Australia in murky diamond deals with Mugabe regime
By KING SHANGO
Published on: 25th September, 2009
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ZIMBABWE – HARARE – Zimbabwe is not likely to be suspended from the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme which prohibits the sale of “blood diamonds” despite the heated debate that has been going on for almost a year.
But this will not be because of President Robert Mugabe’s obstinacy. More powerful forces are simply at play.
Calls for the suspension were first made by human rights organisations last year after the government deployed soldiers to the Chiadzwa area in Marange, near the eastern border town of Mutare, to drive out nearly 40 000 diggers of alluvial diamonds.
The soldiers are reported to have killed between 80 and 200 diggers during the operation dubbed Operation Hakudzokwi – Shona for “Operation No Return”.
A review team sent by the Kimberley Process in June also recommended that Zimbabwe be suspended from the KP for six months.
Nothing has happened since. Soldiers are still at Chiadzwa. And reports say they are still killing illegal diggers.
Ian Smillie, one of the founding members of the KPCS, told an international diamond conference in New York on September 10 that Australian diplomats had paid “quiet visits” to governments of members of the KP team that recommended the suspension of Zimbabwe to persuade them not to take any action.
Five countries were represented on the team: South Africa, Namibia, Liberia, the United States and Canada.
“Australian diplomats paid quiet visits to the governments of team members recommending against any action that might damage the interests of a diamond mining company with Australian connections in Zimbabwe,” Smillie told the conference.
“For these governments and the others that are currently active behind the scenes, business and politics trump human rights and the very purpose of the Kimberley Process. They trump good management; they trump common sense and decency; and they trump the long-term interest of the entire diamond industry,” he said.
Smillie worked for Partnership Africa Canada, a non-governmental organisation that was lobbying for Zimbabwe to be suspended from the KPCS but resigned in May because of the ineffectiveness of the Kimberley Process.
Zimbabwe has three major diamond operations: Chiadzwa, Murowa in Zvishavane and River Ranch in Beitbridge.
Murowa and River Ranch are KP certified. Murowa is owned by the Rio Tinto group which controls 78 percent while River Ranch is owned by a Saudi Arabian businessman, Adel Aujan.
Smillie was therefore only referring to Rio Tinto, the fourth largest mining group in the world. Rio Tinto has head offices in London, England and in Melbourne, Australia. It is listed on both the London and Australian bourses and is the world’s third largest producer of diamonds. It has diamond mines in Australia, Canada and Zimbabwe.
The Fortune Global 500 company does not have to do any lobbying. It is a member of the World Diamond Council which has called for the suspension of Zimbabwe. Others can do it for the company.
The Australian government, which has taken a hard line on the Zimbabwean government and imposed sanctions on President Robert Mugabe and his lieutenants, announced on September 15 that it might ease the ban on ministerial contact with Zimbabwe which has been in force since 2002. It will also provide US$8 million in humanitarian assistance, the bulk of which
will go to food aid.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the engagement would be on a selective-case-by-case basis with ministers judged to be making a “real and genuine contribution to Zimbabwe’s social and economic recovery”.
Though he said Australia would not lift sanctions on Mugabe and his lieutenants, Smith said his country strongly believed that the international community should take “a flexible, pragmatic and active approach” towards Zimbabwe.
Diamond expert Chaim Even-Zohar has written a comprehensive report in the Diamond Intelligence Briefs on why Zimbabwe should not be suspended from the KP arguing that this would exacerbate human suffering.
He specifically says Rio Tinto should not be punished because the suspension of Zimbabwe from the KP “will only widen the suffering of the Zimbabwean people, while benefiting no one”.
“Not a single government crony, military official, corrupt miner, or other killer of innocent diggers is using the Kimberley Process in Harare. All these goods are smuggled out- no exceptions,” Even-Zohar argues.
He says some 1 500 people are employed by Murowa. Rio Tinto has assisted local people to set up their own businesses like the Murowa Construction Company and Murowa Manufacturing Sewing Group which will survive long after
the mine has closed down.
“If a player like Rio Tinto is ‘forced out’ because of some ill-advised removal of Zimbabwe from the Kimberley Process, the NGOs will spend years trying to collect money to initiate just the kind of activities developed by Rio Tinto. KP suspension will only add to the suffering. Moreover, there are precedents how to deal with such situations without suspension,” he argues.
