Soldiers continue to brutally beat people at Chiadzwa diamond fields

Today, 24.8.09, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum issued the latest Monthly Political Violence Report for the month of June 2009. The report notes that the month of June saw the levels of organised violence being sustained with little indication the
Government of National Unity (GNU) was committed to ending human rights
violation in the country. It notes that disregard for the rule of law, corruption, intimidation, abuse of political office and the militarisation of both public and private institutions continue to dog Zimbabwe and stifle any meaningful economic recovery. The full report can be read on our web site via the following link:
http://www.hrforumzim.com/monthly/JuneMPVR2009.pdf

Today, 24.8.09 our member organisation, the Media Institute for Southern Africa, (MISA Zimbabwe) issued the MISA Zimbabwe Communique. It reports that members of the public criticised the deputy editor of The Herald, Ceasar Zvayi during a hearing on the state of public media coverage convened by the Parliamentary Portfolio
Committee on Media, Information and Communication Technology. MISA Zimbabwe reports that speaker after speaker lambasted the public media, notably The Herald and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) for their partisan reportage and pro ZANU PF propaganda coverage.

Other civil society reports and statements today include the following items:
Human rights abuses are allegedly still taking place at the Chiadzwa diamond fields according to the attached statement issued today, 24.8.09 by The Centre for Research and Development (CRD). The CRD brands last week's visit to Zimbabwe by the KPCS secretariat as 'scandalous'. It was led by Namibian Mines Minister Bernard Esau, the current Chair of the KPCS secretariat. The CRD alleges that the visit 'did not meet the minimum standards of a professional fact finding mission', and 'was apparently a mission to obliterate a report compiled by a
wide KPCS fact finding mission to Zimbabwe in July 2009'. The CRD alleges that soldiers from the 5^th Brigade are still manning the diamond fields. It says that panning by soldiers has reached alarming proportions and alleges that soldiers are still brutally assaulting anyone caught wondering in the diamond fields
without escourt. Given the scarcity of an official paper trail on issues
concerning the Chiadzwa diamonds, and in a departure from our usual practice of only referencing civil society and international bodies, we direct readers to the following reports: SW Radio Africa and the Tracy Ltd Diamond  Intelligence Brief both carry items alleging that The Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) will apparently not
suspend Zimbabwe despite the human rights abuses reportedly taking place at the Chiadzwa diamond fields. Read further on line via the following links:

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news210809/zimdiamonds210809.htm

and

http://www.diamondintelligence.com/magazine/magazine.aspx?id=8144

The first, an article published in the government controlled 'The Herald' newspaper, on 22.8.09
refers to the visit of the KPCS team and the insistance by the Government that it is complying with the recommendations made by the July 2009 KPCS mission.

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International Liaison Office
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum
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Email: IntLO@hrforumzim.com

The Zimbabwe Human
Rights NGO Forum has been in existence since January 1998 when non-governmental organisations working in the field of human rights joined together to provide legal and psychological assistance to the victims of the Food Riots of January
1998. The Forum consists of 16 Zimbabwean human rights organisations.The
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum operates a Research and Documentation Unit and offers legal services through the Public Interest Unit from the Headquarters in Harare, in addition to the information service that is offered internationally from
the International Liaison Office.The International Liaison Office of the
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO in an effort to ensure the widest possible coverage for our reports, constantly updates and adds to the email addresses on our list using member organisations' contact lists or other sources.