A TEAM assessing Zimbabwe's compliance with international standards to prevent the diamond trade from fuelling conflict has found that the military had been directly involved in illegal mining.
It also concluded that the authorities had carried out "horrific violence against civilians", according to a memo the team gave to Zimbabwean officials.
The team was sent to Zimbabwe last week under the Kimberley Process, an international undertaking to halt the trade in so-called blood diamonds. Its recommendations could include the full suspension of Zimbabwe from the process, complicating the country's ability to sell its diamonds in international markets. The World Federation of Diamond Bourses has already recommended that its members in 20 countries not trade diamonds from the Marange deposits in eastern Zimbabwe because of reports of abuses.
In his confidential memo, the team's leader, Kpandel Fayia, told Zimbabwean officials that he was so disturbed by the testimonies of victims the team met that he had to leave as they spoke.
"Our team was able to interview and document the stories of tens of victims, observe their wounds, scars from dog bites and batons, tears, and ongoing psychological trauma," said the memo by Mr Fayia, a deputy minister of the ministry that oversees mining in Liberia. "I am from Liberia, sir; I was in Liberia throughout the 15 years of civil war, and I have experienced too much senseless violence in my lifetime, especially connected to diamonds."
He told them, "This has to be acknowledged and it has to stop." The Government officials, who have denied state-sponsored violence in the diamond fields, said they would try to comply with the Kimberley Process before the team issued its final report.
Zimbabwe's Deputy Mining Minister, Murisi Zwizwai, was quoted as saying after Mr Fayia's presentation that Zimbabwe had agreed to remove soldiers from the fields "in phases while proper security settings would be put in place".
NEW YORK TIMES
