A Zimbabwean diamond field said to be the largest in the world is being mined by companies staffed by Robert Mugabe's police and military chiefs who may use the proceeds as a "war chest" to crack down on opponents, says an anti-corruption watchdog. A study by Global Witness marks the first comprehensive attempt to pin down ownership of two companies awarded the rights to mine at Marange since concessions were awarded by the mining ministry four years ago.
It reveals that one company has, among its directors, members of Mugabe's security services who have previously been implicated in vote-rigging and political violence in the run-up to elections. The other is part-owned by companies registered in tax havens such as Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands, making its beneficiaries virtually impossible to identify. Tendai Biti, the finance minister and a member of the Movement for Democratic Change in Zimbabwe's fractious coalition government, has repeatedly complained about the disappearance of diamond revenues, which it was hoped might help to revive the shattered economy.
Global Witness claims that instead, the security forces could be channelling the profits into a "war chest" that could be used to act against dissenting voices in elections expected this year or next. Marange diamond fields made international headlines in 2008 when they were seized by the Zimbabwean military. Last year, Global Witness claimed locals were being forced to work for soldiers, then smuggle the stones over the Mozambican border. After widespread outrage, the fields were divided up among favoured companies. Leading the pack were the Chinese, whose Exim bank provided the Zimbabweans with a $98-million loan to rebuild their defence college in return for a concession.
Anjin, a joint venture between a Chinese and a Zimbabwean company, intends to produce two million carats a month. According to Global Witness, Anjin has on its board a number of people close to Mugabe. Its company secretary is listed as being Charles Tarumbwa, a brigadier on the EU sanctions list for his role in terror campaigns.
The second company, Mbada, is run by Robert Mhlanga, a former air vice-marshal in the Zimbabwean air force. It is linked to a network of companies based in Mauritius, Dubai, the British Virgin Islands and Hong Kong. Biti said the results of the study did not surprise him. "I know the money [from the sale of Marange diamonds] is being stolen, but I don't have any proof of how it is being stolen," he said. Neither Anjin nor Mbada could be reached for comment.
Source: Times Live
Showing posts with label Marange. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marange. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Monday, August 16, 2010
Major gem-trading group bans Zim diamonds
A major gem-trading group on Monday banned the sale of diamonds from Zimbabwe's Marange mines, saying the watchdog Kimberley Process could not guarantee they were not "blood diamonds".
The US-based Rapaport Group, one of the world's largest gem-trading networks, said it would expel any traders who knowingly sold diamonds from Marange, despite a decision by the UN-sanctioned Kimberley Process to allow Zimbabwe to proceed with an auction of some of the diamonds last week. "[We] will not tolerate the use of our trading networks for the distribution of diamonds involved in human rights violations," said a statement from chairperson Martin Rapaport. "RapNet, the Rapaport Diamond Trading Network, will not allow the trading of any diamonds sourced from Marange, Zimbabwe. Members found to have knowingly offered Marange diamonds for sale on RapNet will be expelled and their names will be publicly communicated."
The Zimbabwean military seized control of the Marange fields in late 2008, forcing out tens of thousands of small-scale miners and killing about 200, according to human rights groups. Soldiers then beat and raped villagers to force them to mine the gems in early 2009, the groups say.
Kimberley Process monitors last month ruled that abuses at Marange had stopped and allowed cash-starved Zimbabwe to hold an auction for stones mined during the last two months. But Rapaport, an industry firebrand which has sharply criticised the Kimberley Process, said the watchdog group could not guarantee the mining of the stones was free of violence. "There is no assurance that diamonds with [Kimberley Process] certification are free of human rights violations," he said.
Source: Mail & Guardian
The US-based Rapaport Group, one of the world's largest gem-trading networks, said it would expel any traders who knowingly sold diamonds from Marange, despite a decision by the UN-sanctioned Kimberley Process to allow Zimbabwe to proceed with an auction of some of the diamonds last week. "[We] will not tolerate the use of our trading networks for the distribution of diamonds involved in human rights violations," said a statement from chairperson Martin Rapaport. "RapNet, the Rapaport Diamond Trading Network, will not allow the trading of any diamonds sourced from Marange, Zimbabwe. Members found to have knowingly offered Marange diamonds for sale on RapNet will be expelled and their names will be publicly communicated."
The Zimbabwean military seized control of the Marange fields in late 2008, forcing out tens of thousands of small-scale miners and killing about 200, according to human rights groups. Soldiers then beat and raped villagers to force them to mine the gems in early 2009, the groups say.
Kimberley Process monitors last month ruled that abuses at Marange had stopped and allowed cash-starved Zimbabwe to hold an auction for stones mined during the last two months. But Rapaport, an industry firebrand which has sharply criticised the Kimberley Process, said the watchdog group could not guarantee the mining of the stones was free of violence. "There is no assurance that diamonds with [Kimberley Process] certification are free of human rights violations," he said.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Friday, July 23, 2010
'Blood diamonds': Flawed regulator must end half-measures
The Kimberley Process will only survive if governments and industry stand up for the principles on which it was built. The Kimberley Process certification scheme is often credited with ending the trade in conflict diamonds. As the blood spilled in Zimbabwe's diamond fields shows, the truth is more complex.
The KP set out to ensure that the kind of diamond-fuelled conflict and abuse exposed by Global Witness and others in countries such as Angola, Sierra Leone and Liberia could never happen again. The technical aspects of the scheme are implemented by governments, while NGOs and the diamond industry act as observers. Essentially an import-export control system for rough diamonds, the KP provides a strong economic incentive for countries to join, since members can only trade with each other. To participate, governments must pass national laws and agree to meet the KP's minimum standards to guarantee that their diamond exports are conflict-free.
There have been successes: in some African countries the scheme has brought more transparency and increased official diamond revenues for governments. But recent crises have exposed shortfalls. In Zimbabwe the abuses are by a member government, as opposed to a rebel group. This highlights a fundamental flaw in the process: the KP's reliance on consensus among members has allowed regional allies to veto tough decisions on Zimbabwe, which remains a member despite the state-sponsored murder of hundreds of diamond diggers. The most recent agreement allows Zimbabwe a one-off limited export of diamonds from Marange. All further exports are conditional on Zimbabwe demilitarising diamond mining, cracking down on smuggling and ending human rights abuses in Marange.
The KP's half-measures and compromises in the face of one of the most egregious cases of diamond-related violence in years have battered its credibility and brought it to the brink of collapse. This scheme will only survive if governments and the industry stand up for the principles on which the process was built. Without this, diamonds in countries like Zimbabwe will continue to generate suffering rather than prosperity, and the global diamond industry will remain blighted by the taint of blood diamonds.
Source: The Guardian
The KP set out to ensure that the kind of diamond-fuelled conflict and abuse exposed by Global Witness and others in countries such as Angola, Sierra Leone and Liberia could never happen again. The technical aspects of the scheme are implemented by governments, while NGOs and the diamond industry act as observers. Essentially an import-export control system for rough diamonds, the KP provides a strong economic incentive for countries to join, since members can only trade with each other. To participate, governments must pass national laws and agree to meet the KP's minimum standards to guarantee that their diamond exports are conflict-free.
There have been successes: in some African countries the scheme has brought more transparency and increased official diamond revenues for governments. But recent crises have exposed shortfalls. In Zimbabwe the abuses are by a member government, as opposed to a rebel group. This highlights a fundamental flaw in the process: the KP's reliance on consensus among members has allowed regional allies to veto tough decisions on Zimbabwe, which remains a member despite the state-sponsored murder of hundreds of diamond diggers. The most recent agreement allows Zimbabwe a one-off limited export of diamonds from Marange. All further exports are conditional on Zimbabwe demilitarising diamond mining, cracking down on smuggling and ending human rights abuses in Marange.
The KP's half-measures and compromises in the face of one of the most egregious cases of diamond-related violence in years have battered its credibility and brought it to the brink of collapse. This scheme will only survive if governments and the industry stand up for the principles on which the process was built. Without this, diamonds in countries like Zimbabwe will continue to generate suffering rather than prosperity, and the global diamond industry will remain blighted by the taint of blood diamonds.
Source: The Guardian
Friday, February 12, 2010
Zimbabwe: One Year On, Reform a Failure
Zimbabwe's power-sharing government has made no real progress in implementing political reforms and ending human rights abuses after a year in office, Human Rights Watch said today. The government has demonstrated little political will or capacity to enact meaningful changes to improve the lives of Zimbabweans. Human Rights Watch urged the government to take immediate steps to end abuses and create the necessary constitutional and electoral framework to ensure free, fair, and credible elections, as envisaged in the Global Political Agreement, which established the power-sharing government. "The transitional power-sharing government is a sham," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "From a human rights perspective, nothing has changed for the better. Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF are still fully in control."
The Global Political Agreement, which took effect on February 11, 2009, was approved in September 2008 by the Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), the longtime ruling party led by Mugabe and by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the former opposition. It was designed to resolve Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis and chart a new political direction for the country. Recent research by Human Rights Watch in Zimbabwe suggests that there has been no meaningful political transition, and that ZANU-PF continues to engage in political violence against perceived opponents. Groups of war veterans and ZANU-PF youth, who have been deployed in the past to target the opposition, remain intact. ZANU-PF still uses elements in the security forces as instruments of repression. Military-led violent invasions of commercial farms continue.
In the first week of February 2010, police disrupted MDC-organized constitutional reform meetings, beat up participants, and arbitrarily arrested 43 people in Binga, 48 in Masvingo, and 52 in Mt. Darwin. Although the Global Political Agreement recognized the importance of the rights to freedom of expression and communication, the media in Zimbabwe remain muzzled. There are no private daily newspapers or privately owned radio stations. Public information remains under the firm control of ZANU-PF. Not one license for independent media outlets has been issued since the power-sharing government was formed. A Bulawayo-based community radio initiative, Radio Dialogue, released a press statement on February 4 saying that it had the equipment and staff necessary to start broadcasting immediately, but that the government had failed to provide a broadcasting license.
Journalists in Zimbabwe face intimidation and arrest for appearing to oppose ZANU-PF. On January 16, a freelance journalist, Stanley Kwenda, fled to South Africa, saying he had received death threats from a senior police officer. Two days later, another freelance journalist, Andrison Manyere, was arrested while filming a public demonstration organized by Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA). Police detained him for over six hours before releasing him without charge. ZANU-PF continues to use its control of state-owned print and electronic media to manipulate public opinion in its favor while using hate speech and other offensive language against MDC. Without an open media environment, Zimbabweans will be unable to participate fully in the ongoing constitutional reform process or in future elections, Human Rights Watch said.
In these and other areas, ZANU-PF has resisted complying with the rule of law. It even declared at its December 2009 party congress that it would not allow security forces to be subjected to reform. The security sector is deeply embedded in the political affairs of the country. Diamond revenue, particularly from the Marange diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe, is providing a parallel source of revenue for ZANU-PF and its repressive machinery, Human Rights Watch said. Companies with connections to ZANU-PF are mining diamonds in Marange, where military control and abuses continue. Human Rights Watch called on the government to allow newspapers and electronic media to operate freely and to carry out other confidence-building reforms. It should repeal all repressive legislation such as the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), which severely limits rights to demonstrate and criminalizes "insulting" the president of Zimbabwe and publishing "inaccurate" information. These provisions have been used to harass, arrest, and prosecute journalists. Furthermore, the police have loosely interpreted certain provisions of the POSA to justify arbitrary arrests. Even on issues where there is consensus between ZANU-PF and MDC, such as the appointment of new provincial governors, implementation has been stalled, and the parties continue to bicker about the delay. To divert scrutiny of the continuing political instability and the failure to carry out the agreement, parties in the power-sharing government instead overemphasize the significance of efforts made to stabilize the economy, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch called for parties to the government to begin preparations for holding internationally supervised free, fair, and credible elections that will lead to a legitimate and democratic government with the political will to bring about change. "The power-sharing government experiment is not working," Gagnon said. "Without political stability and rights reforms, any progress on economic recovery won't last."
Source: Human Rights Watch
The Global Political Agreement, which took effect on February 11, 2009, was approved in September 2008 by the Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), the longtime ruling party led by Mugabe and by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the former opposition. It was designed to resolve Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis and chart a new political direction for the country. Recent research by Human Rights Watch in Zimbabwe suggests that there has been no meaningful political transition, and that ZANU-PF continues to engage in political violence against perceived opponents. Groups of war veterans and ZANU-PF youth, who have been deployed in the past to target the opposition, remain intact. ZANU-PF still uses elements in the security forces as instruments of repression. Military-led violent invasions of commercial farms continue.
In the first week of February 2010, police disrupted MDC-organized constitutional reform meetings, beat up participants, and arbitrarily arrested 43 people in Binga, 48 in Masvingo, and 52 in Mt. Darwin. Although the Global Political Agreement recognized the importance of the rights to freedom of expression and communication, the media in Zimbabwe remain muzzled. There are no private daily newspapers or privately owned radio stations. Public information remains under the firm control of ZANU-PF. Not one license for independent media outlets has been issued since the power-sharing government was formed. A Bulawayo-based community radio initiative, Radio Dialogue, released a press statement on February 4 saying that it had the equipment and staff necessary to start broadcasting immediately, but that the government had failed to provide a broadcasting license.
Journalists in Zimbabwe face intimidation and arrest for appearing to oppose ZANU-PF. On January 16, a freelance journalist, Stanley Kwenda, fled to South Africa, saying he had received death threats from a senior police officer. Two days later, another freelance journalist, Andrison Manyere, was arrested while filming a public demonstration organized by Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA). Police detained him for over six hours before releasing him without charge. ZANU-PF continues to use its control of state-owned print and electronic media to manipulate public opinion in its favor while using hate speech and other offensive language against MDC. Without an open media environment, Zimbabweans will be unable to participate fully in the ongoing constitutional reform process or in future elections, Human Rights Watch said.
In these and other areas, ZANU-PF has resisted complying with the rule of law. It even declared at its December 2009 party congress that it would not allow security forces to be subjected to reform. The security sector is deeply embedded in the political affairs of the country. Diamond revenue, particularly from the Marange diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe, is providing a parallel source of revenue for ZANU-PF and its repressive machinery, Human Rights Watch said. Companies with connections to ZANU-PF are mining diamonds in Marange, where military control and abuses continue. Human Rights Watch called on the government to allow newspapers and electronic media to operate freely and to carry out other confidence-building reforms. It should repeal all repressive legislation such as the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), which severely limits rights to demonstrate and criminalizes "insulting" the president of Zimbabwe and publishing "inaccurate" information. These provisions have been used to harass, arrest, and prosecute journalists. Furthermore, the police have loosely interpreted certain provisions of the POSA to justify arbitrary arrests. Even on issues where there is consensus between ZANU-PF and MDC, such as the appointment of new provincial governors, implementation has been stalled, and the parties continue to bicker about the delay. To divert scrutiny of the continuing political instability and the failure to carry out the agreement, parties in the power-sharing government instead overemphasize the significance of efforts made to stabilize the economy, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch called for parties to the government to begin preparations for holding internationally supervised free, fair, and credible elections that will lead to a legitimate and democratic government with the political will to bring about change. "The power-sharing government experiment is not working," Gagnon said. "Without political stability and rights reforms, any progress on economic recovery won't last."
Source: Human Rights Watch
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Stop Blood Diamonds
Zimbabwe's armed forces, under the control of President Robert Mugabe, are engaging in forced labor of children and adults and are torturing and beating local villagers on the diamond fields of Marange district. The military seized control of these diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe after killing more than 200 people in Chiadzwa, a previously peaceful but impoverished area, in late October 2008. Marange has become a zone of lawlessness and impunity, a microcosm of the chaos and desperation that currently pervade Zimbabwe.
In late June 2009, Human Rights Watch published a report documenting the serious human rights abuses in the Marange diamond fields by the Zimbabwean military, including forced labor, child labor, the killing of more than 200 people, and other grave abuses.
In its recent plenary meeting in Namibia, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, an international body that oversees the trade of diamonds, decided not to suspend Zimbabwe from participation, nor bar the export of its diamonds, despite finding serious human rights abuses and rampant smuggling during its own investigation of the Marange diamond field. Its weak excuse was a technicality in its mandate that defines blood diamonds as those mined by abusive rebel groups, not by abusive governments.
Tell Kimberley Process member states that they need to take action to end the smuggling of blood diamonds and stop the human rights abuses at the Marange diamond fields.
This is the message to:
Brad Brooks-Rubin - Conflict Diamonds Advisor, US State Dept
Stephane Chardon - European Community KPCS Representative
Bernard Esau - Namibia, Chair KPCS
Boaz Hirsch - Israel, Incoming Chair KPCS
Eli Izakhoff - World Diamond Council
Igor Kozlyuk - Russia KPCS Representative
Suresh Kumar - India KPCS Representative
Weizhang Liang - China KPCS Representative
Sabrina Ramzi - Canada KPCS Representative
Susan Shabangu - South Africa, Minister of Minerals and Energy
Source: Human Rights Watch
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