Government urged to reveal truth about Chiadzwa diamond murders
By Alex Bell
25 June 2009

The government has been urged to reveal the truth about the mass murders at the Chiadzwa diamond fields, after an MDC minister this week denied that any killings had taken place.

There have been widespread accounts from survivors and human rights groups about brutal killings and severe rights abuses at the eastern Marange diamond fields, after the army moved in last October to disperse thousands of illegal diamond hunters. But Deputy Mining Minister Murisi Zwizwai told Wednesday’s meeting of the Kimberley Process - the international scheme to curb the sale of ‘blood diamonds’ - that the situation in Marange had been brought under control and that claims of mass killings were ‘unsubstantiated reports’.

“Contrary to allegations in the media, nobody was killed by security forces during an operation at Marange, where about 30,000 people descended onto the alluvial mining field,” Zwizwai told the 200 delegates at the conference in Namibia.

“These people comprised of cunning, die-hard illegal diamond diggers,” Zwizwai said. “This compelled government to conduct a special operation to flush out the illegal diamond miners and to bring order and sanity to the area.”

Members of the Kimberley Process have been meeting in Namibia this week, as pressure continues to mount on the regional body to effectively act on its mission to combat the trade in blood diamonds. Zwizwai, representing Zimbabwe, denied that diamonds leaving the country were ‘blood diamonds’, saying that such conflict diamonds “are used by rebel movements or their allies to finance conflict aimed at undermining legitimate governments.”

“There is no armed conflict in Zimbabwe,” Zwizwai said.

The question over whether Zimbabwe’s diamonds can be categorised as ‘conflict diamonds’ has previously been raised, as the gems are helping fund a government rather than a rebel army. But the leading architect of the Kimberley Process, Ian Smillie, said in an interview on Wednesday that Zimbabwe’s diamonds are indeed blood diamonds. He said; “They have blood all over them.” Smillie has turned his back on the Kimberley Process, saying it is no longer working. He has warned that the scheme is close to collapse because governments and the diamond industry are failing to act against gross human rights violations.

Civil society organisations have previously raised questions about the body’s ability to deal with the smuggling of diamonds in countries like Brazil, Ivory Coast, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and Guinea. There are already calls to suspend Zimbabwe from the Kimberly Process, mainly from NGOs, because there are firm suspicions that illicit diamonds are entering the legitimate trade stream.

“The clock is running out on the Kimberley Process credibility,” said Annie Dunnebacke from the London based action group, Global Witness. “It would be scandalous if uncooperative governments like Zimbabwe in this case, succeeded in hobbling it into ineffectiveness,” Dunnebacke told SW Radio Africa on Thursday.

Dunnebacke continued that the Zimbabwean government cannot keep hiding the truth about the Marange killings from the Kimberley Process, which is set to send a review team to Zimbabwe next week.

“This is a very concerning move by the Zimbabwe government,” Dunnebacke said. “We are concerned that the review team sent by the Kimberly Process might not be given full access to the areas they need to visit and the people they need to speak to.”

“We are urging the government to reveal the truth about what has happened there, so that the rectification of human rights violations can begin,” Dunnebacke added.