"England Stole Our Diamonds!" Claims Mugabe Minister

As fast as the "Gono Is Dead" fiasco hit the headlines, I see that stories have stopped being written about the 'late departed' Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, because I was really getting quite sick of it. But, no doubt, we will hear and read more of it as the ZRP are searching for the people that started the story.

And whilst the pro-Mugabe police endeavour to catch someone who isn't there - especially if that individual is a ZANU PF member/supporter/official - we have the mines minister, Obert Mpofu, making equally pathetic allegations about the diamonds fields.

In an attempt to deflect the attentions of the world on the proposed trade of diamonds whether it receives the Kimberley Process clearance or not, Mpofu claims that England 'planted' up to 40000 illegal miners so that they could steal the precious stone...

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"Zimbabwe's mines minister, Obert 'Chiadzwa' Mpofu has made the astonishing claim that Britain 'planted 40000 illegal panners in the country's violence-riddled Chiadzwa diamond fields two years ago in an attempt to plunge the southern African country into open conflict.

Announcing Zimbabwe's intention yesterday to sell diamonds without approval from the Kimberley Process - the international body which certifies the origin of the precious stones - Mr Mpofu said the UK "looted" gems from the eastern fields before 2008, using diamond giant De Beers and the LSE-listed African Consolidated Resources (ACR), which owned the original claim to the fields.

"The western countries are a consortium of looters," Mr Mpofu said, blaming the UK and its backers for the Kimberley Process' inability to reach a final position on allowing Zimbabwe to resume gem trading at a meeting in Israel last week.

"We will no longer engage them when it comes to our diamonds," the minister told the official Chronicle newspaper.

"The British… planted more than 40,000 illegal panners in the Chiadzwa diamond fields with the aim of creating chaos leading to war, but the uniformed forces drove the people away without any problem," he said, in an apparent reference to a bloody military clampdown at the fields in late 2008."

I don't suppose Mpofu has any substantiation to back these allegations... well, none that he is prepared to table, primarily because he has no proof. This is the sort of thing that we have come to know and recognise from the Mugabe administration.

Allegations - without substantiation - and using these, he will proceed down the path of illegality and violence without a thought for the people of Zimbabwe.

40000 miners is a lot of people. Surely, if his allegations held any water, he would be able to produce some evidence to back his claims. But he doesn't have any proof. Just the mad idea that the English have 'stolen' diamonds from Zimbabwe...

"Human rights groups say at least 200 people died when soldiers with dogs, backed by helicopter gunships, descended on hundreds of panners who had until then been given free rein to dig and trade in gems.

Locals had been told the diamonds - first discovered in 2006 - were a gift from the ancestors to help them weather Zimbabwe's economic crisis.

President Robert Mugabe's side of the coalition government has always denied anyone died in the operation, which lasted several weeks.

Mr Mpofu said: "We have instructed the industry to start exports of the diamonds. Everything is going ahead." Zimbabwe is sitting on a diamond stockpile of more than four million carats now being mined by two South African-linked companies.

Mbada Holdings Ltd and Canadile Miners were personally selected by Mr Mpofu to mine the Chiadzwa claim - though neither has a proven track record in large-scale diamond mining. A company with alleged links to the Chinese army has also recently been granted a mining licence.

The authorities were exasperated by the failure to get the green light to sell diamonds following an apparently positive report from the diamond watchdog's South African monitor, Abbey Chikane.

On a visit in May, Mr Chikane said he was "pleased by improvements" he'd seen in Chiadzwa. But he noted that Zimbabwe was already selling diamonds to Dubai without Kimberley Process approval. Local reports put the value of those sales at $11.2 million (about £7.4m)."

Mpofu is unhappy with the failure in Israel of Zimbabwe being given clearance by the Kimberley Process to trade diamonds on the open market. So, by way of retaliation, Mugabe's administration intends to deal in the dubious diamonds - 'to hang' with the consequences.

At least the Zimbabwean authorities are at least intending to trade the diamonds openly...

It will be most interesting to see who is prepared to deal with them.

Robb WJ Ellis

The Bearded Man