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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Marange, Chiadzwa and other diamond fields and the Kimberley Process - Index of articles
The Marange diamond fields of Zimbabwe - An overview
Sokwanele
November 02, 2011
http://www.sokwanele.com/marange-diamonds
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The discovery
of massive diamond deposits in Zimbabwe has led to hundreds of media
reports exploring the abuse of human rights and grand scale corruption.
It can be difficult to keep up to date with events as they unfold,
or to tease out the key story as it unfolds. Sokwanele has produced
a full report that aims to synthesise this glut information into
a single report providing our readers with an accessible and wide
ranging overview of events, meetings, human rights abuses, environmental
degradation, and the network of the people involved in the 'Marange
story'. We have also produced a timeline highlighting Kimberley
Process meetings and other key events.
Executive
Summary
The struggle
for power in Zimbabwe is inextricably linked to the discovery of
"the richest diamond field ever seen by several orders of
magnitude" at Marange. What should have been a means of salvation
for the virtually bankrupt country after ten years of chaos that
saw world record inflation and the nation brought to its knees has
led, instead, to greed, corruption and exploitation on a grand scale,
the use of forced labour - both adults and children -
horrifying human rights abuses, brutal killings, degradation of
the environment and the massive enrichment of a select few.
Initially De
Beers had full exploration rights to search for minerals in the
Marange communal area in eastern Zimbabwe. Their exploration certificates
expired on March 28, 2006, and De Beers did not renew them.
A United Kingdom-registered
company, African Consolidated Resources (ACR) subsequently registered
exploration claims over the Marange
diamond fields giving them exclusive rights to explore and search
for diamonds and other precious stones in Marange district. In June
2006, having discovered diamonds, they declared the find, whereupon
the government evicted them, seizing 129,400 carats ACR had extracted.
They then opened the fields to anyone wishing to look for diamonds.
"It was estimated that between 15,000 and 20,000 illegal artisanal
miners were working the land and illegally selling their diamond
finds to dealers outside the country."
In November
2006 the government launched a nationwide police operation code-named
Chikorokoza Chapera (End to Illegal Panning), aimed at stopping
illegal mining. "The operation was marked by human rights
abuses, corruption, extortion and smuggling."
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