Calls for an international ban on Zimbabwe’s diamond sales are set to dominate this week’s meeting of the global body set up to prevent trade in “blood diamonds,” in a key test for the regulatory regime.
Civil society groups who form part of the Kimberley Process are demanding the suspension of Zimbabwe’s international diamond trade, citing human rights abuses in the eastern Marange diamond fields.
A Kimberley investigation in July documented “unacceptable and horrific violence against civilians by authorities” in Marange, following months of reports of killings, forced evictions and other abuses by the army in the region near the border with Mozambique.
The Kimberley Process, named after a South African mining town, was created in 2003 with the aim of curbing the flow of “blood diamonds” into the mainstream market.
About 70 diamond-producing countries, industry groups and civil society organizations form part of the Kimberley Process, which is meant to stop diamond sales from benefiting armed groups.
In Zimbabwe’s case, the military has taken control of the Marange fields, which is believed be an important source of revenue for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, a report by Human Rights Watch said.
Global Witness, which monitors exploitation of natural resources, said Zimbabwe is in violation of Kimberley Process rules — even though its diamond sales aren’t funding a war.
“You have a situation in which the exploitation of diamonds is accompanied by, and very directly linked to, human rights abuses, which the Kimberley Process was designed to prevent,” campaigner Mike Davies said.
Countries like Namibia, chairing the four-day meeting that opens today, however, have so far opposed suspending Zimbabwe. After the Kimberley investigation, Namibia sent its own mission to Zimbabwe and indicated that suspension was not an option.
The meeting will also review the findings of a team sent to Angola to investigate claims of rape and other abuses committed against foreign workers, as well as claims that diamonds are being smuggled from Ivory Coast to Israel.
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