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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
Kimberley
Process maintains diamond mining suspension
ACTSA
June 25, 2010
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Kimberley Process
(KP) representatives have continued the export ban for rough diamonds
from the Marange area of Zimbabwe after failing to reach a consensus
at a meeting held in Israel on 21-23 June. The outcome was welcomed
by the KP civil society coalition as the 'least bad' outcome. The
KP is meant to monitor the production of diamonds to ensure that
those offered for sale are produced in conflict-free areas.
The meeting
discussed the continued human rights violations in the area including
the arrest and detention of Farai Maguwu, Director for the Centre
for Research and Development (CRD), who had highlighted Zimbabwe's
poor adherence to the KP. According to Human Rights Watch, police
officials "beat up, arrested, and detained members of Maguwu's
family" before doing the same to him. "If Zimbabwe is
jailing activists for writing about abuses connected to diamond
mining, then it is hardly meeting the minimum standards for Kimberley
Process membership." Talks are scheduled to resume on July
14-15 in St Petersburg.
Global
Political Agreement (GPA) remains in stalemate
The GPA between ZANU-PF,
the MDC-T and the MDC-M, continues in its stalemate position. A
South African negotiation team continues to monitor the situation
but has been unable to assist with the deadlock. The Elders, a group
of former heads of state, Nobel Peace Prize recipients and prominent
human rights defenders, criticised the lack of progress, suggesting
that it was impossible and even dangerous for Zimbabwe to hold elections
in the current political situation.
The EU head of delegation
to Harare, Ambassador Xavier Marchal, stressed that Zimbabwe's
relationship with the EU cannot be built upon while breaches of
the agreement are widespread. "Everything is based on the
successful implementation of the GPA," he said.
A new
era for Zimbabwean Media?
The newly established
Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) has granted the Zimbabwean
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) the right to publish its newspaper,
'The Worker', weekly, rather than monthly. The ZMC has
also given the Daily News, Daily Gazette, The Financial Gazette
and The Mail licenses to publish in a move widely heralded as an
end to ten years of media censorship. Over the last decade Zimbabweans
have only had access to Sunday weeklies, and in more recent times,
the strongly oppositional 'Zimbabwean', though this
was printed outside the country.
There are still
reservations about the body set up to overcome the suppression of
the media enforced by President Mugabe. Mr. Mahoso, the Chief Executive
of the new ZMC was formerly the secretariat of the controversial
Media and Information Commission, which closed four newspapers.
Television and radio censorship also remain outside the jurisdiction
of the new body.
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