The European Parliament had demanded that the Mugabe regime release detained human rights activist Farai Maguwu whose Centre for Research and Development exposed army abuses in the Marange diamond fields.
A few days after Amnesty International lent its voice to the chorus for his release the EU ratcheted up the pressure with a strong statement on the matter. It went further to urge the Kimberly Process certification scheme to go beyond its traditional role of barring blood or conflict diamonds and consider human rights abuses.
Maguwu was arrested at the beginning of June after he met controversial Kimberly Process monitor Abbey Chikane. Before his arrest the activist accused Chikane of ‘shopping’ him to the police over a secret government document allegedly leaked to Chikane.
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