Soldiers Mine Illegal Diamonds in Zimabwe, Violence Spreads Against Residents

Posted in News by Admin on January 19th, 2009

Zimbabwe sent military police back to the Chiadzwa diamond fields in the east of the country to quell violent clashes between soldiers who were meant to protect the diamond fields from illegal activity and the labor force hired to mine the diamonds. The government — which diamond industry experts say could have lost more than $300 million a month in potential earnings to illegal miners and dealers at Chiadzwa –  deployed soldiers in November to flush out illegal miners and secure the area in preparation for organized diamond mining.

But the soldiers claim they are poorly paid for a country with million-percent inflation and, after chasing away illegal miners, have themselves turned to mining the diamonds illegally. This creates more chaos, resulting in constant and violent clashes between rival gangs of soldiers, local residents and mining laborers. This past week, soldiers opened fire on each other in the fight for control of the diamond fields. “The shootouts happened on Sunday and Monday between rival gangs of soldiers,” said an army officer who declined to be named because he had no authority to speak to the media.

The officer said there were no casualties from the shootings, but said military police were still making arrests of the individual soldiers involved in the violence. Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi was not immediately available for comment on the matter. According to our sources, the soldiers exchanged fire following disagreements over control of labor drawn from the surrounding communities where residents are skilled at mining diamonds.

But a campaign by the soldiers to flush out illegal miners from the diamond fields also ran out residents of surrounding villages who are now reluctant to return and work for the soldiers. “The problem is that, unlike the police who were here before, the soldiers do not negotiate. They force us into their syndicates, and then pay us whatever they like. Most of the time they don’t pay us all,” said a villager.

Zimbabwe is on the line as a diamond trading country under the Kimberley Process, a watchdog body set up to stamp out trade in so-called conflict diamonds that fuel civil wars. The World Diamond Council (WDC) has demanded an urgent inquiry into the Zimbabwean diamond industry amid fears that gems from Chiadzwa may be finding their way onto the black market in violation of rules established to curb trade in conflict diamonds.