Zim threatens to pull out of diamond watchdog

ZIMBABWE has threatened to snub the Kimberley Process (KP) Certification Scheme if the international blood diamond watchdog, currently chaired by Namibia, refuses to endorse the its bid to freely trade diamonds extracted from the disputed Marange fields.

‘If the KP is unsatisfied with our efforts and wants to be difficult saying that we have failed to comply with their requirements . . . we will not lose sleep but rather we will just pull out and not lose anything,’ the country’s Mining Minister Obert Mpofu has told journalists at a press club in Bulawayo. ‘The KP does not own the diamond trade markets. Zimbabwe will pull out of the KP and sell its diamonds to those markets,’ ZimOnline and New Zimbabwe have quoted Mpofu as saying.It is the second time in two weeks that Zimbabwe threatened the step.President Robert Mugabe recently warned that the country would withdraw from the KP, suggesting growing frustration in Harare over demands by the diamond body that Zimbabwe cleans up mining of diamonds at its controversial Marange field or face a ban that would damage the southern African country’s diamond industry.Allegations of human rights abuses and the claimed involvement of security services in the exploitation of the Marange diamonds in eastern Zimbabwe resulted in the country being brought before the KP last November.At the plenary meeting in Namibia, KP members gave Zimbabwe a deadline to get its diamond house in order.In response to continuous international reports of government-backed human rights violations in Zimbabwe’s Marange diamond fields, the KP determined that Zimbabwe was not compliant with the minimum requirements of the KP. While not suspending Zimbabwe, the KP instead gave Harare a June 2010 deadline to comply with its regulations in order to trade its diamonds freely, one of which is to install a KP monitor in the fields.In January, the watchdog halted the sale of 300 000 carats of diamonds from Marange, saying the auction did not have approval.Meanwhile, the KP on Monday announced that Abbey Chikane, a South African, was named the monitor for Zimbabwe, after it last year documented ‘horrific violence’ by the military in Marange, including forced labour, torture and beatings of civilians.Chikane arrived in Zimbabwe on Monday, and was expected to visit the Marange fields in the east of the country on Tuesday, according to the state-run Herald.Chikane has already met with mining ministry officials, as well as representatives of Mbada Diamonds and Canadile Miners, two South African firms now contracted to operate in Marange, the paper said.The three-day mission by Chikane, a founder chairman of the Kimberley Process, will be a key step toward deciding if Zimbabwe can sell the gems. – ZimOnline and New Zimbabwe