PAC renews its criticism of Zimbabwe’s diamond mines

Enviromine

Publishing Date: 07 Jul 2010 4:11pm GMT
Author: Mining, People and the Environment

Legal and Legislation

Non-government organisation Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) has raised new concerns about violence at Zimbabwe’s Marange diamond mine.

In a new report released in June, PAC outlined further, “brazened defiance of universally agreed principles of human rights and good governance” by the Zimbabwean government with regard to diamond mining.

The group said that this “poses a serious crisis of credibility for the Kimberley Process”, which is the diamond industry watchdog.

PAC is just one of many groups that have been critical of the response of the Kimberley Process to allegations of human rights abuse at the Marange diamond mine, including Rapaport Group and the Responsible Jewellery Council.

The Kimberley Process has responded to concerns by sending a special monitor to assess Zimbabwe’s compliance to the certification scheme and report back to the chair, currently held by Israel.

The Zimbabwean government also announced at the start of June that it would ban all diamond mining until it had re-established compliance with the Kimberley Process.

However, PAC has called the monitoring a “whitewash”, and said that moves by the government were designed to “confuse and soften the criticism of some Kimberley Process members”.

The organisation continues to call for Zimbabwe to be expelled from the Kimberley Process.