New report shows how Zimbabwe’s ruling elite have stolen and squandered the country’s vast diamond wealth

The Rapaport Group of diamond traders says it would boycott diamonds from Marange field, which has been widely associated with human rights abuses.

Mozambique will join an international conflict diamond monitoring scheme amid widespread gem smuggling from Zimbabwe’s controversial Marange mines.

To NGOs, the Marange diamonds represent the repression they campaign against. But they could transform Zimbabwe, says <b>Petina Gappah</b>.

It was in June 2006 that diamonds were first discovered by villagers in Marange, a rural area of Chiadzwa, 90km south-west of Mutare.

Concern is mounting over the continued detention of human rights activist Farai Maguwu ahead of the Kimberly Process meeting in Israel.

Zimbabwe’s political and military elites are using violence and their links to companies to exploit the country’s diamond wealth, Global Witness said.

De Beers would have preferred to have seen Zimbabwe temporarily suspended from the Kimberley Process, writes Nicky Oppenheimer.

United Nations scheme claimed to have reduced trade in conflict diamonds was this week criticised by its architect.