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.
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
RSS