Africa
Kimberley Process to Probe Claims of Zanu PF Atrocities
By Star 27/6/09
Jun 28, 2009 - 8:16:18 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