Zimbabwe diamond fields to assess alleged human rights violations

Kimberley Process to send team to Zimbabwe diamond fields
By Brigitte Weidlich – 2 days ago
WINDHOEK (AFP) — The Kimberley Process against "blood diamonds" said Friday it will send a team to Zimbabwe's troubled Marange diamond fields to assess alleged human rights violations.
"We had frank and open discussions about Zimbabwe and this compliance with the Kimberley Process, Zimbabwe is still high on our agenda," Bernard Esau, who currently chairs the scheme, told reporters in the Namibian capital.
The announcement came as Human Rights Watch on Friday accused Zimbabwe's armed forces, under the control of veteran President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF, of torture and forced labour to control the eastern Marange diamond fields.
"We have no proof of alleged human rights violations at the Marange diamond fields, but we took note of a report by the international organisation Human Rights Watch," Esau said after a three-day meeting of the Kimberley Process (KP), the global scheme to prevent diamonds from financing armed conflicts.
The team that leaves on Monday will meet government ministers, central bank officials, top police officers and travel to Marange and the nearby town of Mutare.
A new 62-page Human Rights Watch report out Friday said more than 200 people were killed by Zimbabwe's army in a takeover of the Marange fields last year, and that forced labour, torture and beatings by the military had continued.
The rights body said it believes the illegal diamond trade is a likely revenue source for senior officials of the Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF).
Andrew Brownell of Green Advocates Liberia countered that the human rights violations were real, saying the group had appealed to KP member governments to take action to address compliance.
"Zimbabwe is linked to human rights violations with regard to the diamond sector and this is all well documented in public reports," he told reporters.
Brownell will be part of the KP review team travelling to Zimbabwe which will be headed by Liberia's deputy minister for development and include civil society representatives.
On Wednesday during the conference, Zimbabwe's deputy mining minister Murisi Zwizwai denied any killings by security forces in Marange. Zimbabwe's mining ministry on Friday said it stood by Zwizwai's statement, despite the fresh allegations.
The three-day Kimberley Process meeting also discussed options for further action to end smuggling of conflict gems in Ivory Coast, where gem production in Ivory Coast is increasing despite a UN ban on their export.
"The satellite images provided by the UN group show that rough diamond production is going on and increasing, and this was indicated by ground observations of the KP working group of diamond experts," Esau said.
"We further discussed options for additional Kimberley Process action and constructive engagement to end the smuggling of conflict diamonds out of Cote d'Ivoire," Esau said, referring to the country by its French name.
The UN Security Council last October extended a ban on Ivorian diamond exports as part of targetted sanctions meant to prod the west African nation towards holding free and fair elections.
A UN team in April found that Ivory Coast was still producing rough diamonds despite the ban, findings supported by a team of KP experts who also visited the country, Esau told reporters.
He said the Kimberley Process supported the creation of a regional task force to bring Ivory Coast into compliance with the ban.
Ivory Coast is scheduled to hold a presidential election on November 29.
The election is intended to end a crisis that has gripped the west African state since September 2002, when the rebel New Forces (NF) attempted a coup against President Laurent Gbagbo and then occupied the northern half of the country.