Zimbabwe’s Government Denies Diamond Smuggling Report

The government was responding to reports that its diamonds were possibly being combined with conflict diamonds from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and smuggled into neighboring South Africa, where they were being certified as legitimate and exported.

Zimbabwean government officials have dismissed these reports saying they are "politically motivated rumors" cooked up by its enemies, who are pushing for a regime change.

Last month, the New York-based World Diamond Council (WDC) said it had received reports that Zimbabwean diamonds were being mixed with blood diamonds and all the diamonds were receiving Kimberley certification. Eli Izhakoff, the WDC chairman, said he had written to Karel Kovanda, the EC official who took over chairmanship of the Kimberley process on January 1, 2007, informing him of the reports.

According to Midzi, "We are aware that somebody - a sworn enemy of the people of Zimbabwe - is setting an agenda to give the heavily biased European Union reason to extend its illegal sanctions on our government when it sits for a review in February."

The EU imposed targeted sanctions on Zimbabwe in February 2002, after Harare expelled its election observer team. It has since renewed the sanctions, which include a travel ban on senior ZANU-PF officials.

"The claims come as no surprise to us," Midzi told IRIN, a news agency covering sub-Saharan Africa. "We know the West wants regime change here, but lies will not bring it ... We went to the said mine and made our own investigations, and we established that nothing of that sort has ever happened or was happening.”

Midzi noted his country’s recent attempts to clean up the mining sector. He said the government was cracking down on illegal gold and diamond mining. So far, thousands of people, including foreigners have been arrested for illegal panning of gold and diamonds.