The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, scheduled to meet in Swakopmund, Namibia, from November 2 to 5, 2009, should immediately suspend Zimbabwe for continuing human rights abuses and widespread smuggling in the Marange diamond fields, Human Rights Watch said today. The government of Zimbabwe has not complied with any of the recommendations put forward in July by a review mission of the group, an international body that governs the global diamond industry.

Human Rights Watch researchers carried out follow-up investigations from October 12 to 23, establishing that elements of the Zimbabwean Defence Forces have consolidated their presence in the diamond fields and that they are abusing members of the local community and engaging in widespread diamond smuggling. On June 26, Human Rights Watch published “Diamonds in the Rough,” a detailed report on human rights violations associated with illicit diamond mining at Marange.

“Zimbabwe has had more than enough time to put a halt to the human rights abuses and smuggling at Marange,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Instead, it has sent more troops to the area, apparently trying to put a halt to independent access and scrutiny.”

In their latest investigation in Zimbabwe, Human Rights Watch researchers were able to interview 23 people directly linked to the Marange diamond fields and to confirm the following abuses, which put Zimbabwe in violation of the minimum standards required for membership in the Kimberley Process:

The Zimbabwean army uses syndicates of local miners to extract diamonds, often using forced labor, including children.

On September 17, a soldier shot and killed a 19-year-old member of one syndicate. The soldier stated, in the presence of witnesses, that he had shot the man for hiding a raw diamond instead of handing it over to the soldier.

Local miners provided information that soldiers have begun to recruit people from outside Marange to join army-run diamond mining syndicates.

Smuggling of Marange diamonds has intensified. Scores of buyers and middlemen openly trade in Marange diamonds in the small Mozambique town of Vila de Manica, 20 miles from Mutare. The smugglers include people from Lebanon, Belgium, South Africa, and India, who circulate Marange’s diamonds onto the international market.

The ownership of the Marange diamond fields is in dispute. The mines minister, the police commissioner, and the government-owned company, Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC), have all failed to comply with a High Court order issued by Judge Charles Hungwe on September 28, to restore prospecting and diamond mining rights in the diamond fields to the previous owner, African Consolidated Resources (Private) Limited (ACR).

The judge also directed ZMDC to cease prospecting and diamond-mining activities in the area that the court says belongs to ACR, a private company. Although the High Court ordered the police to cease interfering with ACR’s prospecting and mining activities, both the police and the army continue to bar it from access to the diamond fields. Zimbabwe’s minister of mines has appealed the High Court Order, and ZMDC continues to carry out prospecting and mining operations at Marange.

On October 6, to comply with a demand by Kimberley Process members, President Robert Mugabe announced that the government had selected two new private-sector investors to take over mining in Marange. However, the process of selection has been shrouded in secrecy and the investors’ identities remain unknown. The Kimberley Process rules require participants to ensure that all diamond mines are licensed and that only licensed mines extract diamonds.

In its June 26 report, Human Rights Watch documented how Zimbabwe’s army, which remains under the control of Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), the former ruling party, had committed horrific abuses against miners and local residents, including killings, beatings, and torture. The report also revealed the army’s policy of rotating military units into the diamond fields for roughly two-month periods. This policy was designed to maintain the loyalty of senior military and other officials to ZANU-PF by giving them illicit access to Zimbabwe’s mineral wealth at a time of national economic and political crisis. Human Rights Watch found new evidence of rotation of army units into Marange. At the beginning of October, the Harare-based special mechanized brigade was deployed, replacing the Kwekwe-based fifth brigade.