FT calls for suspension of diamond export from Zimbabwe
This week, Fatal Transactions and other NGOs sent a letter to the Chair of the Kimberley Process asking to stop the trade in diamonds from Zimbabwe because these are covered in conflict and violence.
Diamond diggers shot by governmental troops
Diamond diggers, trying to make some money to survive, have been shot by governmental troops at diamonds mines around Mutare, in the east of Zimbabwe. The diamonds coming out of Zimbabwe not only carry along severe human rights abuses but even the Central Bank of Zimbabwe states that $1 bln in diamond revenues are illegally leaving the country, filling the pockets of business men and high ranked politicians. The money being made with the diamonds from Zimbabwe should be used to help the Zimbabwean people who are staving of cholera as we speak.
Kimberley Process
Zimbabwe is member of the Kimberley Process. This Process, set up in 2003, tries to stop conflict diamonds entering the diamond trade. Governments, including Zimbabwe, have put legal facilities in place to make sure conflict diamonds cannot enter or exit their country. According to the members of the Kimberley Process, conflict diamonds are only those which are used by rebel movements to finance their wars. Although Zimbabwe doesn’t have ‘rebel movements’, what is happening now with the diamonds, is a little better than what the Kimberley Process seeks to end. That is why civil society organisations have urged the governments in the Kimberley Process to suspend Zimbabwe from the Process.
European reactions
The Dutch and the British Foreign Ministries have urged the European Commission take political action. Foreign Minister Verhagen from the Netherlands says that Zimbabwe should not profit from illegal diamond trade and the European Union should investigate options to stop it. 'People are being tortured, a human rights activist has disappeared without any trace, and the government blocks aid for people suffering from hunger and cholera,' he said.
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