Global Witness, a NGO active on the conflict diamond issue, backed calls for the suspension of Zimbabwe from the Kimberley Process and called on participant governments to act to stop to human rights abuses taking place in Zimbabwe’s diamonds fields.

A Kimberley Process review mission visited the country earlier this month and found evidence of human rights abuses and recommended a ban on Zimbabwe’s diamond trading for at least 6 months. 

Global Witness campaigner Elly Harrowell said in a statement that Zimbabwe’s activities are “incompatible” with the Kimberley Process and the halt to trading will give the country a chance to reform its diamond sector. 

A Human Rights Watch report in June detailed the forced labor, torture and beatings in the diamond fields of Marange, Zimbabwe by the hands of the African nation’s police and army. 

JCK