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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
Report:
$2 billion in diamonds stolen from Zimbabwe fields
VOA News
November 12, 2012
View this article
on the VOA News website
A rights group
says nearly $2 billion worth of diamonds have been stolen from Zimbabwe's
Marange
diamond fields since 2008, with the money going to cronies of
President Robert Mugabe.
Partnership
Africa Canada says Zimbabwe's minister of mines, Obert Mpofu, has
allowed military and security officials to plunder the fields for
personal gain instead of using the diamonds to help turn around
Zimbabwe's ailing economy.
The Canada-based
non-profit says "hundreds of millions of dollars owed to Zimbabwe's
treasury have been lost in both illegal and legal trades."
The group stated
its findings in a 36-page report
released Monday. Zimbabwean officials have not responded to the
accusations.
However, a state-run
newspaper [The Herald] reports that Zimbabwe Defense Minister Emmerson
Mnangagwa has challenged fellow cabinet members to show any evidence
they have that diamond revenue is being taken by the army.
Finance Minister
Tendai Biti has repeatedly said that money from diamond sales is
not reaching the treasury, fueling suspicions of corruption.
Zimbabwe's military
seized control of the Marange fields in 2008, allegedly killing
hundreds of small-scale miners.
The Kimberley
Process, which monitors the international diamond trade, imposed
an export embargo on Marange diamonds in November 2009, but lifted
it two years later despite protests from human rights groups.
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