HARARE – Zimbabwe’s government will withdraw soldiers from poorly secured diamond fields in the eastern part of the country following criticism over rights abuses, an official has told the state-owned Sunday Mail.
Zimbabwe deployed troops to seal off the Marange diamond fields in 2008 to clamp down on illegal mining and smuggling after some 30,000 panners descended on the area. Human rights groups accuse the army of committing atrocities in the fields.
Human Rights Watch released a damning report last month alleging that about 200 people had been killed during a military crackdown in the diamond fields.
A Kimberly Process review team – mandated to monitor and regulate diamond trade globally – visited Zimbabwe’s diamond mines last week and called for the “immediate demilitarisation” of the Marange fields and measures to stop smuggling.
Zimbabwe’s deputy mines minister Murisi Zwizwai, whose department has denied charges of killings by soldiers, told the Sunday Mail that the army would be gradually pulled out of the diamond fields, which cover 66,000 hectares.The Zimbabwean government asked for assistance in modernising the Chiadzwa diamond mining operations in Marange, being conducted by an under-funded state firm. – (Reuters)