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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
Breaking
the Zimbabwe diamond stalemate
Diamond
Intelligence briefs (DIB)
June 16, 2010
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Is there a way
out of the Kimberly Process (KP)-Zimbabwe imbroglio that would do
a reasonable amount of justice to all the sides involved?. A hint
to the answer can be found deeply in the new Partnership Africa
Canada (PAC) report. Diamonds
and Clubs. The report focuses on an "obscure" Zimbabwe
body called the joint Operation Command (JOC).
The document
that landed the NGO activist Farai Maguwu in jail, which summarises
the activities of illegal diggers ('gjewas'), was reportedly
addrressed to the sun-national JOC. It is only recently that I started
to fully comprehend the dominating, if not actually controlling,
role the JOC plays in Marange diamond area or in most Zimbabwe diamond
areas for that matter.
Who and What
is JOC?
The essence
of the JOC has been
described by Stephanie Hanson of the US Council on Foreign Relations.
In 2008, Hanson wrote that, "as Zimbabwe's economic crisis
has deepened, Mugabe has ceded significant power to the country's
security forces - the Central Intelligence Organisation, the military,
and the police. Above all else, the president seeks to maintain
his grip on power - following the time-texted axioma that the 'first
rule of survival: you keep the security forces happy and you pay
them'."
According to
Hanson, since the 2002 presidential election, the state itself has
become increasingly militarised. Military figures (often referred
to as "securocrats") occupy high-level positions in civilian
institutions. Researchers state that Zimbabwe's cabinet's authority
has been superseded by that of the JOC, which is comprised of the
heads of the intelligence agency, military and police. The command
makes national policy decisions.
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