It wasn’t an earth-shattering report, one would say, but a mere recycling of the old garbage.
Be that as it may, the report alleged that Zimbabwe’s diamonds were left to the mercy of the country’s “highly partisan” security services and political elites, much to the detriment of development and democracy.
Although, not a new allegation, it claimed that the country's vast diamond riches were used to fund repression while political leaders clandestinely profited from the diamond trade.
President Robert Mugabe’s government had long disputed claims that Marange diamonds benefited a few politically connected individuals and the security establishment.
He instead last year accused erstwhile diamond mining companies in Marange of stealing diamonds worth $13 billion in revenue since production commenced in the vast diamond fields in 2006.
The companies were then pushed out from their claims, paving way for a new state-owned diamond firm, the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC).
In its report, "An Inside Job", Global Witness, alleged that the dreaded Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) spy agency held a concealed stake in a company active in the Marange diamond fields.
It claimed that diamonds produced by the CIO-linked company were traded in Antwerp and Dubai.
The funds, it alleged, may have funded political repression.
The civic organisation also alleged that European sanctions that were imposed against Zimbabwe may have been violated, because of the sale of three shipments of Marange diamonds in Antwerp, which may have indirectly benefitted the Zimbabwe Defense Industries.
"Companies have concealed their finances and shielded their operations from public scrutiny, hiding significant stakes in these companies held by the feared Central Intelligence agency, the Zimbabwean military and the government itself," said Global Witness.
Refuted
However, Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) rubbished Global Witness’ claim of providing a trading platform for dirty diamonds between December 2013 and September 2014.
"Global Witness makes these claims based on a statement by the Zimbabwean [deputy mines minister] Mines, Gift Chimanikire, in the Zimbabwean parliament in December 2012. The statement was dispelled a month later, by the Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti. The company, Anjin, itself was never on the European sanctions list,” it said.
"The AWDC, representing the Antwerp diamond industry, strongly denounces all the accusations made by Global Witness.”
AWDC chief executive Ari Epstein also said that when the European Union decided in September 2013, to lift the sanctions on Zimbabwe, the AWDC took several initiatives before deciding whether or not the Zimbabwean goods could be traded on the Antwerp market.
“First and foremost AWDC initiated an investigation into the structures behind mining company Anjin and other mining companies active in Marange and Chimanimani. The results of this investigation revealed there was no indication that the legal entity ZDI was co-owner of Anjin,” he said.
“AWDC also requested from the Kimberley Process, the collaborating organization between industry, governments and NGO’s, including Global Witness until 2011, whether or not diamonds, bought in Zimbabwe (Harare) were allowed to be imported under the existing KP conditions. The KPCS’s response to this request was positive.
“The AWDC explicitly asked the European Union whether Zimbabwean goods could be imported to Antwerp and paid for. The European Commission responded positive to this inquiry.
"Therefore, AWDC is convinced all due diligence was performed adequately with sufficient guarantees that only conflict-free diamonds, conforming fully with EU sanctions policies, were traded in Antwerp.”
Global Witness also claimed that accurate statistics on the production and trade of Zimbabwe's diamonds were kept away from the public and in 2013 a parliamentary committee reported "serious discrepancies between what government receives from the sector and what the diamond mining companies claim to have remitted to the Treasury".
Harare might agree with Global Witness on the understating of production figures, but they will disagree on who was responsible for that.
Mugabe’s government blamed the mining companies for opaque operations, while Global Witness alleged that Harare engineered everything.
Zimbabwe’s mines minister Walter Chidakwa sensationally claimed last July that a group of suspected diamond looters once plotted to assassinate him when he stopped mining operations in Marange last year.
“It’s difficult to manage diamonds. There are some people, who benefited from diamonds. Some are Zimbabweans,” he was quoted as saying by NewsDay.
“It’s not me who stopped diamond mining of companies in Chiadzwa. It is President Robert Mugabe. Even minister Mushohwe knows that we sat after a Cabinet meeting and the President asked me if I feared dealing with these mining companies and you know when the President says that, I had to take action.”
“Today, I want to make it clear that if you were part of the looting, please stop it. After I stopped them (diamond companies), they reported to other ministers, but the ministers referred them back to me. Some even cried in my office and I had to give them tissue paper (to wipe away tears). Some even suggested taking me out, but God protects us.”
The Marange fields were one of Africa's biggest diamond finds in recent years.
However, Global Witness said the future of Zimbabwe’s diamonds “now hangs in the balance” as dwindling reserves were demanding greater investment from an industry shaped by “state-sponsored looting and short-term thinking, while driving competition for what remains of Zimbabwe’s diamonds”.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
