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Zimbabwe faces diamond ban

I-Net Bridge | Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:52
[miningmx.com] -- Zimbabwe is likely to be banned from the world diamond market because of human rights violations and other irregularities at the country's notorious Marange diamond field, it emerged on Thursday.

The ban has been recommended by a Kimberley Process (KP) review mission, which visited the country in July and which has just released its final report on the state of diamond mining in Zimbabwe.

ZimOnline, which carries the full text of the report, said on Thursday that the mission has called for a temporary ban of six months or more to allow Zimbabwe time to comply with KP standards.

It also recommended that the KP undertake necessary processes to implement a self-suspension, should the country opt to suspend itself from the KP, because Harare could not be trusted to implement recommendations without supervision.

"Clearly, the current state of affairs in [Zimbabwe], in terms of the level of compliance with the KPCS (Kimberley Process Certification Scheme), cannot be allowed to continue," the report reads.

"When a Participant fails to fulfil the obligations it has committed itself to and satisfactorily adhere to the minimum requirements for compliance, the objectives of the KPCS are undermined," it said, adding that "urgent corrective action is required if the integrity and effectiveness of the KPCS are to be preserved".

The report also suggested that other KP participants in the region – particularly South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana – take coordinated action to act against smuggling.

According to ZimOnline, the hard-hitting report suggests that Zimbabwean authorities of knowingly permitting illicit diamond trading and said Harare attempted to mislead the probe team in a bid to conceal involvement of government entities in both extra-judicial violent attacks on illegal panners and diamond smuggling.

The mission had in an interim report urged Harare to withdraw the army and police from the Marange field, also known as Chiadzwa, saying the security forces had committed right abuses there.

Now the mission's final report is expected to be tabled at the KP meeting scheduled to begin on November 2 in Namibia.