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Last Updated: Jun 28, 2009 - 8:18:10 AM |
Windhoek - The Kimberley Process (KP) against "blood diamonds" has said
it will send a team to Zimbabwe's troubled Marange diamond fields to
assess alleged human rights violations. "We had frank and open
discussions about Zimbabwe and compliance with the Kimberley Process in
Zimbabwe is still high on our agenda," Bernard Esau, who chairs the
scheme, told reporters in the Namibian capital. The announcement came
as Human Rights Watch yesterday accused Zimbabwe's armed forces, under
the control of President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF, of torture and forced
labour in their control of the Marange diamond fields. "We have no
proof of the alleged violations, but we have taken note of a report by
the international organisation Human Rights Watch," Esau said after a
three-day meeting of the KP, the global scheme to prevent diamonds from
financing armed conflict. The KP team that leaves on Monday will meet
government ministers, central bank officials, top police officers and
travel to Marange and the nearby town of Mutare. A new 62-page Human
Rights Watch report released yesterday said more than 200 people had
been killed by Zimbabwe's army in a takeover of the Marange fields last
year, and that forced labour, torture and beatings were continuing. The
rights body said it believed the illegal diamond trade was a likely
source of revenue for senior Zanu PF officials.
Andrew Brownell of Green Advocates Liberia said the group had appealed
to KP member governments to take action against Zimbabwe. "Zimbabwe is
linked to human rights violations with regard to the diamond sector and
this is all well documented in public reports," he told reporters.
Brownell will be a member of the KP review team travelling to Zimbabwe.
At the meeting in Namibia, Zimbabwe's deputy mining minister Murisi
Zwizwai denied any killings by security forces in Marange. The
three-day KP meeting also discussed options for further action to end
smuggling of conflict gems from Ivory Coast, where gem production was
increasing in spite of a UN ban on their resale. "Satellite images
provided by the UN show that rough diamond production is going on and
increasing, and this was indicated, too, by ground observations of the
KP working group of diamond experts," Esau said. The UN Security
Council last October extended a ban on Ivorian diamond exports as part
of targeted sanctions meant to prod the West African nation towards
holding free and fair elections. Ivory Coast is scheduled to hold a
presidential election on November 29. Rebel forces opposed to the
government of President Laurent Gbagbo occupy the northern half of the
country.
Source:Ocnus.net 2009
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