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Kimberley Process Team Investigates Zimbabwe
By B. Earth | July 22, 2009
In response to ongoing reports of government corruption and human rights abuses in Zimbabwe’s diamond fields, a Kimberley Process review team has recently visited the country to assess its diamond industry first-hand. After a week-long investigation, the review team has confirmed beliefs that Zimbabwe’s military and police were complicit in widespread violence and human rights infringements in the country’s Marange diamond fields.
Zimbabwe’s government has continually denied any role in the country’s ongoing diamond-fueled violence. Accordingly, before the Kimberley Process delegates arrived, the Zimbabwean government arrested Marange’s parliamentary representative, Shuwa Mudiwa, on charges of kidnapping. Mudiwa was scheduled to meet with the Kimberley Process representatives, and was allegedly planning to show them the mass gravesite of diamond miners killed by the government in Marange. Other people whom the delegation planned to interview have reported being harassed and intimidated.
The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme claims that a full report on the Zimbabwe situation will be released within a month, after which it remains to be seen whether Zimbabwe’s membership in the Kimberley Process will be terminated. This will be an important moment for the certification scheme, which has undergone immense scrutiny from several international human rights groups and leading NGO’s.
Zimbabwe is one of several recent challenges for the embattled Kimberley Process which also includes evidence of continued diamond smuggling in Venezuela, fraud in Guinea, and the recent resignation of the key KP’s founder, Ian Smillie, who expressed his strong reservations regarding the ongoing viability of the scheme.
Brilliant Earth continues to advocate for strong third party verification in the diamond industry to address not only conflict diamond issues but also human rights, labor practices, and the environment. The recent challenges in the Kimberley Process further underscore the limitations of the industry self-regulation and the need for urgent change.
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