Back in late 2008 people had flocked to the diamond fields (Marange in Zimbabwe) from all over – teachers, drivers, parents were toiling to find a way to feed their families. Here in one of the world’s poorest countries, billions of dollars worth of gems were tantalising. Then one day the military launched an operation to clear the diamond fields.
It was a Thursday back in 2008, Tinashe - not his real name - was quietly digging for diamonds with his twin brother. He had no job and children to feed.
TINASHE: “Suddenly military trucks arrived and surrounded the fields. There were different sounds but what I clearly remember was the sound of guns and grenades. When my brother was running he was shot in the back and died instantly”.
TINASHE: “Suddenly military trucks arrived and surrounded the fields. There were different sounds but what I clearly remember was the sound of guns and grenades. When my brother was running he was shot in the back and died instantly”.
ANDERSSON: We spent time with many more witnesses. They told us how soldiers fired down on them from helicopters. The intense attacks went on for three weeks. They left the deepest of scars and it wasn’t just the guns. Vimbai we’ll call her had been selling clothes to the other diggers. Then her life changed.
VIMBAI: “What I can remember is being dragged into the bush by one soldier. He then raped me. I could hear other people screaming and crying, female voices. It meant they were being raped like me”.
VIMBAI: “What I can remember is being dragged into the bush by one soldier. He then raped me. I could hear other people screaming and crying, female voices. It meant they were being raped like me”.
ANDERSSON: The badly injured were being finished off by soldiers. This was an atrocity all for the sake of diamonds. Our secret cameras got into the local hospital where some of the injured were taken. We’ve copied documents from here. And we’ve built up a huge body of evidence on the massacre.
“So this is what we’ve got, 53 written testimonies in addition to the testimonies of the people that we’ve actually talked to ourselves and we’ve actually smuggled out and compiled these hospital records. There are over 250 entries and it’s basically page after page of dog bites, rape, beatings and killings”.
“So this is what we’ve got, 53 written testimonies in addition to the testimonies of the people that we’ve actually talked to ourselves and we’ve actually smuggled out and compiled these hospital records. There are over 250 entries and it’s basically page after page of dog bites, rape, beatings and killings”.
ANDERSSON: Our cameras went deeper inside the diamond fields. Covertly they got into these, the premises of a key company set up a year after the killings. It’s called Mbada and now it mines diamonds on a large scale, here in the richest part of Marange. For President Mugabe faced with an economy in ruins, the diamonds are a miracle. Mbada is run by one of his close friends. The military and police mine much of the rest of the diamond fields themselves. Diamond profits, insiders told us, were the whole point of the military operation.
ANDERSSON: “Is there any way this military operation could have happened without it being commanded by the very top, by President Robert Mugabe and by the head of the military?”
MUNYA: “Without orders from the top this operation would not have been possible”.
MUNYA: “Without orders from the top this operation would not have been possible”.
ANDERSSON: But the reality is that President Mugabe who recently turned 87 after three decades in power, is unlikely to be prosecuted. There currently isn’t the international will to push for it. So, for the foreseeable future, those implicated will walk free.
Jump to India:
ANDERSSON: [on street] “This town on the west coast of India is the gateway of the world’s diamond industry. It’s literally an epicentre because almost all of the world’s diamonds come here to Surat to be cut and polished”.
Every evening the streets come alive with diamond traders.
[walking through street] “This place is literally awash with diamonds”.
Surat is one of the few places in the world where you could find Zimbabwe’s Marange diamonds. Last year, under a special exemption, two legal shipments came through here.
ANDERSSON: There is an organisation that’s meant to make sure that diamonds on world markets don’t benefit perpetrators of violence. It’s called the Kimberley Process or the KP. The KP did eventually impose a sales ban on Marange’s diamonds after the 2008 massacre but now there are moves afoot that could greatly benefit President Mugabe. If the ban is lifted, Marange’s diamonds could represent a fifth of world diamond production and Marange diamonds could end up on your high street.
The KP sent a team to Zimbabwe last August and concluded the situation in the diamond area was still problematic but much better - but we’ve established their team only spent two and a half days in the diamond area and only met a handful of informal miners.
ANDERSSON: The view that there’s been some improvement has led the EU and Britain as part of it to push for exports to resume from two key mines in Marange immediately – mines they believe meet international standards. But our investigations revealed serious human rights abuses that international monitors completely missed and that taint the whole Marange area.
ANDERSSON: We put our evidence to the Zimbabwean Government but have received no reply. It has publicly stated that its operations in Marange – including Mbada – are compliant with the Kimberley Process.
“Is the Kimberley Process formally aware of the fact that there are torture camps open and operating now in the Marange diamond fields area?
NICK WESTCOTT (European Union Managing Director for Africa): “No, this is not something that’s been notified to the Kimberley Process”.
ANDERSSON: “How is it that journalists know more than the Kimberley Process about the human rights situation on the ground in Zimbabwe’s diamond fields?”
“Is the Kimberley Process formally aware of the fact that there are torture camps open and operating now in the Marange diamond fields area?
NICK WESTCOTT (European Union Managing Director for Africa): “No, this is not something that’s been notified to the Kimberley Process”.
ANDERSSON: “How is it that journalists know more than the Kimberley Process about the human rights situation on the ground in Zimbabwe’s diamond fields?”
ANDERSSON: “Martin Rapaport, a well known diamond industry trader, thinks the Kimberley Process is a bad joke.
MARTIN RAPAPORT: “Fundamentally the Kimberley Process is a green wash. It says we are taking care of human rights abuses, we are stopping the flow of diamonds if there are human rights abuses but they’re not. It’s damning, it’s wrong, it’s evil and the Kimberley Process is impotent, it’s incapable of dealing with that issue”.
MARTIN RAPAPORT: “Fundamentally the Kimberley Process is a green wash. It says we are taking care of human rights abuses, we are stopping the flow of diamonds if there are human rights abuses but they’re not. It’s damning, it’s wrong, it’s evil and the Kimberley Process is impotent, it’s incapable of dealing with that issue”.
ANDERSSON: The KP is in turmoil over Zimbabwe. Some members already consider the sales ban lifted and some Marange diamonds are already out on sale. We went down to Hatton Garden, a premier diamond retail street right here in London to find out.
“Well I’m going to go into this shop, they’ve been selling diamonds since 1875, very established, very proper and I’m going to ask them if they or any high street jeweller for that matter knows where the diamonds come from”.
This dealer was adamant.
ALEXANDER HIRSCHFELD: “They’d have no idea where it had come from, not even the shopkeeper would have any idea where it’s come from. And even the supplier wouldn’t know where the diamond had come from”.
ANDERSSON: “So you could end up buying a Zimbabwean diamond without knowing?”
ALEXANDER HIRSCHFELD: “I could quite easily buy a Zimbabwean diamond, absolutely”. We must have had a thousand customers coming through and I don’t think one of them has ever asked where this diamond has come from. They don’t even care. They just want some bling on their finger”.
ANDERSSON: People may not care but behind these diamonds lies a terrible massacre and ongoing abuses.
MUNYA: “I don’t think people have the right to buy these diamonds. As of now it’s like selling dripping blood”.
“Well I’m going to go into this shop, they’ve been selling diamonds since 1875, very established, very proper and I’m going to ask them if they or any high street jeweller for that matter knows where the diamonds come from”.
This dealer was adamant.
ALEXANDER HIRSCHFELD: “They’d have no idea where it had come from, not even the shopkeeper would have any idea where it’s come from. And even the supplier wouldn’t know where the diamond had come from”.
ANDERSSON: “So you could end up buying a Zimbabwean diamond without knowing?”
ALEXANDER HIRSCHFELD: “I could quite easily buy a Zimbabwean diamond, absolutely”. We must have had a thousand customers coming through and I don’t think one of them has ever asked where this diamond has come from. They don’t even care. They just want some bling on their finger”.
ANDERSSON: People may not care but behind these diamonds lies a terrible massacre and ongoing abuses.
MUNYA: “I don’t think people have the right to buy these diamonds. As of now it’s like selling dripping blood”.
ANDERSSON: The tragedy for Zimbabweans is that they’re sitting on opulence, but the dream has become a torment. And this isn’t how it has to be at all.
So back to my question:
Can you be certain that you are not buying "Blood Diamonds"?
My answer: "I doubt it!"
Watch the 2006 film with Leonardo DiCaprio called "Blood Diamond" which also tells the same story quite graphically!!!
I personally have not wanted to join the "Diamond Invention" and promote diamonds since I read Edward J Epstein's tome called The Diamond Invention. Read it for yourself and see if you would want to waste money on a large diamond, especially now when it is likely to be 'dripping with blood' from the Marange massacre?
Go to http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/diamond/prologue.htm and read it for yourself online.
Yours gem-uinely
The Gemstone Cop - Graeme Blaiklock
PS I was alarmed today to read a News article on page 10 in Jewellers Trade Magazine, October 2011 edition which seems to celebrate Mbada's success in promoting Marange diamonds despite the KP and Zimbabwe's atrocities towards the murdered and tortured miners in the area.
