The European Union (EU) surprised all and sundry when it reacted calmly to reports that Zimbabwe’s military and police were running “torture camps” in the Marange diamond fields.
A BBC documentary aired last Monday cited "recent victims who told of severe beatings and sexual assault".
It claimed that civilians were often sent to the camps after digging for diamonds without governmental authorisation, while some miners that demanded too much pay were savaged by dogs.
The EU demanded a convincing proof of any wrongdoing when most people thought it had been given an arsenal to continue opposing Zimbabwe’s bid to have its Marange gems accepted globally.
"Obviously if these allegations were to be proved true, we would like to have the evidence," Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign affairs was quoted as saying by AFP.
He said the EU had previously seen reports from civic groups about alleged torture camps but never had any solid evidence to substantiate the camps actually exist.
Mann also noted that this was not the first time the BBC had produced a documentary on Marange’s so called torture camps, adding that the British broadcaster made similar claims a year ago but the evidence was not completely “100 per cent solid” as far as they were concerned.
He said that the EU member states represented in Harare had “never been able to obtain hard facts to substantiate the existence of these torture camps".
A leaked EU text on its latest Marange position also showed that the grouping was in favor of the resumption of exports from only two companies operating in Marange.
The two - Mbada and Marange Resources (formerly Canadile Miners) - had met the KP standards, it said.
“Plenary endorses exports of production from the compliant mining operations of Marage Resources (sic) and Mbada with immediate effect,” reads the EU proposal.
“Exports may take place from other mining operations in the Marange diamond fields following KP monitoring teams’ verification of compliance.”
It said the KP monitoring team would verify compliance of exports from such other producing mines including full access to mining sites and verification of post shipment mine level data on an ongoing basis.
“This ongoing verification will continue until plenary 2011. The Marage (sic) region as a whole is assessed as compliant with KP minimum requirements,” it said.
This indicated that the E.U. was softening its stance on Marange, given its criticism of the KP chairman Mathieu Yamba some few months ago when he unilaterally allowed Zimbabwe to start exporting its stones mined by Marange Resources and Mbada.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s mines minister Obert Mpofu - as expected – scoffed at the BBC documentary.
He told the German Press Agency dpa that the British were wasting their time over Marange.
"We have no torture camps in Marange. This is just cheap propaganda from the BBC," Mpofu told the German Press Agency DPA.
"The British government is fighting a losing battle. It wants our diamonds to be banned from the international market. But I know that the world will not be fooled."
Marange gems were discovered in 2006, a move that triggered a “diamond rush” as thousands of artisanal miners ravaged the area in a bid to make quick cash.
The Zimbabwean army and the police, however, cleared the area in late 2008, as it appeared no stroke of luck but economical.
Human rights groups claimed that over 200 people were killed.
Harare denied these accusations, but that was not enough to stop the KP from imposing a trade embargo on the diamonds in 2009.
Several attempts since then to allow Zimbabwe resume exports from Marange left the trade body heavily divided with the EU, the U.S, Australia and Canada highly opposed to the idea, while most African countries were in support of Harare.
Despite this bickering, Zimbabwe continued to sell its diamonds and was recently ranked as the seventh biggest diamond-producing nation in the world by volume, according to global rankings released by KP.
Harare produced 8.4 million carats of diamonds worth just over $340 million in 2010.
It remained to be seen whether the latest BBC report would help change the soft stance the E.U and other countries critical of Zimbabwe’s diamonds had recently adopted.
However, with no serious evidence presented by BBC, this report of “torture camps” would not likely convince the hearts of decision makers.
Human rights groups, enjoying their pockets lined for campaigning against the so-called Zimbabwe blood diamonds would not rest though, as we would soon hear “fresh” claims of “torture camps”.
Watching the BBC documentary would surely leave one tempted to say that was a sensational junk food for the mind.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Rough&Polished
