Forever dirty
Robert Mugabe is being favoured once again, to the detriment of his people
The Economist
Jun 30th 2011 | HARARE
THE Kimberley Process (KP) is in danger of collapse. Set up in 2003, the system is supposed to end the trade in “blood diamonds” which illicitly finance civil wars. But its Congolese chairman has unilaterally decided to let sales from Zimbabwe’s disputed Marange diamond fields resume. America, the European Union, Canada and Israel are hotly contesting the move. Rulings by the 49-member body, representing 75 diamond-producing and -trading countries, are supposed to be unanimous.
Ever since diamonds were first discovered in a 60,000-hectare site in Marange in eastern Zimbabwe in 2006, reports of killings, torture, corruption, bribery, looting, smuggling and political skulduggery have been rife. The stakes are enormous. Tendai Biti, Zimbabwe’s finance minister, has described the field as “the biggest find of alluvial diamonds in the history of mankind”. Potential revenue has been estimated at $1 billion-2 billion a year. One mining expert involved in the area reckons it is “much, much more”. The IMF put Zimbabwe’s entire GDP last year at $7.5 billion.
Following the announcement of the find by a London-registered company, African Consolidated Resources (ACR), tens of thousands of locals and foreigners rushed to the area to try their luck. Diamonds were being scooped up by the handful. President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party quickly moved to claim the fields as its own, cancelling ACR’s prospecting rights and sending in the army to oust the panners and local inhabitants and to seal off the area. At least 200 people were killed, many of them by bullets fired from army helicopters. Some evicted civilians were then forced back by soldiers to mine the diamonds for a pittance.
(More here.)
The Economist
Jun 30th 2011 | HARARE
THE Kimberley Process (KP) is in danger of collapse. Set up in 2003, the system is supposed to end the trade in “blood diamonds” which illicitly finance civil wars. But its Congolese chairman has unilaterally decided to let sales from Zimbabwe’s disputed Marange diamond fields resume. America, the European Union, Canada and Israel are hotly contesting the move. Rulings by the 49-member body, representing 75 diamond-producing and -trading countries, are supposed to be unanimous.
Ever since diamonds were first discovered in a 60,000-hectare site in Marange in eastern Zimbabwe in 2006, reports of killings, torture, corruption, bribery, looting, smuggling and political skulduggery have been rife. The stakes are enormous. Tendai Biti, Zimbabwe’s finance minister, has described the field as “the biggest find of alluvial diamonds in the history of mankind”. Potential revenue has been estimated at $1 billion-2 billion a year. One mining expert involved in the area reckons it is “much, much more”. The IMF put Zimbabwe’s entire GDP last year at $7.5 billion.
Following the announcement of the find by a London-registered company, African Consolidated Resources (ACR), tens of thousands of locals and foreigners rushed to the area to try their luck. Diamonds were being scooped up by the handful. President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party quickly moved to claim the fields as its own, cancelling ACR’s prospecting rights and sending in the army to oust the panners and local inhabitants and to seal off the area. At least 200 people were killed, many of them by bullets fired from army helicopters. Some evicted civilians were then forced back by soldiers to mine the diamonds for a pittance.
(More here.)
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