Military control over diamond mining in Zimbabwe’s eastern Marange district has resulted in a brutal mix of massacres, forced labour, beatings and rape.
This is according to a comprehensive report released last week by Human Rights Watch (HRW), the New York-based rights NGO, which interviewed over 100 people in the region in February 2009.
Mining in Marange began in 2006. Initially the government allowed anybody to prospect in the area. Then it started clamping down. Recognising the mines as an important revenue opportunity, the Zanu-PF-controlled army invaded the mines in October 2008, massacring over 200 miners in the process.
Helicopters swooped down over illegal miners, shooting live ammunition and teargas and 800 soldiers were sent in to secure the area. Illegal miners were forced to dig mass graves for their murdered comrades. The report says:
A local headman told Human Rights Watch that in the three weeks of the military operation, Chiadzwa resembled “a war zone in which soldiers killed people like flies”. Another headman was forced to bury five bodies of miners; all five bodies had what appeared to be bullet wounds. None of the bodies were identifiable.
With the army in control of the area, the violence has continued and illegal mining — which the police and military were ostensibly supposed to shut down — has continued to flourish, this time in the hands of soldiers.
The army is forcing at least 300 children to work without pay in the mines. A woman forced to work on the mines told an HRW researcher: “We worked together with about 30 children of ages between 10 and 17 years. The children worked the same 11 hours each day as adults did. The soldiers had a duty roster for all villagers in Chiadzwa to take turns to work in the fields, irrespective of age.” The woman explained how men did the digging while children and women carried the ore, then sieved it before sorting the diamonds. The women and children were forced to work without breaks, with soldiers not even providing food and water, and beating those working too slowly.
Soldiers have also been plundering impoverished villages, stealing items like cellphones, maize and blankets. In addition to this, the report reveals that:
Several witnesses and victims told Human Rights Watch that soldiers continue to assault, harass, and subject the local community to torture …
Two such incidences occurred in February 2009 when:
[F]ive soldiers beat three Muchena villagers for over five hours using a rubber hose without stating any reasons for the assault. The same night, eight soldiers assaulted a family in Muedzengwa village using open palms, clenched fists, rifle butts, and booted feet. The soldiers then allegedly stole several items of personal property. During the beatings, the soldiers demanded information on local miners, which the villagers did not have.
Zanu-PF party apparatchiks have also threatened to forcibly remove those who live in the area, estimated by HRW to be about 7 000 families. The reign of terror and military oppression continues, with the illicit profits from smuggling (diamonds are sent illegally to Mozambique and Johannesburg, South Africa) benefiting soldiers and senior Zanu-PF officials.
HRW has called on Zimbabwe’s power-sharing government to intervene and place police control over the area, ensuring “that the police abide by internationally recognised standards of law enforcement and use of lethal force”. It also calls for the government to launch an investigation into the rampant human rights abuses in the area.
Unfortunately, the unity government is unlikely to do anything. While Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is eager to claim that Zimbabwe has made great strides in governance reform, and that his nemesis, President Robert Mugabe, is accepting this process, nothing could be further from the truth.
As I have discussed in the past, Zanu-PF is doing its utmost to stall reforms proposed in the unity agreement. Furthermore, human rights activists, lawyers and opposition MDC politicos continue to be unlawfully harassed and detained. Hundreds of prisoners die of starvation in jail. And land grabs and persecution of farmers occur with impunity.
Zanu-PF’s undemocratic participation in government is only further aiding Zimbabwe’s disintegration and prolonging the suffering of our ordinary Zimbabweans. The world cannot look away from the horrifying abuses and continuing tyranny in the Marange diamond fields and elsewhere. It is no use pretending that Zanu-PF is prepared to surrender its illegitimate and strangulating hold on power. Zimbabwe will continue its agonising implosion if the West decides to prop up this sham unity government.
Regional powerhouse South Africa as well as Europe, Britain and the US need to act in the best interests of all Zimbabweans and force Zanu-PF to accept the rule of law and ensure that the obligations in the unity agreement are adhered to. The suffering citizens of Marange, and of Zimbabwe as a whole, deserve nothing less.
In the mean time, your mate, Trapido, is saying,
“The country is currently moving towards stability, starting to re-impose the rule of law and is certainly trying to reach out to the West… Whatever President Mugabe’s faults — and they are too many to mention here — he has never suggested nuking an African country as is the case of the president of Iran with whom Obama openly seeks reconciliation.”
So the question is: who’s fooling who?
[sarcasm]
why do you hate comrade bob? all you white peaple want to do is to stop the independence of zimbabwe so you can make it an english colony again.
we will not be folled by your westirn lyes. peaple like you will be pruvin wrang when the unity government works.
[/sarcasm]
i think that’s what’s going to be covered when the usual bob-loving suspects add their two cents, right?
nb: do you know how hard it was for me to intentionally misspell words? eish.
It is a none fact that the HRW made allegation of child labour, murder without the facts. The KP has been to Zimbabwe on two visits already having been to this area and nothing was noted. Zimbabwe can develop without Aid, but now that Zimbabwe is stabilising, Tsvangirai is saying he is sticking to the inclusive government, now Zimbabwean diamonds are condemned as blood diamonds. This is just an indication of how the west want to keep Zimbabwe from recovering. We are watching every move and we will comment when its necessary. Its reported that Zimbabwean diamonds are worth a US$1.2 billion a month to the country, and when illegal miners were selling the diamonds there was nothing wrong, when the government moved in to seal the area off, its now considered to be a conflict zone. Definition of blood diamonds and conflict zone seems not to be the same in Zimbabwe. Is it because Zimbabwean diamonds are supposed to benefit the governemnt directly without looking to Aid? That is the major problem nothing else everything else is just cover up.
I find it crazy that the Zimbabwean parties signed the agreemnt without EU, US and all other critics refusing this path. Now the same critics are the ones saying the letter of the GPA should be followed and upheld. The very same parties were not forced to sign and include the steps which they themselves agreed to follow, now how come they are being forced by those whose interest is not for Zimbabwean want to impose themselves. Zimbabwean know what they want and who is playing what is clear for all to see. Zimbabwean wealth is ours, whilst others are wanting Zimbabweans to chase after riches and consummables. Diamonds and natural resources are wealth, whilst wages are riches and these can never be inherited. Until all African understand this we will never understand what is going on in Zimbabwe. Moeletsi knows what is going on in Zimbabwe but he wants to take the credit to do eaxctly that in South Africa. To change direction at times needs force and determination despite what others say, as long as the vision is clear to those with the vision, all shall be okay. Status Quo is for everyone, not just an entitlement to those who think they have the right to tell everyone of what to do. Zimbabwe belongs to everyone who wants to belong, without wanting to remain the Masters and Kings.
Why the hate? Diamonds are plenty in Zimbabwe, and until the west understand that democracy without economic independence is useless. This is what total independence is all about. They are those who want Africa to continue on the begging trails will learn lessons from Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai told the west over and over again that this trip was for engagement, and the west are saying its for begging. Sanctions whether people like it or not are affecting Zimbabwe, now they are wanting to stop Zimbabwe from selling its natural resources. This is another way to impose sanctions through the back door, we can not be fooled again. Previously they said Zimbabwe will not produce enough food, now they are saying Zimbabwe produced enough food, but the people are still hungry. Its like saying there is plenty of water in a place, but the people are still thirsty. As long as Zimbabwe is given a chance without all these restrictions which are being put in place, Zimbabweans will produce and its a none fact. All Zimbabweans knoa the truth of what is going on. The KP has been to Zimbabwe on so many occasions, and revealed nothing, so why do they expect that things will have changed on the ground. The area is sealed off, and that is not going to change, as there are people who are wanting a conflict to start in Zimbabwe, using the diamonds. The Zimbabweans government is ten years ahead of everyone and watching.
Terribly sad – but not particularly surprising. Just simply Africa all over…
The only question in my mind is: SA is showing the same signs of corruption – and has since the reign of Mbeki. Unless and until SA moves away from tribal politics, it’s going to be a case of deja vu. Until the police do their job – on themselves first – SA is headed down the slippery corruption slope.
We need a moral thinktank, headed by people like Bish Tutu, to act as the watchguard of the nation. The police aren’t doing it, neither is the judiciary and the politicians are the problem… Who is left ???
well, it looks like i got the predictable responses spot-on.
amazing.
sadly, i had hoped to be wrong.
in any event, i didn’t know that forced labor was okay. is it okay for the mining companies to offer a wage *decrease* during negotiation season? i mean, if it’s okay for the zimbabweans to mine for no wages, why are we paying the south african ones?
[for the slow people -- it's not the fact that the government controls the mines which makes them "conflict diamonds" and thus illegal. it's the working conditions, forced labor, and lack of pay which is the problem. are deductive reasoning and critical thinking not your strong suit?]