Zimbabwe: Suspending diamond trade will "worsen things" (Roundup)

Jul 30, 2009, 12:53 GMT

Harare - The Zimbabwean government said Thursday its suspension from the rough diamond trade, as called for by a watchdog body fighting trade in so-called conflict diamonds, would 'not solve anything' and would only 'worsen things.'

The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS), a 49-member body representing 75 diamond-producing countries, visited Zimbabwe earlier this month to inspect allegations of gross human rights abuses by the military in the eastern Marange diamond fields.

In its interim report, the Process recommended Zimbabwe be suspended from trade in rough diamonds among KPCS members for at least six months, until better controls on the diamond trade were in place, Zimbabwe's state-controlled Herald newspaper reported.

Kimberley Process members account for 99.8 per cent of global diamond production.

Reacting to the threat of suspension, Mines Minister Obert Mpofu told the German Press Agency dpa: 'It - suspension - will not solve anything. The country needs money and exports of diamonds would have helped a lot. It will only worsen things.'

The report's conclusion was 'confrontational,' he said, adding the government had not had enough time to act on the team's first recommendations after its visit, when it called for the military to be immediately withdrawn from Marange.

The government at the time agreed to comply, but said the withdrawal would only be carried out on a phased basis until the Marange area, site of a diamond rush since 2006, were properly secured.

The Herald quoted the Kimberley team as recommending the 'initiation of procedure to implement suspension of Zimbabwe from importing or exporting of rough diamonds within the KPCS for a period of at least six months, but until such time as a KP team determines that minimum standards have been met.'

Human Rights Watch, in a report in June, accused the military of killing scores of wildcat diamond diggers during a crackdown on illegal mining in the Chiadzwa fields in Marange late last year and says members of the military are now lining their pockets with the gems, robbing the cash-strapped government of much-needed revenue.

HRW and other groups have been calling for the definition of conflict diamonds - diamonds that pay for conflicts - to be expanded to include diamonds mined in conditions of gross rights abuses.

The government says there were 'no killings' in Marange.

During their visit the Kimberley Process team met with diamond diggers, their families, local residents, politicians and human rights activists.

Team leader Kpandel Fiya, Liberia's deputy minister of mines, was reported by several media as later telling Mpofu in a report the team had noted 'unacceptable and horrific violence against civilians by authorities in and around Chiadzwa.'

The team had documented 'wounds, scars from dog bites and batons, tears, and ongoing psychological trauma,' Fiya had said drawing comparisons with Liberia, where diamonds fuelled a 15-year civil war.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti, of the former opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), had pleaded with the Process to give Zimbabwe more time to put in place proper controls before taking action.