Partnership Africa Canada (PAC) a group which has been involved in the efforts to halt the trade in conflict diamonds, issued a new report condemning the violence portrayed in Zimbabwe's diamond fields, and urging the immediate release of recently arrested human rights activist, Farai Maguwu.



A PAC press release said the group's latest report about Zimbabwe's diamond fields reviews several issues, including diamond smuggling, human rights violations and what it describes as Harare's "unfathomable greed" for diamonds and "disregard for decency or the rule of law."



PAC also lamented "how the Kimberley Process – the international initiative created to ensure that the trade in diamonds does not fund violence and civil war – has lost its way."



While stating that Zimbabwe was not the only country failing to meet Kimberley Process diamond production directives, the report said that Zimbabwe does, however, "set itself apart from the others because of the government's brazen defiance of universally agreed principles of humanity and good governance expected of adherents to the KP.



"As such Zimbabwe poses a serious crisis of credibility for the Kimberley Process, whose impotence in the face of thuggery and illegality in Zimbabwe underscores a worrisome inability or unwillingness to enforce either the letter, or the spirit, of its founding mandate."



Addressing the latest KP report, which found Harare has met KPCS' minimal requirements for diamond trading, the PAC release said that, "For months both Zimbabwe government officials and representatives of two new exploration companies (Mbada and Canadile) have gone through the

motions of presenting themselves as legitimate partners in their efforts to mine diamonds in the Marange region.



"In May, Mines Minister Obert Mpofu pretended for once to recognize the authority of the KP by issuing an export ban on all Zimbabwean diamonds until the KP gives its blessing. It was, of course, a deception and a charade… calculated to confuse and soften the criticism of some KP

members as they congregate in Tel-Aviv in June.



The Zanu-PF leadership has no intention of voluntarily changing its tune. Zimbabwe should be excluded from the KP."