Diamonds: Does the Kimberley Process work?

BBC News

By James Melik
Reporter, Business Daily, BBC World ServiceMining for diamonds is labour intensive and back-breaking work

The Kimberley Process came into effect ten years ago to stem the flow of rough diamonds used by rebel movements in Africa to finance wars against legitimate governments.

So has it worked?

Critics insist it has not. Some diamonds avoid the Kimberley Process, they say, questioning the efficacy of the system.

Diamonds have fuelled decades of conflicts in countries such as Angola, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

A report from the campaign group Global Witness says much of this is still going on in parts of Africa.

In Zimbabwe, the military and political elite is exploiting the country's diamond wealth, often by using force, Global Witness says.

But Ernest Blom, of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses, argues that the Kimberley Process has succeeded in its aim to stop diamond mining which funds wars.

"As far as Zimbabwe is concerned, we have supposed human rights abuses which I think is out of the gambit of the diamond industry," he says.

Military intervention

The Global Witness report says that between 100 and 200 miners were killed in the Marange area in eastern Zimbabwe in 2008, as the army imposed military control over the fields.

There have been reports and overwhelming evidence of serious human rights abuses taking place in the Chiadzwa diamond fields

Farai MaguwuHuman rights campaigner

And according to Human Rights Watch, Zimbabwe's military is forcing children and women to work at the mines, whilst also torturing and beating local villagers in the Marange area.

The human rights campaigner Farai Maguwu was arrested at the beginning of June for allegedly giving false information about the Chiadzwa diamond fields to the Kimberley Process monitor.

"Soldiers have been accused of illegal panning activities and they are primarily responsible for mining the diamonds, which are being exported through undesignated points to neighbouring countries and the rest of the world," he asserts.

"There have been reports and overwhelming evidence of serious human rights abuses taking place in the Chiadzwa diamond fields."

Whenever an official from the Kimberley Process visits the diamond fields there is an upsurge in violence, whereby the soldiers victimise ordinary civilians who they accuse of illegal panning, he explains.

The Imperial State Crown of Britain contains 2,868 diamonds

"Women have been gang-raped by soldiers and police and these substantiated allegations are very unacceptable and show that Zimbabwe is not complying with the minimum standards of the Kimberley Process," Mr Maguwu says.

"Our officers go to the fields and neighbouring areas surrounding the diamond fields, investigate the abuses and get sworn affidavits from the victims in the company of a lawyer," he adds.

Mr Maguwu says there are no reports from other mines and that the bone of contention is Chiadzwa.

Government complicity

"The minister of mines, Obert Moses Mpofu, has openly flouted Zimbabwe's tender regulations by clandestinely forming companies and giving them licenses to mine such a rich public resource that can solve half of our economic problems," Mr Maguwu maintains.

Global Witness has concluded that the main beneficiary has been President Mugabe's party and his supporters.

The Kimberley Process has told the government not to sell any diamonds from Marange until they have obtained a certificate, but illegal smuggling of diamonds gets them out of Zimbabwe through Mozambique and South Africa.

Investigations suggest that most of those diamonds find their way to Dubai and Lebanon, where they end up being mixed with diamonds from legitimate sources and they end up being sold to western buyers.

The government in Congo has no idea where 40% of its diamonds come from - they could be coming from Angola or Zimbabwe or even from Mars

Ian Smilieformer Kimberley Process officer

Zimbabwe's army has denied the allegations and Mr Mpofu has declined to be interviewed about the allegations.

In February, President Robert Mugabe threatened to leave the Kimberley Process after Zimbabwe was given until June to prove that its mines were properly run.

Kimberley dissident

The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) imposes extensive requirements on its diamond-producing member states to enable them to certify shipments of rough diamonds as 'conflict-free'.

With a certificate of provenance, it is therefore possible to trace the origin of every single gem stone.

The crisis in Zimbabwe is undermining international efforts to eradicate conflict diamonds.

Concerns about the effectiveness of the Kimberley Process have led to the resignation of one of the officers who set up the system.

"I could no longer, in good faith, contribute to pretence that failure is success," says Ian Smilie.

"It was a very simple idea. If you want to be part of the legitimate diamond trade you have to be in the Kimberley Process. Any diamond exported from a country has to have a Kimberley certificate," he explains.

"There has to be an audit trail and you have to say where a diamond came from."

But Mr Smilie has became frustrated at the Kimberley Process's inability or unwillingness to come to grips with some very serious problems.

In the three countries which had the most terrible wars, Angola, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the government's internal controls are very weak, he says.

"The government in Congo has no idea where 40% of its diamonds come from - they could be coming from Angola or Zimbabwe or even from Mars," Mr Smilie says.

We want to give comfort to the consumer that the diamonds they have bought have come from legitimate sources and they can wear it with pride and with love

Ernest BlomFederation of Diamond Bourses

Any decisions taken by the Kimberley Process has to be agreed by all the governments that participate.

Zimbabwe is a member of the Kimberley Process, so if they do not agree you cannot move forward.

"We haven't figured out how to stop car theft, which has been going on for 110 years, and we know there will always be theft, but when you have a regulatory system that refuses to come to grips with obvious cases then you have a serious problem," Mr Smilie says.

"If the US, which is the biggest consumer of diamonds in the world, says 'listen, if the Congo is unable to enforce the minimum provisions we will no longer allow the importation into the United States from the Congo until they clean up their act', you would see a huge amount of action take place in the Congo," he says.

Although there can never be a cast-iron guarantee about the provenance of diamonds, Mr Blom of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses believes the public can rest assured that the Kimberley Process is a robust system that works most of the time.

"We want to give comfort to the consumer that the diamonds they have bought have come from legitimate sources and they can wear it with pride and with love," he says.

Fired Zimbabwe Ministers Demand Severance Packages from Strapped Government

VOA news

Sources said the irate ex-ministers – Elias Mudzuri, Fidelis Mhashu, Evelyn Masaiti and Thamsanqa Mahlangu – demanded Mr. Tsvangirai engage his fellow unity government principals as to their compensation

Four former Zimbabwean ministers who lost their jobs in a Cabinet shuffle by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai are demanding severance packages including the retention of their high-end ministerial vehicles.

Sources said the irate ex-ministers – Elias Mudzuri, Fidelis Mhashu, Evelyn Masaiti and Thamsanqa Mahlangu – demanded Mr. Tsvangirai engage his fellow unity government principals as to their compensation.

Sources said the four are demanding three months pay and allowances plus pensions, among other perks. 

Labor experts said the ex-ministers are entitled to most of these benefits even if the government cannot afford to pay them at present. None of the sacked ministers could be reached for comment on the reports.

Tsvangirai spokesman James Maridadi told VOA Studio 7 reporter Gibbs Dube that the “redeployed” ministers must follow proper channels when negotiating terminal benefits instead of doing so through the media. “It’s a contract between two parties and as such I think it is unethical for us to make this an issue of public debate,” he said.

Labor expert Davies Ndumiso Sibanda said the fired ministers should receive decent severance packages even if this placed a burden on taxpayers. “I want to believe that there is a special provision on ministerial vehicles which will ensure that they will retain them without any hurdles,” said Sibanda.

Some political commentators say Mr. Tsvangirai made the right decision to sack “underperforming” ministers in an effort to strengthen the government, others charged he was purging rivals within his MDC formation.

Zimbabwe Mines Minister Says Human Rights Groups Tried to Bribe Him

VOA news

Miners dig for diamonds in Marange, eastern Zimbabwe (File Photo)

Zimbabwe's mines minister says two international human-rights groups tried to bribe him over Zimbabwe's controversial diamonds in the Marange area in south Eastern Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe Mines Minister Obert Mpofu claimed in the pro-ZANU-PF Sunday Mail in Harare that two international rights organizations, Human Rights Watch and Partnership Africa Canada, tried to "bribe" him at the Kimberley Process Certification conference in Tel Aviv to financially support their work.  Mpofu, who is a top member of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF, is trying to persuade the international regulator, the Kimberley Process, to certify its stockpile of diamonds for export.  Mpofu made his 'bribe' allegation after returning to Zimbabwe from a Kimberley Process conference in Tel Aviv that deadlocked on certification of Zimbabwe's diamonds from the Marange area.

Alan Martin, from Partnership Africa Canada, denied Sunday any bribe was offered to Mpofu.  Martin said civil-rights groups oppose certification of diamonds from the Marange area because they are not compliant with the Kimberley Process, which tries to stop sales of so-called 'blood diamonds."  He said the Kimberley Process monitor, South African Abbey Chikane, who cleared Zimbabwe to export the rough stones from Marange, had ignored smuggling of diamonds from Zimbabwe.

Human-rights groups monitoring the Marange diamonds say they were astonished when respected Israeli diamond analyst Chaim Even-Zohar last week backed Zimbabwe's bid for its diamonds to be certified by the Kimberley Process.  Even-Zohar said if the Zimbabwe diamonds were not exported legally they would all be smuggled out and would upset the prices of diamonds on the international market during a world wide recession.

Even-Zohar said the Kimberley Process is not a human-rights organization and its mandates assumed sovereign and legitimate governments were, as he put it, "OK."  He said the Kimberley Process only has mechanisms to deal with rebel groups using diamonds to oppose or undermine sovereign governments.  Even-Zohar said the Kimberley Process has no mechanism to deal with a country like Zimbabwe, which is itself what he called a "rogue actor."

De Beers diamond group executive director Jonathan Oppenheimer said Sunday there is "concern" over diamond mining in Zimbabwe, but there is no "blood diamond conflic" and there is a legitimate government in place in Harare.  He said the Kimberley Process is therefore in a difficult position.

Human Rights Watch claims harassment is continuing in Marange and that some informal miners are forced to hand over any rough stones they find to members of Mr. Mugabe's army.  Its recent report says those stones are then sold on the black market.

Civil rights groups say many miners have been killed by Mr. Mugabe's security forces in the Marange diamond fields.

Zimbabwe set for EU talks

Daily nation

AFRICA

By KITSEPILE NYATHI, NATION Correspondent

Posted Monday, June 28 2010 at 19:41 HARARE, Monday

Reader's Opinion : TSVANGIRAI CABINET REFOCUS

(letter)

Every team has a joint goal to which every team member is expected to work tirelessly towards. When cabinet ministers are chosen, it is not for their ability to fatten themselves but for their ability to fatten the lean and poor souls. In 1980, the masses of Zimbabwe were always described as “the toiling masses”. ZANU PF, indirectly, laid down a performance standard – stop the toiling. By now, if performance standards were to have been insisted on, the masses would have been described as contented masses. But alas, they are still toiling. To make it worse they are like starving children who are asked not to embarrass their father by begging for food. More than three million of the toiling masses were forced to decide between singing praises to the dear leader and starve to death or to run away from home and live. The recent cabinet refocus (I prefer this term than reshuffle) by the MDC has generated a diverse range of reactions. The most fascinating is an attempt by the deadwood in ZANU to attribute the refocus to a purported power struggle in MDC. The second type of response came from those that felt were unfairly judged and the third type from those that sought to understand the nature and reasons for the reshuffle. In all these responses are an expression of a new phenomenon in government which holds ministers to account and subject them to performance standards. It was so obvious that the establishment was taken by surprise because performance was never an issue. Loyalty coupled with no ambition, availability to be used and heartlessness was the only requirement. The establishment ministers actually and publicly confirm this as they often defend themselves against any scrutiny by declaring “only the President who appointed me can remove me”. No one had a right to question their performance.

The Tsvangirai doctrine appears different. People are elected to deliver personally and as a group. The PM was responsible for assembling a team and not just a list of single performers. This is where some appeared surprised. They looked at what they believed were their personal achievements and did not understand why they were dropped from the team. What they should ask themselves is what they contributed to the team effort, or what they brought or surrendered onto the team table. Some very good performers come to a team table and share nothing but only to boast of their achievements and do very little to enrich the team. Some come into the team and share the very little they have. Some think that they fatten themselves on the cabinet table. NO. You bring fat to the cabinet table as a token of your contribution.

Like a soccer team, not all stars play at the same time. Those that have been dropped should cool down and think positively. They are all excellent leaders and should realise and take comfort in that they have some good skills that attracted the PM’s attention for their initial appointment. It may be that they did not share that which the PM expected them to. All they need is to demonstrate that they have learned from this experience and can do better in an alternative assignment. The one thing they should not do is to pay attention to the crocodile tears from the ZANU deadwood. These people actually believe than being a minister is some sort of pension and recognition of one’s exploits during the liberation struggle. They feel offended by being asked to account for their actions. This is why they always shoot back and menacingly remind whoever that “we fought for this country” even though, as leaders, they were very far from the action. They don’t even understand, in their own world, what a performance review is. Some of them were declared 99% incapacitated by their own Dr Chenjerai Hunzvi but still hang on to government. Their names are now, literally, ‘Chef’ or ‘Minister’. If performance mattered, some of them are beyond the rational or cognitive age to remain in office. In their own homes, their own relatives have since learnt to ignore them and tolerate their total loss of memory.

Now back to the ranting by the deadwood. These people should simply be ignored. They are scared, completely out of their skins, by performance appraisals. Starting with their spokes persons, it is very difficult to find even a single achievement in their lives. Some of them have no savings despite being in office since 1975. They live from government coffers and are finally buried by the government. They can’t even afford their coffins. Never mind their looting, they lose it all. They are scared Mugabe might embrace the new Tsvangirai performance approach. To hide their fear, they have concocted theories ranging from the coming MDC congress to power struggles. They tried to mention names and to even suggest that Mugabe rescued Biti from the chop. They come up with conspiracy theories of a Makone hand in the reshuffle. If Makone is not part to the PM decision making process, then he is not a worthy advisor to the PM. These ZANU apologists err in that they transfer the ZANU modus operandi onto MDC and seek to draw conclusions based on it. This is their folly. MDC is totally different from ZANU. Unlike in ZANU, decisions in MDC are made through consensus (or near consensus). Whereas in ZANU it has always been treasonous to have “presidential ambitions”, in MDC there is no crime in that. It is a given that all the serious contenders in MDC want to lead the party and country. There is no quarrel about that. MDC does not need “million” marchers to declare or endorse the party president. These apologists take the normal political activity in MDC as signs of problems.

To the people of Zimbabwe, let no man lead you astray. Wolves, grievous wolves are out there to steal your approval. The nation should gladly embrace the concept of performance appraisals so that our public officials are held to account. The people of Zimbabwe should applaud the PM for the bravery to bring such a new refreshing aspect to our politics. The PM has shown that his focus is on performance and delivery and not sloganeering or speechifying. The PM has shown that he does not value loyalty above performance. He has shown that he does not need the praise of non-performance for the sack of remaining in office. He does not judge performance by the number of days in office but by concrete performance milestones. Some of you might look at constituency interests like gender balances. Yes they are very important but performance must be the key. Some of you have argued and questioned what else the substituted players could have done. Yes these are valid considerations, but these people went in fully aware of the obstacles and still pledged to deliver. The challenged was; faced with these obstacles, what did they do or did not do. Politics is competitive. The challenges are great and you accept the relay-stick at considerable risk.

Farai Mbira