Abundant mine in Zimbabwe bears the "blood diamond" stigma (Feature)

By Jan Raath Aug 5, 2010, 3:06 GMT

Harare - It may be a spring of wealth that almost at a stroke could end the economic despair of Zimbabwe, but the sprawling Chiadzwa diamond field in the east of the country is more likely a deadly bear trap.

Chiadzwa, is regarded as the richest diamond find of the century. Over the past nine months, rudimentary mining only in one small area of the field has reportedly yielded 4 million carats, worth around 2 billion US dollars.

But human rights groups have labelled the gems that originate from the mines 'blood diamonds' because of the strong-arm actions of the government of President Robert Mugabe to secure the 66,000-hectare field from illegal miners.

The military and the secret police holds the area and what happens in and around it in a grip of fear and silence. The issue of rampant diamond smuggling, alleged by soldiers deployed to protect the area, has been taken up by the Kimberley Process (KP), the world watchdog on blood diamonds used to finance wars.

On Monday, the body is to send a mission to Zimbabwe to test its compliance at Chiadzwa. The visit comes just weeks after the KP lifted a ban on exports from the diamond field, allowing two consignments to be sold.

The ban was imposed after a brutal crackdown by the army in in mid-2008 on exports after a brutal crackdown by the army to drive out around 35,000 illegal diamond diggers, in which some 200 people were reportedly killed.

'Zimbabwe has had many months to address the concerns that have arisen in Chiadzwa,' says Annie Dunneback of Global Witness, one of the civil society groups that form part of the KP.

'For us, progress should be evidence of an end to human rights abuses and the very negative role that the military is playing. They should be protecting the area, not running syndicates,' she told the German Press Agency dpa.

Soldiers have been accused of involvement in syndicates that work alongside illegal diggers in mining and selling Chiadzwa gems.

In May, local civil rights researcher Farai Maguwu handed a visiting KP monitor a military briefing leaked to him on the situation at Chiadzwa.

The document reported the murder of an illegal digger by a soldier, cases of armed robbery and other 'gross indiscipline' by the army deployed around the diamond field. It also detailed an increase in illegal panning by diggers in league with soldiers and observed that troops were faced with inadequate food and allowances.

The document appeared to confirmed human rights groups reports, and contradict the government's assertion that the diamond field was completely under control with no human rights or criminal abuses by the army.

Maguwu was promptly arrested, and held in police cells for 40 days, often semi-naked on bitterly cold winter nights, and denied medication and access to lawyers. Only the intervention of a High Court judge saw him freed on bail, on a charge of 'publishing information prejudicial to the security forces.'

'You won't find anyone who will tell you what's going on on the ground at Chiadzwa now,' says one lawyer in the nearby city of Harare, asking not to be named for fear of victimization.

'After what happened to Maguwu, everyone is frightened.'

In the dingier areas of central Harare, slick young men juggling mobile phones openly offer diamonds for sale to passers-by.

John Chimunhu, a reporter on the local weekly, The Zimbabwean, said he posed as a buyer and was led inside a guarded police compound to meet a supplier whom, he said, was a senior policeman. No deal took place because the officer was out, according to Chimunhu.

Trust Maanda of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said the organization had represented about 1,500 of the illegal diggers who were brought to court in Mutare.

'They were beaten with baton sticks, sjamboks (heavy whips) and many had dog bites, he said. People had terrible injuries. There were many broken limbs.'

'They didn't bring anyone to court,' Maanda said.

A report by New York-based Human Rights Watch, based on interviews with survivors, said about 200 diggers were murdered in cold blood, often from helicopter gunships, an their bodies dumped in pits dug by the illegal diggers.

'Its going to be very difficult to find out if anything is going on,' said an official of another of the KP human rights organizations, requesting anonymity.

'They can sweep everything under the carpet, remove all the illegal diggers, put the soldiers guarding the area on best behavior and shut down the smuggling while we are there, and then let it all out when we are gone.'