Below please find a letter from Mark Van Bockstael of the WDC

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

As you have all certainly been able to follow the extensive media coverage on the critical situation in Zimbabwe, potentially important shipments of rough diamonds are being smuggled from the Marange diamond field in Zimbabwe, into the international diamond market. Many have indicated the importance of the issue, not in the least the World Diamond Council and the KP Coalition of NGO’s.

continue reading "Production Footprint Marange Diamond Field – Zimbabwe"

Scores have been killed during a campaign of terror unleashed by Zimbabwe’s rulers against illegal diggers in the east of the country

The young miner already recognised the sound of dogs as a terrifying harbinger of death but the dull thud of the helicopter blades was something new.

Minutes later a Zimbabwean air force helicopter swept over the hundreds of fleeing illegal diamond miners and mowed down dozens with machine-gun fire. After that the police arrived and unleashed the dogs that tore into the diggers, killing some and mutilating others. The police fired teargas to drive the miners out of their shallow tunnels and shot them down as they emerged.

continue reading "Bodies pile up as Mugabe wages war on diamond miners"

About 35 000 illegal diamond panners, dealers and vendors have been flushed out of Chiadzwa diamond fields in Marange while 1 200 illegal miners were arrested under a police operation aimed at curbing illegal diamond mining and smuggling.

Police recovered 441 diamonds, foreign currency, four pistols, mini digital scales and impounded over 30 luxury vehicles, four excavators and graders under the operation codenamed “Operation Hakudzokwi”.

The blitz was launched last month by the Zimbabwe Republic Police, Zimbabwe National Army, Air Force of Zimbabwe and the President’s Office.

Addressing journalists during a tour of the diamond fields, about 120km southeast of Mutare, commander of the operation Senior Assistant Commissioner Faustino Mazango said the exercise had been successful.

continue reading "Zimbabwe: Blitz Flushes Out 35 000"

The bodies of illegal panners pile up as Mugabe desperately tries to find money to pay the troops who keep him in power

Miners hope to get rich quick from the diamond fields; but so do Mugabe’s henchmen

AS A military helicopter hovered over the diamond fields of Chiadzwa in eastern Zimbabwe, police on horseback moved in with attack dogs to remove thousands of illegal diggers who had poured in, hoping to get rich.

The diggers resisted, attacking the dogs with iron bars. The police opened fire from the helicopter, routing them. By the time it was all over, dozens lay dead.

Last week the fields where the slaughter took place were silent and largely empty, sealed off by soldiers to stop anyone returning. In nearby towns and villages, however, the ruthless crackdown that began last month carried on.

The military threw up road-blocks and searched vehicles. Anyone found in possession of foreign currency was arrested on suspicion of being an illegal digger or diamond dealer, taken back to the fields, beaten and made to fill in the holes they had dug with their bare hands, without food and water.

“They are taking people without regard to whether they are dealing with diamonds or not,” said Trust Mannda, the regional co-ordinator of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights. “We condemn it in the strongest terms.”

continue reading "Battle for Zimbabwe’s blood diamonds"

Diamond dealers flocked from all over the world to the fields - until an alleged brutal security forces crackdown

Godwin Muti was one of the first people to descend on Chiadzwa when word spread that diamonds had been discovered in the arid and impoverished part of Manicaland Province.

Mr Muti, 31, an unemployed father-of-two, was wallowing in poverty. He could hardly pay rent for a one-room house where he lodged in the old township of Sakubva in Mutare city.

When word reached him about the discovery of diamonds in Chiadzwa, Mr Muti joined thousands of other desperate miners in the rush to Chiadzwa, then an unknown and desolate place.

A few months later his life had been transformed.

Suddenly he living in the middle-class suburb of Dangamvura, the proud owner of a Sedan 323 car and a number of homes that had been beyond his wildest dreams.

continue reading "Eerie silence at Zimbabwe diamond mine"

TWO suspected diamond dealers from Mutare who were recently nabbed during the ongoing Operation Hakudzokwi that seeks to bring sanity to the Chiadzwa diamond fields appeared in court in Mutare yesterday.

Delvin Kristen Staal (30) of Greenside and Misheck Muhwehwesa (38) of Yeovil, believed to have amassed wealth through illegal diamond dealings, were not asked to plead when they separately appeared before Harare provincial magistrate Mr Lazarus Murendo, who was sitting in Mutare together with Harare-based prosecutor Mr Obi Mabahwana. They were remanded in custody to today when their bail applications will be heard.

continue reading "Zimbabwe: Diamond Dealers in Court"

The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) is investigating suspected human rights violations allegedly carried out by Zimbabwe police in Mutare, where they are said to be forcibly and lethally taking actions to stop illegal black market diamond activities.

Local and international news sources have reported that police have recently arrested and detained more than 200 people from Mutare and the nearby diamond fields in Chiadzwa on suspicion of illegal mining and/or trading in diamonds. Reports have also been surfacing that armed security forces allegedly fired from helicopters at diggers at an alluvial diamond field on the Mozambique border. An estimated 10,000 people are said to have been present at the beginning of this raid before fleeing. Witnesses claim that police went through the pockets of injured and dead diggers confiscating stones and money, according to various international media reports.

continue reading "ZIMBABWE SECURITY FORCES UNDER SCRUTINY FOR ALLEGED HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AT DIAMOND FIELDS"

Soldiers in a helicopter have shot and killed at least 12 impoverished Zimbabweans as they searched for diamonds during the night.
In the latest brutal attack under Robert Mugabe’s regime, security forces were backed up by an armed support unit with dogs and mounted police.
Army sharp shooters sprayed the diggers with automatic fire in an alluvial diamond field, near the Mozambique border.
An estimated 10,000 people were present at the start of the raid before fleeing.
Source: ww.canada.com

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) says the country is losing nearly US$1,2-billion worth of diamonds a month to more than 500 syndicates that are operating in the diamondfields of Chiadzwa and Marange, in the east of the country.

In a paper presented to a law enforcement symposium in Harare, RBZ governor Gideon Gono says the staggering losses are enough to rescue the sliding economy from total ruin and return the country to prosperity in less than a decade.

“A reliable estimate shows that US$1,2-billion per month would be realised from diamond sales in the country, enough to solve the economic challenges the country is currently facing. We have investors who are able to mine and [generate] US$1,2-billion every month while we only need US$100-million a month for all our difficulties to go [away],” he adds.

continue reading "Zim loses $2bn worth of diamonds a month through smuggling – central bank"

Armed informal diamond miners in Zimbabwe’s eastern Manicaland Province, scraping a living in desperate times, are resisting attempts by police to remove them in increasingly violent clashes.

According to police spokesperson Andrew Phiri, as quoted by the state-owned The Herald newspaper, several police officers were killed about two weeks ago in a shoot-out with diamond miners, known as “makorokoza” in the local Shona language. Local residents claimed a miner was killed by the police last week.

The diamond fields in the Chiadzwa area of Marange District, some 90km southwest of Mutare, the biggest city in the province, have attracted thousands of informal miners in the past two years; Gideon Gono, governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), said diamond smuggling had cost the country around US$400 million in 2007.

There is war at Chiadzwa. The police and soldiers who patrol the area warn us that they were given an explicit order to shoot once a situation turns violent

continue reading "Diamonds Can Take You Into Forever"