The British owners of a Zimbabwean mine at the centre of ”blood diamond” allegations say they are still in tentative negotiations with Robert Mugabe’s government about re-taking ownership of the field.
Aim-listed African Consolidated Resources bought mining rights to the Marange diamond fields in February 2006 but was evicted eight months later. That prompted illegal public mining of the site, followed by a violent and bloody backlash by the Zimbabwean military in which it is alleged 200 people were killed.
After it was evicted, ACR launched a legal battle to challenge the decision and regain control of the 40 000-hectare field. Last week, it won its case in the Zimbabwe high court when Justice Charles Hungwe told the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation, now in possession of the site, to stop mining the fields, and ordered the power-sharing government to restore ownership to the firm.
The court decision represents a significant victory for ACR, which says it wants to set up a joint venture with the government. But the administration has signalled that it may appeal; it had drawn up a shortlist of two unnamed foreign mining firms which it wants to run the mines instead. ACR finance director Roy Tucker said: ”It’s a sensitive issue and we have to be careful what is said about this. There have been talks with officials and we hope there will be a resolution in weeks, not months.”
Following ACR’s departure from the site in 2006, thousands of amateur prospectors descended on Chiadzwa in the Marange district. Men and women armed with spades and sieves dug wherever they wanted, overseen by local police taking bribes.
However, concerned that the government was not getting a cut, President Mugabe sent in army, police and security agents to re-take the site.
The crackdown saw widespread arrests, beatings and killings of anyone suspected of involvement in unsanctioned diamond mining or smuggling. Soldiers threw up a massive cordon around the diamond fields as the military were given free rein in return for wealth and, some say, continued support for the Mugabe regime.
On June 26, the New York-based pressure group Human Rights Watch cited accounts from more than 100 witnesses, miners, police officers, soldiers and children alleging human rights abuses by troops. It said its researchers had gathered evidence of mass graves and accounts of an incident in which military helicopters fired on miners while armed soldiers on the ground chased villagers away.
The military are now accused of press-ganging local people to mine for them in return for a pittance. Villages and towns deemed too close to the diamond fields were demolished and their residents forced to move away.
At the height of the mini-boom and before the military crackdown, the nearby city of Mutare, 96km north, was seen as a ”wild west” town with cash-rich miners flaunting their wealth in new goods, cars and US dollars. The diamonds would be smuggled out through the nearby Mozambique border where dealers from Lebanon, Belgium, Iraq, Mauritania and the Balkans were waiting to buy in cash.
Monitors from the Kimberley Process, an international watchdog on diamond mining, visited the area in the summer to investigate the ”blood diamond” claims. The term usually refers to diamonds mined in conflict areas, the profits from which are used to finance war, insurgency or violence.
However the working party that visited Marange at the start of July has so far failed to make a public recommendation on whether Zimbabwe should be suspended from its certification process. Bernhard Esau, chairperson of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, said last month: ”The team provided the KPCS and Zimbabwe with an interim update in July but is yet to produce its final report. No final decision has yet been taken. The chairperson has not made any unilateral decision on Zimbabwe and there was no attempt to pre-empt KPCS procedures.”
After the July visit, Zimbabwe’s official Herald newspaper said troops would withdraw from the area, but there have been no reports that this has taken place.
ACR’s Tucker said: ”We want to get back on site, which will need improved security and transparency of operations. That means no illegal business or side deals.
”There’s been a lot of coverage on what’s happened in Marange and the Kimberley Process but we want to manage it in a proper way. At one stage there were 15 000 people mining there with picks and shovels, digging holes to get at the diamonds.”
ACR gained property rights to the area after De Beers let its licence expire. Tucker said that diamonds at the mine were ”frosted”, giving the impression that they were less valuable industrial-grade diamonds.
He added: ”We think others missed a trick — we knew their real worth, but we’ve never been able to mine there. We’re still waiting on the full judgement from the court, but we hope we can resolve the issue with the government. We’ll have to fulfill some spending obligations at the mine, but we think that can be sorted.” – guardian.co.uk