New Push To Ban Zimbabwe Diamonds Worldwide

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Miners at the vast Chiyadzwa Diamond Field in Zimbabwe. There is a new push to ban diamonds from here on the international market


Just as Morgan Tsvangirai ends his begging trip to the USA and Europe, news comes that Zimbabwe diamonds will now almost certainly be banned totally from the world market.

The current chair of The Kimberley Process, Namibian Deputy Mines Minister Bernhard Esau, told a conference of the Kimberley Process group in Windhoek today that "gaps can be strengthened" with regards to the process in Zimbabwe.

It was a surprising thing, coming as it does from a government that supports Mugabe heavily.

The group pointed to the Marange massacres of illegal miners as a top concern for them and it is the Marange diamonds that they do not want out in the market.

The Zimbabwe government now denies the killings. It's strange, because it was the MDC-T Deputy Minister of Mines who defended the ZANU PF abuses in Marange. "There are unsubstantiated reports of a number of deaths," he told the press in Namibia. And he says "we are keen to investigate if anybody comes forward with any leading information.."

Excuse me, but YOU are the government. This would be easy to find out.

But it just shows again that the MDC-T especially has thrown all principle out of the window. Their defence of Mugabe and ZANU PF is going beyond the call of politeness.

Mugabe's Spokesman, George Charamba, boasted about the Marange abuses in his now-defunct column in the State daily newspaper The Herald.

He said the illegal miners had been taught a good lesson and that they now knew "kusina mai hakuendwe " (appr. Never go where your mother is not).

So now human rights and pressure groups have converged on Namibia to push for the suspension of Zimbabwe from the Kimberley Process.

What does this say about whether the world is listening to Tsvangirai when he says everything is now fine and dandy in Zimbabwe? Even as he calls for lifting of sanctions and re engagement with the West, more sanctions are imminent.

And he still says Mugabe is indispensable and irreplaceable?

Indispensable to what, exactly?

Comments

  1. Mrs SweetwaterJune 25, 2009 at 2:14 AM

    Denford, I personally remember sending folks to bujumbura over 18 years ago to look for "diamonds laying on the ground". riiiiite..
    sounds like that's happening in zimbabwe.

    sadly the african diamond is still as bloody as it ever was. almost all of mine are in the freezer in protest. yeah I'm puttin more of my ICE on ICE. some of it has been frozen with some gold for more than 30 years. literally frozen and sealed in a can; in the bottom of my large chest freezer in the basement. absolutely where everybody's should be.

    it's time to start actin like Arianna; and Flauntin the Fakes. but then again, isn't that what Zimbabwe is doing already.

    "So Now We Get It" Whoops Upside Our Heads

    ReplyDelete

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