There have been conflicting media reports on whether Zimbabwe is comfortable with the Kimberley Process (KP) Working Group on Diamond Monitoring’s recommendations on a new system of monitoring the sale of the controversial Marange diamonds.
A local private daily, NewsDay claimed a new system of monitoring the sale of Marange diamonds had been proposed recently in Dubai at a meeting attended by Russia, India, the European Union, China, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates.
“The new proposal is that Abbey Chikane the Kimberley Process monitor be removed and replaced by a KP monitoring team made up of Mark Van Vokstan, from the Diamond Centre in Antwerp, GDV of Namibia, a company which does evaluation of diamonds and that these should work with the KP local focal point person in Zimbabwe,” the daily quoted what it called “impeccable sources” as saying.
The paper went on to cite the country’s Mines and Mining Development minister Obert Mpofu as saying that the role of KP monitor Abbey Chikane was no longer necessary.
“Our position is that we have complied and therefore there is no need for a joint monitoring workplan and monitors. We should be treated like any other compliant state,” Mpofu was quoted as saying.
This, however, conflicted with what the minister recently told New Zimbabwe.com following reports that there were plans to have British national Simon Gilberts replace Chikane as the trade body’s point-man in Marange.
Mpofu told the online publication that Zimbabwe still regarded Chikane as the legitimate monitor for the country.
"I have heard about him (Gilberts) but he will never come to Zimbabwe as a monitor … he is welcome as a tourist," Mpofu said.
“We still regard Chikane as the legitimate monitor because he was appointed at the same time the (Kimberley) joint monitoring work plan was set up. So if there’s no Chikane then there’s no monitoring.”
So, which news report should we believe given that they all quoted Mpofu saying different things over the same issue?
Does Zimbabwe still want a KP monitor or not? The minister should come out clean rather than issue out conflicting statements.
KP banned Zimbabwe from selling diamonds from Marange in 2009 over allegations of human rights abuses in the mining of gems in the area.
KP, however, gave Zimbabwe a temporary reprieve to conduct two supervised sales of the Marange stockpile in August and September last year.
This was after Chikane said in a report that Harare had met all KP conditions.
A KP plenary held in Jerusalem last November failed to reach a consensus on Marange diamonds, but the country was given a conditional agreement to sell its diamonds in January this year.
Zimbabwe refused the offer saying that it wanted to be allowed to sell the gems without conditions since it had met all the requirements set by the trade body.
Mpofu was quoted recently by local as saying that there was no country in Africa that was more compliant than Zimbabwe.
However, his comments were weakened by recent reports that Indian authorities had arrested two men for smuggling $2 million worth of diamonds from Zimbabwe's Marange field into Surat.
The two failed to produce the required KP certificate for the rough stones believed to have been smuggled from Zimbabwe through Kenya to Mumbai.
It is such reports that make KP vindicated over its proposals to put in place a new system of monitoring the sale of the Marange diamonds despite the country’s resistance.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Rough&Polished
