would be exporting the stones after they are sold. He said that exports have been suspended until the KP makes an official decision.

Right now no diamonds from (Chiadzwa) can be exported, Martin said, calling the issue a grey-zonal area for the KP.

Zimbabwe was suspended from trade in 2009 over human rights abuses at the Chiadzwa alluvial diamond fields, where the military has been accused of violence, forced labour, smuggling and murder. The KP, which was started to end the trade in blood diamonds, has resisted pressure to ban the country completely. Instead, the group continued its lenient treatment of the Zimbabwe situation, which critics have warned is a serious threat to the credibility of the global diamond trade.