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Zimbabwe: Curse of Chiadzwa diamonds - Case for suspension
Gabriel Shumba
October 29, 2009

Introduction

The Namibian based Kimberly Certification Process Scheme (hereafter referred to as the KP Process) will be meeting in the first week of November. The body is a joint government initiative to among other things stop trade in conflict diamonds and to regulate trade in rough diamonds. The KP Process was created through a United Nations General Assembly Resolution of 2000, which gave birth to the organ in 2002. In the last 3 years, Zimbabwe's Chiadzwa diamonds have been on the market.

Below I seek to examine the activities that characterise the extraction of those diamonds and to give recommendations to ensure that the KP Process deals effectively with the extraction scenario obtaining in Chiadzwa. The main recommendation to the KP Process is that they must suspend Zimbabwe from the Certification Scheme as recommended by their own Review Mission to Zimbabwe until such a time when proper systems of security, accountability, human rights protection and redress have been established in Zimbabwe.

Background

Since 2000, Zimbabwe has suffered one of the Continent's most persistent, unprecedented socio-economic and political crisis. In September 2008, the three major political parties in the country signed a Global Political Agreement (GPA) under the auspices of the Southern African Development Community, (SADC). The GPA culminated in the establishment of a Government of National Unity (GNU) between the major parties ZANU (PF), MDC (T) and MDC (M). The establishment of the GNU brought hope to the millions of Zimbabweans who had been condemned to a life of hyperinflation, corruption and gross human rights abuses.

Today however, Zimbabweans are cursed with 2 developments. On the political front, the GNU is unraveling as a result of the disengagement by the MDC (T) from Cabinet. The party cites its reasons as among others, failure by ZANU (PF) to implement the GPA as well as the deteriorating rule of law and human rights situation in the country. On the economic front, the political and human rights regression mean that investors will stay away. The country presently needs about US$10 Billion to resuscitate the economy. It is therefore ironic that in this context, the discovery of diamonds in the Marange area of Chiadzwa in 2006 has been a curse instead of a blessing for the country.

The Curse of the Chiadzwa Diamonds

The Chiadzwa diamonds were first discovered in 2006 70km west of Mutare in Eastern Zimbabwe. The finding was greeted with jubilation by a country that had the world's highest inflation and an unemployment rate of over 85 per cent. Thus, illegal panning became the order of the day. The illegal extraction of the diamonds was encouraged by a government which by 2008 was desperate to win votes as well as to contain restlessness by unpaid security forces. However, after ZANU (PF)'s parliamentary defeat to the MDC in March 2009, the government started a campaign to remove illegal panners from Chiadzwa.

Legally, the Chiadzwa diamonds should be under the control of the African Consolidated Resources (ACR) which won a High Court order in recent months confirming title to the Marange diamond fields. This court order also obliged the Government of Zimbabwe to restitute 129 400 carats of diamonds seized by police in 2007 to be returned to ACR or to account for these diamonds and repay ACR the total amount received for the sale of these diamonds. In proceedings of the court case, the Government of Zimbabwe announced that they were fully complying with the Kimberley Certification Process Scheme implying that they had not sold the 129 400 carats or that they would be fully traceable. There are very strong indications however that the diamonds have been sold illegally, that they are therefore not traceable and that Zimbabwe is not complying with the KP Process. It is estimated that over the past three years ACR was being prejudiced to a total amount of about US$6 billion.

The above notwithstanding, the government has encouraged illegal extraction through the Zimbabwe Minerals Development Corporation (ZMDC). The government has also allowed a South African Security Firm and a Mauritian Company of South African origin to mine the precious gems from Chiadzwa. The Mutare Based Zimbabwean Center for Research and Development also made claims that Canadales Investments, a South African mining company is working with senior military and ZanuPF officials such as such as Air Marshall Perence Shiri and Army Commander Valerio Sibanda, to mine diamonds in Chiadzwa. Thus, the lack of rule of law and clear ownership in the extraction of the Chiadzwa diamonds should be a major worry for the KP Process as the safety nets and accountability are not available to prevent abuses and smuggling.

The Heinous Human Rights Crimes

The campaign to bring the diamond fields under military control was dubbed Operation Hakudzokwi (You can't come back).. It was launched in November 2008 and only targeted the ordinary people, while leaving out the prominent dealers who are politicians and senior members of the army and the police.

"Nearly every soldier that is in Chiadzwa at the moment is involved in panning in one way or the other. They have also formed syndicates so that those panners will get the escort of the military and they continue panning with the protection of the soldiers," says Farai Maguwu, Director of the Centre for Research and Development, an NGO that has been documenting violations in Chiadzwa.

Human Rights groups within Zimbabwe, for eg Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, have reported that this operation was a joint exercise by the police and the army that left over 200 people dead. The ZBDC has through its partner organizations in Zimbabwe and by interviewing witnesses, established that the number of people killed in this excursion by the security forces exceeded 400. Women were, and are still gang-raped. Witnesses have also testified to being forced to have group sex without condoms. Children have been abducted to extract the gems for politicians and the security forces, who are the main beneficiaries of the mayhem in Chiadzwa. Thousands have been displaced and others left permanently crippled as a result of gunshot wounds, dog bites and torture. Others like Moreblessing Tirivangani have not been so lucky: were murdered. It is therefore a tragedy that Zimbabwe's government on the 29th of October deported the United Nations Special Rappotteur on Torture, whose investigations would surely have exposed the gravity of the crimes against humanity being committed in Chiadzwa.

The Rampant Smuggling of the Chiadzwa Diamonds

Zimbabwe has been losing more than US$2 million per week from the smuggling of the Chiadzwa diamonds, if we are to believe previous statements by the Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono. Mutare in Zimbabwe and Manica in Mozambique have been used as the main centres through which the Chiadzwa diamonds are smuggled to countries as far afield as Sierra Leone, Israel, Lebanon and even Canada. Closer to home, some of the diamonds make their way into South Africa, thus also corrupting the Kimberly process. A documentary by SABC on the Special Assignment of the 27th of October gave chilling details of human rights abuses from witnesses. It also went further to record the dealers giving testimony of their dealings and should jolt the KP Process into action regarding the almost absolute lack of control of the diamonds from Chiadzwa.

Last month, the KPCS in a report produced after an on-sight visit to Zimbabwe recommended a six (6) month suspension of Zimbabwe from the sale of rough diamonds until security, control and accountability systems are put in place by the Zimbabwean government. On the 9th of August, the Finance Minister Tendai Biti admitted that control processes were not effective when he observed that the looting of diamonds in Chiadzwa was "an embarrassment and a mess". A report by Human Rights Watch has also confirmed the ZBDC position. We thus below call upon the KP Process:

1. To accept that the Chiadzwa diamonds are not benefitting Zimbabwe's economic recovery, but a few political heavyweights and security personnel and that this is contribution to the prolongation of Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis;

2. To adopt the KP interim report which acknowledged gross human rights violations, called for the de-militarisation of Chiadzwa, and calls for suspension of Zimbabwe from the KP Certification Scheme; and

3. To suspend Zimbabwe from the KP, effectively banning trade in Zimbabwean diamonds until such a time when proper systems of security, accountability, human rights protection and redress have been established in Zimbabwe.

*Gabriel Shumba is Executive Director of the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum and Co-Coordinator of the Zimbabwe Blood Diamonds Campaign, a network of individuals and NGO's involved in public awareness, lobbying and advocacy programmes to ensure transparency in the extraction and sale of diamonds from Zimbabwe.

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