At the three-day meeting currently being held by the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) in Namibia, Zimbabwe's deputy mining minister Murisi Zwizwai denied that killings took place in the eastern Marange diamond fields.

Deputy minister Murisi Zwizwai told the 220 delegates attending the conference that the situation in the Marange diamond fields has been brought under control. He stated: "Contrary to allegations in the media, nobody was killed by security forces during an operation at Marange, where about 30,000 people descended onto the alluvial diamond mining field."

The minister noted that these people included die-hard illegal diamond diggers. He added that the situation compelled the Zimbabwe government to conduct a special operation to flush out the illegal diamond miners and to bring order to the area.

Zwizwai admitted that some of the diamonds illegally mined from Marange had found their way to markets in neighboring countries and abroad.

Human rights groups have called for Zimbabwe's suspension from the Kimberley Process in the aftermath of reports regarding forced evictions and other abuses in the Marange diamond fields.

In April, the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) banned the sale of diamonds from Marange, however the Kimberley Process has been reluctant to adopt a tough stance.