Group: Diamond Mining Company Tied to Zimbabwe Government

Several directors of Anjin Investments, one of the largest mining companies operating in the Marange diamond fields in Zimbabwe, hail from the government’s military and police, according to a new report released by NGO Global Witness.  

The report also charges that 25 percent of another diamond firm, Mbada Diamonds, has been given to a company linked with a man widely reported to be President Mugabe’s former personal pilot, and which has an opaque company structure based in tax havens.

“Zimbabwe desperately needs diamond revenues for health and education services, not AK 47s and flash cars for the elite,” said Nick Donovan, senior campaigner at Global Witness, in a statement. “Zimbabwe must ensure that diamond mining companies are not used as an off-budget cash cow by ZANU PF loyalists in the military and police. If the next election is accompanied by violence there’s a real risk that any bloodshed will be funded by diamond revenues.”

The Kimberley Process has approved exports from Mbada and is considering giving the same endorsement to Anjin, the group said.

“Given the failures of the KP the diamond industry urgently needs to implement a system of ‘supply chain due diligence’ in order to give consumers the confidence to buy diamonds without any risk that they fund human rights abuses,” Donovan said in a statement.

Global Witness left the Kimberley Process in November 2011.

Read the full report.

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