PAC Condemns Violence in Zimbabwe's Diamond Fields

                                     
Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) calls for the release from detention of human rights activist, Farai Maguwu, and the suspension of Zimbabwe from the Kimberley Process

A new PAC report about Zimbabwe's contested diamond fields is
about many things: smuggling and frontier hucksterism; a scramble
fuelled by raw economic desperation and unfathomable greed; and
heart-wrenching cases of government-sponsored repression and
human rights violations. It's a story about political intrigue,
ambition and a complete disregard for decency or the rule of law.
It is also a story of how the Kimberley Process - the
international initiative created to ensure that the trade in
diamonds does not fund violence and civil war - has lost its way.

Zimbabwe is not the only country failing to meet some or all of
the basic requirements asked of diamond producing nations by the
Kimberley Process (KP). But Zimbabwe sets itself apart from the
others because of the government's brazen defiance of universally
agreed principles of humanity and good governance expected of
adherents to the KP. As such Zimbabwe poses a serious crisis of
credibility for the KP, whose impotence in the face of thuggery
and illegality in Zimbabwe underscores a worrisome inability or
unwillingness to enforce either the letter, or the spirit, of its
founding mandate.

There have been glimpses recently of a new strategy by Zimbabwe
in advance of the June 2010 KP Intersessional Meeting in
Tel-Aviv, where Zimbabwe's compliance with the KP's minimum
requirements will again be reviewed. For months both Zimbabwe
government officials and representatives of two new exploration
companies (Mbada and Canadile) have gone through the motions of
presenting themselves as legitimate partners in their efforts to
mine diamonds in the Marange region. In May, Mines Minister Obert
Mpofu pretended for once to recognize the authority of the KP by
issuing an export ban on all Zimbabwean diamonds until the KP
gives its blessing.

"It is, of course, a deception and a charade," explains Alan
Martin, Research Director at Partnership Africa Canada. "It's
calculated to confuse and soften the criticism of some KP members
as they congregate in Tel-Aviv in June. The Zanu-PF leadership
has no intention of voluntarily changing its tune. Zimbabwe
should be excluded from the KP."

On the eve of the publication of PAC's report, the crisis in
Zimbabwe's diamond fields deepened. The special KP Monitor sent
to assess Zimbabwe's compliance with the KP has produced a report
extremely favourable to the Zimbabwe authorities, a report which
is effectively a whitewash. At the same time, Farai Maguwu, the
leading Zimbabwean human rights activist monitoring the abuses in
the diamond fields perpetrated by Zimbabwe army and police units,
has been arrested following a meeting with the KP Monitor.

"This is the latest in a series of attempts by the Zimbabwean
authorities to intimidate human rights activists, and stop them
from investigating and publicising ongoing abuses in the Marange
diamond fields," said Bernard Taylor, Executive Director of
Partnership Africa Canada. "Such harassment is wholly
unacceptable and must stop. Farai Maguwu must be freed
unconditionally".

The PAC report, Diamonds and Clubs: The Militarized Control of
Diamonds and Power in Zimbabwe, makes a series of recommendations
to deal with the crisis in Zimbabwe and in the KP.
Recommendations include suspending Zimbabwe from the KP and
creating a new, broader definition of 'conflict diamonds'.

For further information, please contact:

Alan Martin: Mobile: +1.613.983.6817
(English)

  
Partnership Africa Canada been involved in efforts to halt the
trade in conflict diamonds since 1999. Other reports on conflict
diamonds can be found at http://www.pacweb.org