Call for Embargo on Zim Diamonds

In a report titled, Zimbabwe, Diamonds and the Wrong Side of History, Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) rapped the Kimberley Process (KP) for having done little to prevent tainted diamonds from Zimbabwe entering the world markets.

The KP was designed to halt the traffic in conflict diamonds which are "directly linked to the fuelling of armed conflict, the activities of rebel movements aimed at undermining or overthrowing legitimate governments, and the illicit traffic in, and proliferation of armaments, especially small arms and light weapons".

If the ban is effected it would hit hard on established companies such as Murowa Mines owned by RioZim.

PAC said diamonds are a source of increasing human rights abuses "including extra judicial killings by state security forces, and if the situation is allowed to go unchecked, they are likely to become a source of growing social instability.

"The United Nations Security Council should place an immediate embargo on Zimbabwean diamonds until such a time there is legitimate and competent governance of the country’s diamond resources," it said.

Since the Chiadzwa diamond rush in 2006, there have been reports of torture and killings of panners by state security forces in a bid to halt illegal mining in Marange.

PAC said the government should halt human rights abuses and restore the rule of law and due process to the diamond fields of Chiadzwa and to the diamond industry as a whole.

It accused the KP of failing to take vigorous action against Zimbabwe and said such a move would reduce consumer confidence in the purity of diamonds.

"Consumer confidence in the purity of diamonds will only be maintained if the Kimberley Process is willing to take vigorous action to prevent tainted diamonds from entering the world’s diamond stream. In the case of Zimbabwe, the KP is currently failing the test," it said.

Last year PAC and another organisation Global Witness demanded an immediate suspension of locally extracted diamonds from the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme citing the government crackdown on illegal diamond miners in Marange.

There has been rampant smuggling of diamonds from Chiadzwa in Marange by top officials.

The late William Nhara, then principal director in the Ministry of Public and Interactive Affairs was arrested at Harare International Airport in 2007 with a consignment of diamonds destined for Dubai. He died before the case was concluded.

In 2007 Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono told a parliamentary portfolio committee that Zimbabwe was losing between US$40 million and US$50 million a week through the smuggling of precious minerals such as gold and diamonds.

Gono told the parliamentarians that the country could realise US$1.2 billion from diamond sales, enough to solve the country’s economic problems.

"We have investors who are able to mine and bring US$1.2 billion every month while we only need US$100 million a month for all our difficulties to go," Gono said.

The Marange diamonds, previously owned by African Consolidated Resources was taken over by the government and given to the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC).

But the central bank believes ZMDC did not have the skills to undertake diamond mining saying they were practising "mechanised panning".

In 2007 there were calls to ban the country’s diamonds following an ownership wrangle involving River Ranch Mine, which pitted Bubye Minerals owned by the Farquahars against consortium of indigenous and international investors headed by Retired General Solomon Mujuru.

A team from KP visited the country on a fact-finding mission and said that Zimbabwe had adequate controls that would discourage smuggling of the precious mineral.

But PAC said the review team had done little to investigate abuses on the diamond fields.

"The team saw pits where re-vegetation had taken place, concluding that incursions of illegal miners were under control and that little illegal mining was now taking place," it said.

"ZMDC in its first year produced only about US$15 million in diamond revenues from mechanised but low-tech and inadequate panning operations in the fenced-off site."

thezimbabwestandard