Charles Rukuni, AfricaNews contributor in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
Will Zimbabwe be sacked from the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme this week? That is the question everyone is asking as the organization set up to prevent the trade in "blood diamonds" begins its four-day meeting in Namibia on Monday.
The Kimberley Process has been under a lot of flak for being toothless but Zimbabwe, which is now famous for making headlines for all the wrong reasons, took centre-stage when the country deployed soldiers to the alluvial diamond rich Chiadzwa area in Marange south east of the eastern border town of Mutare where illegal miners and international diamond dealers were running a roaring business.
The soldiers are reported to have killed hundreds of innocent diamond diggers before taking over the illegal mining themselves.
Though originally "blood diamonds" were diamonds fomenting conflict between rebels and elected governments, the term has taken a different meaning in Zimbabwe since it is the government that is reportedly killing civilians.
Zimbabwe is reportedly losing about US$200 million a month through smuggling of gold and diamonds. This would be enough to finance the country's reconstruction. It therefore makes sense to have the country's diamond trading suspended until it puts its house in order.
If this were true that would indeed be noble. But it appears that Zimbabwe is being used as a scapegoat for the KPCS's failures since it was started six years ago. While the smuggling of diamonds from Zimbabwe is undoubtedly rampant, the KPCS has not been able to explain where more than half of the diamonds officially produced by the country are going, or why in some cases the country has exported more diamonds that it had officially have produced.
Anomaly
In 2003, for example, the country officially produced 26 870 carats and exported the same amount. The following year, it produced 44 454 carats but exported only 18 481 carats. The situation was reversed in 2005 when the country produced 248 264 carats but exported 261 538 carats.
The greatest anomaly was in 2006. The country produced 1 046 025 carats but exported only 264 585 carats. Up to the end of last year, the country had produced 2.9 million carats but exported 1.4 million carats. That means that it should have a stockpile of nearly 1.5 million carats. But does this stockpile exist?
This is the question KP review teams sent to Zimbabwe in 2007 and this year have failed to address. Partnership Africa Canada, one of the non-governmental organizations calling for the ban, asked this pertinent question in its report entitled: Zimbabwe, Diamonds and the wrong side of history, released in March.
It said the quantity of diamonds that could not be accounted for - and was thus said to be a stockpile- was a great deal of collateral for a country as cash-strapped as Zimbabwe.
"The onus is on the Zimbabwe government – and the KP as the overseer of the world’s diamond system – to show otherwise. If they can, well and good. But unless and until they do, outside observers are justified in the assumption that some of these diamonds may have been laundered into the international system, in order to prop up a shaky and increasingly kleptocratic regime," the organization said. "And if, as common sense suggests, parts of the stockpile have been sold off, the question then becomes, who bought it, and where has it gone?"
Puzzle
This is the puzzle that the KPCS should be trying to solve instead of going on a witch hunt about diamonds it cannot even account for. It makes good headlines to address the "human rights" issue surrounding Marange. There are enough organizations making noise about that. But why not deal with what is already on the table first?
Will the suspension of Zimbabwe from the KPCS solve this riddle? Obviously not. The suspension will make good headlines, but it will not benefit anyone. Those involved in the illegal trade will continue with their business as usual. In fact, they might even have a bigger market if the operations of the legal operators, Murowa and River Ranch, are suspended for six months.
Investigative journalist Sorious Samura has already proved that diamond dealers do not care where diamonds come from as long a one can assure them of a regular supply.
And what about the workers at Murowa and River Ranch? What about their families? What about the community? Are all these people going to be sacrificed so that non-governmental organizations can score points, and perhaps get more funding, because that is all they will achieve and nothing else?
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