Zim Police Raids NGO Office, Director Missing

KP Monitor Chikane (above) is expected to give his approval to export the Marange goods

The offices of a Herrera NGO were raided on Thursday, followed by a raid of the home of the organization’s director, the Zimbabwe press reported on Thursday. The raids are connected to a diamond related report critical of the Government.

Farai Maguwu, director of the Zimbabwean NGO the Centre for Research and Development, went missing following the raids and his younger brother, Reason Maguwu, was detained on Thursday, according o the reports.

The NGO’s report alleges that thousands of carats of diamonds were smuggled out of the Marange area into Mozambique and sold in the United Arab Emirates, according to a Voice of America (VOA) report.

Maguwu met on Wednesday with Abbey Chikane, the Kimberly Process (KP) appointed Monitor. It’s not publicly known what they discussed at the meeting, or if it is connected in any way to the raids on the following day.

Mines Minister Obert Mpofu told VOA that the diamonds exported to the United Arab Emirates without KP approval were from old stockpiles, mined before Marange concessions were handed to Mbada Diamonds and Canadile Mining.

Blessing Nyamaropa, an attorney from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, told VOA that police took documents from the research center. He said he had not been able to determine where Reason Maguwu was being held.

Chikane concluded on Friday his week-long visit to the country. He told reporters that Zimbabwe was making progress toward compliance with the KP standards and is close to receiving approval for exports of Marange diamonds. Chikane will report his findings to the KP Working Group and to the KP Conference next month in Israel. He is expected to recommend that diamonds from the Marange diamond field will be KP certified.