Kimberley Process Betrays Its Promise With Declaration That Zimbabwe’s Blood Diamonds Are Legitimate

A few weeks ago I was shocked to learn that the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KP), an international body that oversees the trade of diamonds, had reported that Zimbabwe had met the minimum conditions required to lift the ban on the export of its diamonds. The report recommended that Zimbabwe be allowed to resume diamond exports from the controversial Marange area.  “We must move quickly to include Zimbabwe’s rough diamonds in the legitimate diamond pipeline because they are legitimate” said Moti Ganz, the president of the International Diamond Manufacturers Association, at the World Diamond Congress in St Petersburg.

KP monitor, Abby Chikane, issued this recommendation despite having witnessed serious human rights abuses and rampant smuggling during his own investigation of the Marange diamond field. If anything, this is a cruel reminder of the ease with which commercial interests trump human rights – particularly in the extractive industries. Notwithstanding,  several human rights organizations have found the report disturbing and have since exerted pressure on the KP to conduct an independent investigation into the credibility of Chikane’s report. Last month, Human Rights Watch issued Deliberate Chaos: Ongoing Human Rights Abuses in the Marange Diamond Fields of Zimbabwe, documenting the rampant killings, forced labor, torture and harassments taking place at the Marange field. According to the report, Zimbabwe's armed forces still control most of the fields.  Corruption is rife, and smuggling of Marange diamonds by soldiers in the field is prolific. The diamonds continue to benefit a few senior people in the government and their accomplices rather than the people of Zimbabwe as a whole.

The findings of the Human Rights Watch report were further confirmed by Farai Maguwu, the Director of the Centre for Research and Development (CRD), who has been investigating human rights abuses at the Chiadzwa diamond fields. Chiadzwa is home to the Marange diamonds. “We have gone to the fields, we have gone to areas surrounding Chiadzwa where the army occasionally go out to beat people indiscriminately. We are talking of elderly people who are going to the shops or coming from church, people are just beaten for no apparent reason. Then there are cases of armed robberies by the military where they are robbing people of their valuables. There are also cases of sexual harassment where women are taken as sex slaves. All these things are happening in and around Chiadzwa and there are people, there is a man who is a former headmaster and he is paralyzed now, he can’t even walk because he was beaten severely by the military. So these are the abuses we are saying they should stop.”

For me, the Human Rights Watch report rings true.  It is well known that the military exercises strict control over access to the Marange area, and maintains extensive surveillance.  For example, families require an entry pass simply to visit the area for personal reasons, like burying their loved ones.  Given the level of restrictions even on non-participants in the diamond industry, it seems clear that human rights abuses are still occurring there.

For many Zimbabweans, what could have been an economic lifeline has become a source of lawlessness and impunity. The diamond saga is indeed a microcosm of the chaos and desperation that currently pervades Zimbabwe.  Zimbabwe’s so-called legitimate diamonds have resulted in severe injustices. More than 4000 families are due to be forcibly resettled to make way for diamond operations. These families are being forced off their lands without being compensated. After which they are prohibited from entering their own property. Many young women are being used as sex slaves; in a country that is rampant with AIDS this can result in the loss of a whole generation.  Children are being forced to work in the diamonds fields. And yet the Kimberly Process considers these blood diamonds legitimate.

However, the plight of innocent people whose lives are being destroyed is apparently not a concern for the Kimberly Process.  “It is not a subject that the KP can really grapple with.  We don’t have the expertise, we don’t have the experience, and it’s just simply not on our list of priorities,” said Cecilia Gardner, the General Counsel for the U.S. Kimberley Process Authority and the World Diamond Council, in an interview with Dateline.  This is a bitterly ironic position for the governing body of certification process designed to prevent diamonds from fueling conflict and human rights abuses.  The KP is on the verge of losing its legitimacy, unless it steps up the plate and calls for an end to the human rights abuses taking place in the Marange.  Moreover, the KP should recognize human rights as a fundamental element of its certification mandate.  Otherwise, the only possible conclusion is that for the KP, short-term commercial interests trump the human rights concerns that led to its formation in the first place.

This guest post comes from Mugagami, a second-year law student currently interning with ERI's legal program in Washington DC.