Poverty Leads to Diamond Violence in Zimbabwe

Posted in News by Admin on January 23rd, 2009

Zimbabwe’s recent economic collapse has driven its poverty-stricken citizens to dangerous measures. Many people are illegally searching for diamonds in the country’s diamond fields, where they are regularly being killed by police. The country’s diamond mines are controlled by the government, which routinely routs and arrests or kills citizens in order to safeguard its diamond income. In the last year alone, more than 9,000 illegal diamond miners were arrested by police and nearly 2,000 gems confiscated. In the meantime, government friends and officials are being granted licenses to mine the fields, illustrating the chaos and widespread nepotism that is gripping the country, and the importance of global conflict-free diamond legislation.

Whiteflash sources its diamonds solely from mines which operate under strict environmental laws and human rights standards. The mines we source from are also committed to transparency, so we can track their practices from mine to market.