By Patrick Chidzero
Several African Ministers from countries that produce diamonds arrived in Zimbabwe on Monday and will be heading to the Marange diamond fields ‘to assess compliance issues,’ one of the directors of a company mining there has confirmed.
Zimbabwe will be auctioning its controversial gems on Wednesday despite accusations of ongoing human rights violations by the army. Military generals in the country effectively control the entire diamond trade and are using their newly acquired wealth keep Mugabe in power.
Last month the Kimberly Process international watchdog gave the okay for Mugabe’s regime to sell the diamonds despite opposition by human rights groups.
Lovemore Kurotwi the Managing Director of Canadile one of the companies awarded mining rights in Marange under corrupt circumstances spoke to journalists and claimed;
“We have complied with the Kimberley Process (KP) regulations, but others were saying we are yet to meet the set guidelines. This visit is meant to see how far we have complied with the KP regulations.”
The Ministers currently in Zimbabwe are from the Association of African Diamond Producing Countries and include ministers from South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Namibia and deputy ministers from Sierra Leone and Mauritania.
Discredited Kimberly Process Monitor Abbey Chikane who shopped human rights activist Farai Maguwu to the Zimbabwean police, is expected to examine and certify all diamonds produced in the country from May 28 to August 1.
